Chaos erupted at a basketball game between the Hapoel Jerusalem team and A.A.K. Athens today (Wednesday), when Greek fans burned an Israeli flag and threw firecrackers at fans of the Israeli team.
Several Palestinian Authority flags were seen during the violent incident as well.
The game had to be suspended due to the violence, and was resumed after security forces intervened.
The Israeli team said in a statement following the incident: "Hapoel sees the difficult events in Athens as nothing less than a terrorist attack on Israeli fans, who came en masse to support their team, as they have been doing for years."
"In view of the events, in the half of the game we checked all the methods of operation. Taking out the Hapoel fans is an option that was rejected outright due to the fact that Greek fans surrounded the hall, and there was a real danger of a serious attack outside the hall. Stopping the game is also a possibility that was seriously considered by the team’s management, but the security personnel and the police warned that this decision could lead to complete chaos and a violent pogrom that would endanger human life. Therefore, it was decided, in order to maintain the safety of all Hapoel fans, to continue the game, along with a promise from the police team that another violent incident would lead to the removal of all fans, on both sides, from the hall," the team added.
Hapoel Jerusalem said that the team would file a complaint over the incident.