Irish women’s basketball players do not shake hands with Israeli women due to accusations of anti-Semitism

The Irish women’s basketball team refused to shake hands with their Israeli opponents amid outrage over allegations of anti-Semitism when the two countries met in a Euro 2025 qualifier. A few minutes before the start of the match, the Irish basketball team announced on social networks that its players had decided to abandon the traditional pre-match handshake with opponents.

The fact is that on the eve of the basketball match of the Euro 2025 women’s qualifying tournament, the Israeli Basketball Association published an interview with the player Dor Saar. She claimed that her Irish rivals were anti-Semitic.

“They are known to be quite anti-Semitic, and this is no secret, and perhaps that is why a strong game is expected,” said the athlete. “We talk about this among ourselves. We know that they don’t like us, and especially in this game.”

This opinion may have arisen because, back in 1980, Ireland made history by becoming the first member of the European Union to formally call for the creation of a Palestinian state. Although the Irish are not known for anti-Semitism, the government and its people are generally deeply sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. The sympathies are rooted in their own historical tribulations.

Ireland called the comments “inflammatory and completely untrue” and said it had reported them to the body that governs basketball in Europe.

“Yesterday, the Irish Basketball Team informed FIBA ​​that as a result of recent comments by Israeli players and coaching staff, including inflammatory and completely untrue allegations of anti-Semitism, published on the official channels of the Israeli federation, our players will not participate in traditional pre-match activities with our upcoming opponents,” – the message states.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the team added that it fully supports the players’ decision to avoid forms of courtesy such as exchanging gifts and shaking hands before and after games. At the pre-match ceremony in Riga, Irish athletes decided to sing the national anthem standing near the substitutes’ bench rather than in the center of the hall.

The women’s team has in recent weeks fought calls to boycott the match, which was originally scheduled to be played in Israel in November. It was postponed and moved to Riga after Team Ireland requested a neutral venue. Several prominent sports figures supported the call, and pressure on players increased after the Israel Basketball Association shared photos from a training session attended by the country’s army soldiers.

The Irish team said in late January that it had “strong concerns” about the matches against Israel during qualifying and that it had accepted the possibility of the game being cancelled. However, team CEO John Feehan said ahead of the game that the team’s boycott of games with Israel “would result in huge fines from basketball’s governing body FIBA ​​of up to €180,000, as well as an effective five-year ban for the team.”

John Feehan said the penalties would be a devastating blow to the team.

“Not only would we be out of international competition until 2029, but it would probably take us another five years to get back to where we are now, so in real terms we would have lost a generation of players,” he explained to the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ.

However, several players still chose not to travel to Riga for the match. Israel won the game, which was played behind closed doors for security reasons, beating Ireland 87-57.

After the defeat, Ireland head coach James Weldon praised his players for their “incredible maturity in the way they handled a very stressful week.” During the post-match interview, he tried to avoid questions related to pre-match formalities.

“I would rather talk about basketball than this, we did not participate in the pre-match activities directly because of these unfounded and unacceptable comments from the Israeli camp about our players,” the coach replied, “It was a huge disappointment, we came here to play basketball, we wanted to win, but this time we couldn’t achieve the desired result.”