The Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) has called for the under-19 SA cricket captain, David Teeger, to be suspended for his “biased and inflammatory” pro-Israel comments.
PSA says it had laid a formal complaint with SASCOC, Cricket South Africa and the Gauteng Lions Cricket, regarding the “provocative, biased, and inflammatory” remarks made by Teeger.
A South African Jewish Report article written by Hanna Resnick and published on October 26 after Teeger received the Absa Jewish Achiever award, quoted the young cricketer as saying: “Yes, I’ve been (given) this award, and yes, I’m now the rising star, but the true rising stars are the young soldiers in Israel.”
Teeger reportedly added: “And I’d like to dedicate it to the state of Israel and every single soldier fighting so that we can love and thrive in the diaspora.”
The PSA said Teeger’s sentiments were unacceptable in the face of the killing of thousands of women and children in Palestine by Israel in retaliation for a Hamas attack on October 7.
The organisation wants Teeger to be suspended from representing the country as well as from his team in the Cricket World Cup.
“We want Teeger to be suspended from representing the Gauteng Lions and from representing the South African under-nineteen cricket team at the World Cup in Sri Lanka,” the PSA said on Monday.
“That David Teeger’s comments are clearly a provocative and inflammatory political statement, worsened by the fact that he made it at a time when thousands of innocent Palestinian people, men, women, children and babies were being killed by the Israeli army.”
The PSA said the young cricketer’s comments were in contrast to the position of the South African government, which has sent a referral for war crimes charges to the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We are concerned that his comments are subversive as he openly contradicts the position of the South African government, which has sided with justice, and in turn the victims of this decades-long colonial occupation of Palestine by the Jewish Zionist state,” it said.
In light of the country’s sad past, the PSA has condemned the position taken by the youngster and has called on the board of Gauteng Lions and SA Cricket to establish an inquiry into Teeger’s comments.
“As the PSA we have called on the boards of Gauteng Lions Cricket and Cricket South Africa to establish an inquiry into David Teeger’s misuse of his position as a CSA captain to make common purpose with the Israeli military when he made these public statements,” the PSA said.
The Star