Podcast Ep 83: How Palestine’s baseball team made history

On episode 83, we take a look at baseball in Palestine and how the sport is growing despite Israel’s policies of movement restrictions, siege and apartheid.

Baseball is relatively new to Palestine, with the sport taking off just in the last six years – and mostly in Gaza. However, athletes are working hard to make a place for themselves on the world stage.

Team Palestine first played an international match this year, with athletes in the Gaza Strip playing alongside Palestinian Americans mostly from the Chicago area. Travel to Gaza is nearly impossible for the US-based players, so the team first met each other in Pakistan earlier in March to play the West Asian Cup.

Team Palestine came in second place, with player Tariq Suboh hitting the first home run ever in Palestinian international baseball history.

We speak with Robert Ross, a professor at Point Park University and the author of The Great Baseball Revolt: The Rise and Fall of the 1890 Players League. Ross also wrote an article for The Electronic Intifada in March about Team Palestine and the growing international sports boycott of Israel.

Ross spoke with several of the US-based players for Team Palestine – Suboh, Nader Ihmoud and Rumsey Yasin – and we feature clips of those interviews as well.

According to Ross, the love that Team Palestine players have for the sport is “as beautiful as great Palestinian literature, and great Palestinian filmmaking.”

“You have, on the one hand, folks who are representing, with pride, Palestine and the movement for liberation and return,” he said. “And on the other hand, who are doing something they love, that they’re great at, that they’re proud of, in its own right.”

In Chicago in early August, Team Palestine beat Pakistan to win the inaugural Lincoln Cup.

The team will head to the Asia Cup in Taiwan this fall.

Articles we discussed

Video production by Tamara Nassar

Theme music by Sharif Zakout

Subscribe to The Electronic Intifada Podcast on Apple Podcasts (search for The Electronic Intifada) and on Spotify. Support our podcast by rating us, sharing and leaving a review, and you can also donate to fund our work.

Full transcript

Lightly edited for clarity.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: Welcome back to The Electronic Intifada Podcast. I’m Nora Barrows-Friedman. Today we’re taking a look at both the cultural boycott of Israel and how Palestinian baseball players are trying to make a place for themselves on the world stage. Joining us today is Robert Ross. He’s a professor at Point Park University and the author of “The Great Baseball Revolt: The Rise and Fall of the 1890 Player’s League.” He also wrote a fantastic feature for us in March entitled “Call to boycott team Israel at World Baseball Classic.” Bob It’s so great to have you with us on The Electronic Intifada Podcast.

Robert Ross: Thanks, it’s an honor and pleasure to be with you here.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: It’s a nice way to talk about everything that we talked about on EI and also sports at the same time, which I know many of our audience doesn’t hear about on EI frequently. So this – I think this will be a really fun episode. You interviewed several players for Team Palestine and we have some video clips of them talking about baseball under occupation and restrictions and some video of players in Gaza playing baseball coming up in a few minutes. But first I want to have you talk about the cultural boycott calls that happened during the World Baseball Classic in terms of the Israeli team, which I should mention, Puerto Rico wiped the floor with them on March 13.

During their game, it was a combined eighth inning perfect game by the Puerto Rican team with a walk-off and a ten to zero score. I guess that’s the next best thing to a full boycott of the team. In the piece you wrote for us that “backed financially by the Jewish National Fund, the team serves as a distraction from the human rights abuses and massacres the state and many of its citizens have been carrying out for several decades now, the boycott advocates argue. The latest official roster for Team Israel indicates that only one of its players was born in the Middle East, the rest are Americans going out of their way to play for an apartheid state.” And The New York Times also did a splashy story on the Israeli team, of course portraying it as an underdog, scrappy they even used the term David and Goliath team, with players “connecting with their Jewish heritage.” Can you talk about the sportswashing that happened last month at the World Baseball Classic and the call by Palestinian civil society and Palestinian athletes to boycott the team?

Robert Ross: Sure, I think as, as all your listeners know, this year, this has been particularly brutal for Palestinians. And, you know, from day one, Palestinians have been killed, particularly in the occupied West Bank, at a more rapid rate than I think since the second intifada. And with the new, openly racist, unapologetically racist, militant right-wing government of Israel, we’ve just seen this escalation of all sorts of tactics of the occupation, ethnic cleansing that have been going on for decades. And, of course, that continues to this day. Just before we started talking, I was reading about the attacks at al-Aqsa.

And so amidst all of this, we have this baseball team, Team Israel playing in the World Baseball Classic on an international stage. And as you said, they’ve been portrayed in the media and they portray themselves as this underdog, as this great little story, these American players connecting to their Jewish heritage. And in sort of this conflation of, you know, as Israel often does, and as Zionists often do, this false conflation between Judaism and Zionism that, you know, representing Israel is really one and the same as representing one’s Jewishness. And I don’t know any of those players personally, and I was not able to speak to any of them. And I don’t know if they know what Israel is doing. They should. But they nonetheless represent this – this brutal, apartheid, racist nation-state.

And so Palestinians, whom I’ve talked to, called for a boycott of Team Israel, and this is in line with the ongoing cultural and sports boycott. PACBI, the Palestinians for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, have been calling on for what, almost 20 years now, to boycott institutions that normalize the oppression and exploitation and ethnic cleansing, occupation of Palestinians. And so Team Israel is no different than the Israeli National Ballet or an Israeli national orchestra that is sent around the world really, in a manner that normalizes Israel as if it’s a normal nation-state like any other, and not a sort of rogue state that is committing all sorts of human rights abuses.

And so I spoke with folks from PACBI about this and their call was quite clear and simple: to boycott Team Israel and to ask the organizers at the World Baseball Classic to exclude Israel from the tournament. Of course, that didn’t happen. But I think it did, you know, at least the conversation was out there. And there are a lot of – there are actually a lot of sort of progressive lefty baseball fans out there. That’s not the majority. But I think more so than a lot of sports. And so I think, hopefully, at least, this conversation started among folks who, you know, like me, are huge baseball fans, but also don’t want to support human rights abuses,

Nora Barrows-Friedman: Right. And, on the other hand, we have the Palestine team, which didn’t play in the World Baseball Classic, but did have a chance to play in the West Asia Cup, where they came in second place, they got silver. Tell us about the makeup of the Palestine baseball team, how they built the roster, and what baseball looks like under apartheid, occupation and displacement.

Robert Ross: Sure, I discovered the existence of the Palestinian national baseball team as I was researching for the article about the call to boycott. I did not know that such a team existed. And it’s in part because they were just formed recently. This was their first international tournament, the West Asia Cup. And it was formed by a bunch of guys, Palestinians in exile, mostly in the United States, a lot around the Chicago area. But also some players from Gaza. Baseball is actually a small but growing sport in Gaza. There are some folks in Gaza who just for whatever reason, really wanted to learn to play and have improvised and men and women and Gaza have been playing baseball for almost five years now.

And so the team consists of, I think, five players from Gaza, and I want to say 18 or 20 from – who are Palestinians who are based in the United States, some are college players, some are a couple of minor league players, a few former college minor league players, but really good legitimate baseball players who just kind of surprised the international baseball community by doing so well, at the West Asia Cup, these teams are not bad teams. Pakistan has been good for quite some time. Nepal has a good team, India has a good team. And Palestine came in second – lost to Pakistan in the final and really put up some good quality baseball.

And I just found it so exciting, that Palestine had a team and it was such a thrill and an honor to speak with some of the players from the team, and I just was so impressed by how proud they were to represent Palestine and also how proud they were as baseball players. They take their craft really seriously. And they’re proud that they did so well on the international stage.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: In one of the clips that will go up first, the player talks about how uniforms were donated by various NGOs including PCRF, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. I’m just struck by how – I’m sure the siege that has been in place for what now 16, almost 16, 17 years on Gaza has probably made it really difficult for players to get uniforms and equipment. And also just you know the space – what does playing baseball look like in Gaza?

Robert Ross: That’s a good question. It looks like a lot of fun. Men and women, boys and girls have been playing baseball, like I said, for about five years in Gaza, and having a lot of fun with it. But often, if you look at some of the video clips, they don’t have bats. And so they hit the ball with their hand. And they catch the ball with their hands. And you know, they run around the bases just like any other baseball player. And so it’s only, you know, some folks recently have had access to bats and gloves. And, of course, the space is limited, they often play on soccer fields in Gaza, but they’re, you know, there are not baseball diamonds cut out, like we have in North America. So it’s a small but growing sport, and, you know, people are tenacious about it, like people in Gaza are about everything.

And they’re, they’re still managing to play baseball, despite being under siege, despite not having access to equipment or to spacious fields. And or, you know, much less electricity at night to play during the evening. So it’s really inspiring to see it. You know – I’m speaking from North America, where kids here have, like, literally thousands of dollars in resources to play baseball at various levels. So yeah, it’s great to see that the kids are still really persevering through that, and hopefully, you know, one day the siege will end and the baseball as well as all sorts of other sports and activities will be pretty much easier for folks in Gaza to participate in.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: Let’s go to our first clip. First, we’re gonna hear from Tariq Suboh, who hit the first ever home run for the Palestine team during an international game. Let’s – if you want to talk a little bit about Tariq and the significance of his home run, and then we’ll go to the clip.

Robert Ross: Yes, so Tariq is a catcher for Team Palestine, he has played organized baseball for most of his life, currently lives in Northwest Indiana, near Chicago. And I just, I’ll let him speak for himself. But he obviously took so much pride in this home run, the first home run by anyone in Palestinian organized baseball history. And, as you’ll hear, he describes the at bat and the pitch in detail. And it was a big jolt for the whole team and for all of the Palestinians and folks in solidarity who were watching at the time,

Tariq Suboh: It was a form of – it seemed like it was a form of activism in a sense of like, hey, you know what, a lot of people don’t think that we should even exist. And we saw a lot of hate online, and, you know, the trolls and stuff like that, and whatnot. But we also felt a sense of pride and duty to Palestine and Palestinians. And we put a lot of smiles on a lot of people’s faces. We were – I mean, people, again, baseball is at a very, very grassroots stage in the Middle East in general. So not everybody understands our sport, but they understand that we were having success. So I think a lot of people took pride in that fact. So for us, it was bittersweet, but overall was very positive and warming, that we were able to do that.

Robert Ross: Yeah. Cool. Cool. What was it like to – I understand, like some of the guys on the team are from Gaza, and folks across the US, like, what was it like to bring everyone together? I imagine that was the first time you guys were all together?

Tariq Suboh: Yeah, it was the first time that everyone was together. It’s funny that you asked that. I mean, it’s – so again, the majority of the team is from the States, which makes sense, you know, there’s not baseballs rampant, and running through the streets of Palestine, but with the Gaza guys, it was a really cool experience – they got to see baseball from a different level than they’re used to. They’re used to just kind of playing – Gaza was introduced to baseball in 2017 by, you know, a group of players that were on our team actually, and you know, so there used to playing with each other and it’s very like beginner level baseball and then they came to Pakistan and we met up with them and I think that they realize like, wow, like okay like we’re actually – these guys are pretty good, so it was really nice to show them like, hey, like there are Palestinians out there in the world that can play baseball at a high level.

And it was just kind of nice sharing the field with guys that have never truly seen high-level baseball like that and hopefully that will turn into inspiration for them and to bring home to Gaza that like, hey, you know what, this is a serious sport and we can compete in baseball for years to come. And hopefully – my hopes are that it inspires a spark in the youth playing baseball in Palestine.

Robert Ross: Yeah, that’s awesome. Could you take me back to that – the home run? Do you remember what kind of pitch it was like?

Tariq Suboh: Yeah, I remember it very well.

Baseball announcer: Really just focused on his command, meaning just following through with his curveball. His curveball is his bread and butter right now. And there it is right there.

Baseball announcer 2: Tariq Suboh with a shot to the right, to center field to left field, excuse me. It’s over the fence. That is the first Palestine home run of the tournament. It’s a two-run jack for T-Rex, Tariq Suboh. And that is a huge shot. And that is going to make him rethink his offspeed pitches, don’t you think?

Baseball announcer: Oh, when you hang him you bang him like that and that was one heck of a hit to left field. He sat back on that ball and just took it where he could and put it over the left field fence. What a sweet swing there by Palestine to take a big commanding lead.

Baseball announcer 2: That was a huge swing.

Tariq Suboh: So he threw me a first pitch splitter which was pretty nasty. I’m not gonna lie. I was like, okay, that’s a good pitch. I fouled it off. And when he threw me that, I’m like, okay, like he’s gonna throw me some johns. So like, I really need to sit back and see it come all the way in and, you know, make sure I’m not swinging out of my pants. And he threw me a curveball right after that, which he probably should have stayed splitter because it was a really good pitch. And he threw me a curveball, and it hung up. And I saw it all the way in.

And as soon as I hit it, I knew. I mean, I’ve played a lot of baseball in my life. And you kind of know when you, like, get enough of one. So I hit it. And I was just just watching it – it hung up forever. And the guy seemed like he was about to park under it. I’m like, Is he really going to catch this ball? Like, there’s no way that this is not leaving the yard. But no, I saw it go over the fence. Everyone went wild. I was really happy for my teammates, honestly, because they were super excited. When I’m rounding the bases again, I’m thinking like, man, I hope my family was watching.

Like, I knew my wife – it was unlikely for her to stay up because we had two young babies. So I’m like, you know, at least my parents or some of my cousins and my brother or something, you know, somebody? Luckily, I got a ton of messages and stuff after the game saying like, wow, amazing. That was great. And then it was kind of all over social media too. And to be the first ever – to hit the first home run ever in Palestinian international baseball history is definitely something that I’m going to hang my head on. It’s one of my proudest home runs for sure.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: That was Tariq Suboh, speaking with our guest Bob Ross. Let’s hear from another player Nader Ihmoud, who’s also in Chicago and was a contributor to The Electronic Intifada. What position does Nader play?

Robert Ross: Nader is what we would call a utility player, he plays – he can play just about any position, plays in the infield, plays in the outfield, also has been playing organized baseball for most of his life. And in addition to coming off the bench and playing for Team Palestine in this tournament, he also did some play by play. This was a grassroots effort. And so there’s – you can go on YouTube and watch these, the whole videos of all the games and some of the games Tariq is, or sorry, Nader is doing the play by play announcing as well.

Nader Ihmoud: I don’t know the exact, you know – exactly what they went through. But from what they described, they were, you know, they had to stay in a room that was like the way he described it – we took like this small bus everywhere in Pakistan and Ahmed Tafer said, we would we stay in a room that’s like basically smaller than this bus for five days to get here. And then to go back, they’ll have to stay three days to get back in a small room like that.

So they definitely had a tough journey getting there and, and I commend them because they’ve been playing baseball for only, you know, five, six years out there, you know, the like, I guess there were pictures of Palestinians playing baseball, like back in the 40s and 50s. But really, like, nothing concrete has been really established there until, right, most recently. And it’s mostly in Gaza, which is wild to me. And they barely have any like, you know, a place to play or equipment. One of our teammates, Steve Sosebee, who runs PCRF, went out there shortly before the tournament and dropped off donations that we had, that people had collected for them, like bats and gloves and balls and stuff like that.

So really, the cool thing about them coming out here, despite their inexperience in playing the game, is they got to learn from guys that have been playing their entire lives, you know, whether it was, you know, like seeing how, you know, we keep score, or, you know, a lot of the guys too, you know, it’s competitive baseball, so even me, I got two at bats. I played two innings throughout the tournament. So it was very competitive. So, you know, I think some of the Gaza guys only had like, one at bat and like, one time on the field or whatever. And they were in the beginning, like, why am I not playing?

But when they got their opportunity, and they saw the speed of the game, they were like, oh, I have a lot to learn. So it was good to give them that experience so they realize, oh, this is a whole new level of baseball, we have a lot more training to do. And, you know, a lot of guys too, are motivated and hopefully, you know, doing camps out there, you know, just to get the game growing even more, you know.

Robert Ross: Yeah, that’s awesome. So once you all got to Pakistan together as a team, what was that like? Like the joy of playing together and putting on the Palestine jersey? What did that feel like?

Nader Ihmoud: I mean, to be honest, the joy was there. Everybody was excited, especially like seeing guys from Gaza show up – that put a motivation in everybody. But really, it didn’t sink in with the guys, to be honest with you, until after our first game or two. Really, guys really more worried – competitive guys, you know, worried about am I gonna play? How many innings am I gonna play? How many at bats am I gonna get?

That’s just the competitive nature of athletes, you know? But once the game started to get, started rolling, and these games were live streamed, and we’d get pictures from Gaza, the West Bank, the US, videos of people watching us, then it set in. And then you had guys go, uh-oh, I really gotta play hard. I don’t care who plays, we just got to win. And we’ve got to win for them. Like, that’s how I felt. I didn’t care about my innings played anything like that. As long as we got the W and the people back home were just like, super – it just blew our minds that they were watching baseball.

Robert Ross: Yeah, I bet I bet. I mean, it was also like, just the timing, you know, for you all to be playing together as Team Palestine amidst the massacres in Jenin and what’s happening, like – that must have been just like, I don’t know what, what was that like for you guys?

Nader Ihmoud: I mean, a lot of guys, you know, we were like, you know, we get to play this game we love and the people back home are, you know, suffering really bad. Me personally, you know, it was tough like just focusing on a game, a silly game, when your people are constantly just being berated with bad news after bad news after bad news, death after death after death. It was definitely, to be honest, for me, it was rough. Like I didn’t really ask my teammates how they felt. But they mentioned that, you know, they mentioned, even before games, like you know, Steve gave a very – before our first game, Steve gave this very impassioned, like, passionate speech about how about like the three prisoners who escaped, the prisoners who escaped with a spoon, you know? And it was like, yo, they can escape with a spoon. We could defeat anybody with these bats, you know?

It was just like, I don’t know, I’m just I’m paraphrasing, but man, I wish I was recording because I had been recording the entire thing and sometimes guys said some very passionate things that just missed the camera – but man, that fired up everybody on the team before our first game, and then we went out there and we thrashed Nepal 21-1, and then we shut out the defending champions Sri Lanka 10-0, and then we destroyed Bangladesh 14-3 in the semi-finals. And then we just made too many mistakes in the finals. And everybody has an off day, we sent out our best pitcher who shut down Sri Lanka, you know, there were just a few errors made in the first inning that we didn’t really bounce back from, we didn’t execute the same way we were at the plate.

You know, like the first couple of games, guys were very aggressive at the plate – swinging at first strikes, driving it up the middle, getting a lot of hits, and then the finals, for whatever reason, I don’t know – maybe after getting down a couple runs, people got tight. But it just – we just, we didn’t score any runs I think until the seventh or eighth inning, which – you’re not going to really win much baseball games if you take, if you go two-thirds of the game without scoring,

Nora Barrows-Friedman: And Nader also talked about the Israeli team and the sportswashing that is happening around promotion of the Israeli team as part of Brand Israel, let’s go to that clip.

Robert Ross: So for folks, like baseball fans who might not really know much about Palestine or anything, if they tune into the World Baseball Classic, and they see Team Israel, what would you want them to know? And what would you say to folks who maybe were planning to go to a game or whatever?

Nader Ihmoud: I would say, like what I told my teammates, if for whatever reason we were in the same tournament as them, we’d boycott that game. It’s just – it’s whitewashing. You know, and sportswashing is actually the right term for it. And just know that every time they take the field and we normalize with them, you’re normalizing the occupation, you’re normalizing deaths of children and women and men that don’t deserve to die, that want to live, that they want to, you know, grow up with their kids and want to enjoy their land. That’s literally all Palestinians want to do. And we can’t even do that. Even while we were out there, in Palestine, settlers went through – they set one of the houses in Turmus Aya on fire and a car on fire, like 15 settlers came and broke in and set fire to the place.

Two weeks before we left to Pakistan, settlers burned my aunt’s car, my aunt and her husband’s car, and my aunt has, like, you know, she can barely walk, her husband is deaf. So like, having a vehicle is very important to them, like hailing a taxi, or, you know, doing all that stuff, is very difficult, you know, sometimes to get a taxi in Turmus Aya, they live at the top of the hill, they would have to walk down a hill, walk like another block and a half and then go wait for the taxi there. And that’s difficult for them, you know? So to have – and there and also, they’re not, they don’t come from means, so they don’t have money to just replace the car. And I don’t know if people know this out there, but to get a car to replace – to get a car into Palestine or to have to buy, it’s way more expensive than to buy a car out here.

You know, so it’s just – just knowing that technically, that team shouldn’t exist. There should only be a Team Palestine because it should be Palestine. Okay, and, and it should be a group of guys that are – whether they’re agnostic, Muslim, Christian, even Jewish, because that’s what Palestine was. And that’s what it still is today. There just happens to be a large group of people now living there that have been, you know, exported into our country, that hate us, don’t want us to even be alive. So that’s what I want people to know when they see that team coming up. And I want them to just either turn the TV off, or write to the World Baseball Organization and tell them that they shouldn’t be a part of the organization.

I remember when I was in college, I even wrote an article, I had my own sports column, where I wrote to FIFA saying that they should expel Team Israel from FIFA because Palestinian soccer players, like even young guys can’t even go village to village to practice or play against each other without the threat of being attacked by settlers or even soldiers or settlers being guarded by soldiers. Like it’s, just, I just can’t believe this is still going on in 2023. It’s just mind-boggling to me.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: Finally, Bob, you spoke with Rumsey Yasin – tell us a little bit about him and what position he plays on Team Palestine. And he also talked about expressing solidarity with Morocco for what they did for Palestinians during the most recent World Cup. Talk a little bit about him.

Robert Ross: Sure. Rumsey is a college student actually at Roosevelt University in Chicago, and he plays on their baseball team and both for Roosevelt and for Team Palestine. He plays first and third base. He’s an excellent hitter. He’s one of the most productive hitters on Team Palestine. And he talked about, among other things, a moment where after one of Palestine’s wins during the West Asia Cup, the team gathered for their team photo and they had the Palestinian flag and someone brought out a Moroccan flag as well.

And this was to express solidarity and thanks to Morocco – as many of your listeners know, during the World Cup, Morocco, after many of their matches, they brought out Palestinian flags and expressed solidarity with Palestine. And so this was just a small way to sort of say, you know, we see you, we are with you, we stand in solidarity with you, we thank you. And it was a beautiful moment. And I think it touched the players a lot and, you know, hopefully, you know, reached across the miles to Morocco as well.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: Let’s get to that clip.

Rumsey Yasin: Our fellow Moroccans, we had to show love and support because, you know, in Qatar, they represented us well. And you know, they didn’t have to do that. And, you know, obviously we are not in a global standpoint like that yet. And I can guarantee you that I know, I know the talent that we have on this team and I know the talent that’s out there. There are Palestinian baseball players. I know for a fact that we can get there to that global setpoint. But even though like we’re representing Morocco, and like we don’t, we don’t have that much of a platform like they did for us every single win after the World Cup.

They’d bring out the Palestinian flag and wave it for us. And they’d take a picture with it – that does so much for the Palestinian cause, because it’s like there were so many biases going on, even during the World Cup, and it’s just everything in the world, around the World Cup time was a lot of different opinions about different things. And even right now it’s still like that, but just being able to let Morocco, showing them a little love the same way they showed us, although we’re still small, one day we will be just as big as them and still waving their flag like it did for us.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: Bob, where does Team Palestine go from here? Where does the sport go? What are players talking about when they envision the next season for Team Palestine and for years down the line?

Robert Ross: So next up for Team Palestine is the Asia Cup, which I believe will be in Taiwan, it’s tentatively scheduled for November. Things are not completely set in place. But that’s the plan right now. And Palestine has qualified for the Asia Cup by finishing second in the West Asia Cup. And this will be a really competitive tournament, this will be Japan and Korea and Taiwan and, you know, all of these baseball powerhouses across the world. So it’ll be a really good competitive tournament.

And I know Palestine, the Palestinian players will be quite eager to represent Palestine in this tournament. And everyone I talked to expressed a lot of hope that just by playing in the West Asia Cup, and by doing so well, they’re going to attract more players to come out to play for Palestine. And they all said there are other Palestinian players out there, who for whatever reason, were not able to play with the team earlier this year in the West Asia Cup, but they’re hoping that, you know, their success previously this year is going to really bring our players out. So you know, this is a legitimate team. They are – they’re quite good.

And, you know, it’s – to me, it’s as beautiful as great Palestinian literature, and great Palestinian filmmaking. You have, on the one hand, folks who are representing, with pride, Palestine; and the movement for liberation and return. And, on the other hand, who are doing something they love, that they’re great at, that they’re proud of, in its own right. You know, just as we celebrate, say, the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish as great poetry regardless of who he is and where he’s from, he’s also this, you know, says so much for and about Palestine.

And I think the baseball players should be seen in a similar light. They are – they’re representing Palestine in very honorable ways. And they’re also just great baseball players. I mean, as a baseball fan, I just enjoy watching them play. And as someone who is in solidarity with Palestine, I’m happy to see them and excited to see them, you know, wearing the P on their hat and Palestine across their chest. It’s pretty awesome.

Nora Barrows-Friedman: It’s great. Yeah, they’re really, really fun to watch. We’ll have links to some of the games of Team Palestine, recently at the World Asia – at the West Asia Cup, and will also have a link to your recent feature on the cultural boycott, sportswashing and Team Palestine. Everything is at electronicintifada.net. Bob Ross, thank you so much for all of these interviews and for being with us on The Electronic Intifada Podcast.

Robert Ross: Thank you so much, Nora. It’s a pleasure and an honor. Thank you.

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Nora Barrows-Friedman

Nora Barrows-Friedman's picture

Nora Barrows-Friedman is a staff writer and associate editor at The Electronic Intifada, and is the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine (Just World Books, 2014).