Court Bans Teen From Israeli National Cricket Team Because She’s A Girl
Image by wikimedia
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli teen cannot play with the national cricket team in the Maccabiah Games, an Israeli court ruled.
Naomi Eytan, 14, has been playing all season on the Israeli national under-19 cricket team. She is the only girl on the team, which the Tel Aviv District Court ruled Sunday is male-only.
The Maccabiah Games, sometimes called the “Jewish Olympics,” are scheduled to start in Israel on July 4 and run for two weeks. There is no female under-19 cricket competition and Maccabiah organizers told Naomi that she could not play with the Israeli national team since the competition is for males only, the Times of Israel reported.
Eytan’s attorney, Gali Etzion, told the Times of Israel that the court based part of its ruling on what she said is a misinterpretation of the rules of the competition, which refers to a “12 man” team, and actually is used to describe both men’s and women’s cricket.
The teen said in a statement, according to the Times of Israel: “I’m an athlete and I’ll always be one. No judge’s decision will break me. My way of proving that I am equal to the boys is to continue training and to participate in the future in the European Championship.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
