Officials “apologize” to Israel for “oversight.”
Signing up for an internationally accessible website almost always means including your country of origin. The same has been true of NBA.com, for years.
Then today, Israel suddenly expressed outrage at that fact, with their Sports Ministry having noticed that occupied Palestine is an option, declaring that to be “an imaginary state” and demanding it be removed.
Sports Minister Miri Regev insisted there is no such thing as occupied territory, and that the NBA’s listing was not in keeping with President Trump declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
Perhaps even more incredibly, the NBA immediately relented, saying it was an “oversight,” and apologizing for including Palestine as an option.
It’s not at all clear what provoked Israel to go after NBA.com, as virtually every website with a registration system has similar options for Palestinian users. That the NBA immediately caved in, and even apologized, likely means they won’t be the last, and that Israel is going to start brow-beating websites on a regular basis.
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