Israeli Minister Forced NBA To Scrub ‘Occupied’ From Palestine Listing
Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev speaking in 2016. Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman December 29, 2017
Israel’s minister for sports and culture recently pressured the National Basketball Association to delete the word “occupied” from a listing for the “Palestinian Territories,” the Guardian reported.
The designation was on a part of the NBA’s site listing countries in a pop-up menu for a poll of favorite players. Representatives for the NBA say the list of countries was received from a third party.
In asking the NBA’s commissioner, Adam Silver, to remove the word from the site, Israel’s culture minister, Miri Regev, cited President Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“I view the inclusion of ‘Occupied Palestine’ in the list of countries appearing on your official website as legitimizing the division of the State of Israel and as gross and blatant interference, in contrast to the official position of the American administration and the declarations of President Donald Trump,” Regev wrote.
The vast majority of the world’s countries consider the Palestinian Territories, also called the West Bank, to be occupied illegally.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
