American basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a practicing Muslim, was set to visit Israel in July. However, a campaign called End the Occupation has convinced him to cancel the trip, due to "concerns after Nakba Day."
According to End the Occupation's website:
In private correspondence, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation [and The Jerusalem Film Festival foreign office] has confirmed that the former Los Angeles Lakers star has decided not to visit Israel, due to concerns arising "after the Nakba Day violence." This year's commemoration of the Nakba left 12 unarmed Palestinians dead after Israeli forces opened fire on refugees attempting to exercise their internationally recognized right of return.
In private correspondence, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation [and The Jerusalem Film Festival foreign office] has confirmed that the former Los Angeles Lakers star has decided not to visit Israel, due to concerns arising "after the Nakba Day violence." This year's commemoration of the Nakba left 12 unarmed Palestinians dead after Israeli forces opened fire on refugees attempting to exercise their internationally recognized right of return.
The letter sent "points out" to Abdul-Jabbar that:
"Israeli cultural institutions like the Jerusalem Film Festival are used cynically to brand Israel as a beacon of cultural and technological progress, diverting attention away from its occupation and apartheid policies."
"Your film, "On the Shoulders of Giants," documents the policies of segregation and racism that characterized the world of basketball in the 1930s. Ironically, the majority of Muslim and Christian Palestinians could not even have attended such a screening because they are excluded from entering Jerusalem on the basis of their ethnicity and religion."
This letter consists of a severe manipulation of facts. The group places no blame of the current situation on Hamas and other terror campaigns that run Gaza and the Palestinian territories. Terrorists from these areas frequently shower Israel with rockets and repeatedly deny Israel's right to exist. It does not elaborate on these "Nakba Day commemorations," a day in which Israel experienced a number of terror attacks and attempted border breaches. Indeed, Nakba Day is a day which officially mourns the existence of a Jewish state.
No one is denied entrance to the Jerusalem Film Festival based on ethnicity or religion. The mere fact that Abdul-Jabbar, a Muslim, was invited to participate and showcase a film he produced automatically
disproves this allegation.
Earlier this year, multiple media outlets announced that the NBA superstar planned to visit Israel in July to meet with Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a prominent Rabbi who allegedly was rescued from Buchenwald by Abdul-Jabbar's late father. The pair planned to discuss a film that Abdul-Jabbar is making about World War II.
When the story came out, it claimed that Abdul-Jabbar's father's dying wish was that his son visit the Holy Land, and meet the little boy from Buchenwald that "turned into a prominent rabbi."
The report stated that as a little boy Rabbi Lau was saved by Abdul-Jabbar's father, Ferdinand L. Alcindor Sr., a soldier who served in the 761st Tank Battalion which liberated the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany. Among the Jews that were rescued from the camp, were two small boys: Rabbi Lau and his brother, Naftali Lavie.
While this is a wonderful story of triumph in the face of horror, Abdul-Jabbar recently stated in an interview that it is not precisely true.
Yes, Rabbi Lau and his brother were rescued from the horrors of the death camp, but Abdul-Jabbar's father had nothing to do with it. He was working as a police officer in New York at the time.
Abdul-Jabbar told ESPN:
No one is denied entrance to the Jerusalem Film Festival based on ethnicity or religion. The mere fact that Abdul-Jabbar, a Muslim, was invited to participate and showcase a film he produced automatically
disproves this allegation.Earlier this year, multiple media outlets announced that the NBA superstar planned to visit Israel in July to meet with Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a prominent Rabbi who allegedly was rescued from Buchenwald by Abdul-Jabbar's late father. The pair planned to discuss a film that Abdul-Jabbar is making about World War II.
When the story came out, it claimed that Abdul-Jabbar's father's dying wish was that his son visit the Holy Land, and meet the little boy from Buchenwald that "turned into a prominent rabbi."
The report stated that as a little boy Rabbi Lau was saved by Abdul-Jabbar's father, Ferdinand L. Alcindor Sr., a soldier who served in the 761st Tank Battalion which liberated the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany. Among the Jews that were rescued from the camp, were two small boys: Rabbi Lau and his brother, Naftali Lavie.
While this is a wonderful story of triumph in the face of horror, Abdul-Jabbar recently stated in an interview that it is not precisely true.
Yes, Rabbi Lau and his brother were rescued from the horrors of the death camp, but Abdul-Jabbar's father had nothing to do with it. He was working as a police officer in New York at the time.
Abdul-Jabbar told ESPN:
That story -- people have gotten that all mixed up. There was a reporter in Israel who put my father into the tank battalion that liberated Dachau. My dad was a police officer in New York.
One of the guys that he was a police officer with was in a tank battalion that liberated Dachau. Rabbi Lau was a boy in Buchenwald, which was also liberated by black troops, but it was a totally different group than the one that my dad's friend was in.
The group that helped liberate Buchenwald was the 183rd Combat Engineers, an all black unit.
I met Rabbi Lau when I was in Israel in 1997. I just wanted to say hi to him because he had a particular regard for the black Americans that were involved in his liberation. I had participated in a couple of events they had in New York where they had reunited the people what were liberated with the people who liberated with them. Smitty, my dad's friend, participated in that.
Rabbi Lau and his brother were sons of a prominent rabbi in Treblinka, and today Rabbi Lau is a 37th generation rabbi in an unbroken family chain of rabbis that even the Holocaust could not break. He currently holds position of the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel, and serves as Chairman of Yad Vashem. He previously served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003.
When he heard that Abdul-Jabbar was coming to discuss creating a film on World War II he said, "The fact that such a famous basketball player, and a Muslim, is about to attach himself to the Holocaust issue is very exciting. I will certainly give my blessing to this initiative."
Since the cancellation of Abdul-Jabbar's trip, 101 organizations of Palestinians, Israelis, Muslim-Americans, African-Americans, Jewish Americans and others have signed a letter thanking the Los Angeles Lakers legend for declining to attend the festival
No official statement has been issued by Rabbi Lau since Abdul-Jabbar's cancellation.
Abdul-Jabbar, who converted to Islam In 1971, was going to visit Israel as a guest of the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Consulate. NBA Sporting News reported that Abdul-Jabbar was intending on competing for the "Spirit of Freedom Award" at the Jerusalem Film Festival with his documentary "On the Shoulders of Giants."
To read the full letter sent by End the Occupation to Abdul-Jabbar click here.
