Algeria has reportedly called off a friendly soccer match with Ghana because the team has an Israeli coach, Avram Grant.
According to Algerian media reports, the Algerian team dropped out of the match so that it could prevent Grant from entering the African country.
Algerian journalist Ayman Gada wrote on Facebook that “the Algerian national team canceled the friendly match with Ghana because it refused to host Ghana’s Israeli coach, Avraham (sic) Grant.”
Grant, who was born in Petah Tikvah, has previously managed the Israeli national team and Chelsea F.C. in the English Premier League. He has spent the past two years coaching Ghana’s national team.
Like many Arab amd Muslim countries, Algeria does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Additionally, a wave a pro-Palestinian sentiment has engulfed the country in recent months, including a number of solidarity marches for the Palestinians.
In 2014, Algeria ranked fourth on a list of the world’s most anti-Semitic countries published by the Anti-Defimation League (ADL).
Grant’s father was a Holocaust survivor.
“The Palestinian people raise the flag of Algeria, because it (Algeria) is for them a model and for all the oppressed people in the world. We have learnt a lot from its revolution,” the Palestinian ambassador to Algeria, Louai Aissa, recently said, the Algeria Press Service reported.
By: JNS.org and United with Israel Staff