A basketball coach at Colorado High School was suspended after he was seen hanging a Palestinian flag, and after he refused to shake hands with the opposite coach after a game against a Jewish school last week.
Lotus School for Excellence in Aurora and Denver Torah Academy competed against each other on January 22. Lotus School told Denver’s 9 news that the head coach of the team only identified as Coach O. hung it up.
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The Palestinian flag flying on top of a flagpole against a blue sky. (istock)
The school said after the game, Coach responded to the flag again before going to the handshake line. The coach reportedly failed to shake hands with the coaches to Denver Torah.
“He grabs his flag and puts it around his throat,” Lotus School’s athletic director Deon Jackson told the station. “We saw the intention at the time.”
Emrek Bakyt, school principal, announced that the coach was suspended with another assistant coach, according to the New York Post.
“It has nothing to do with Lotus,” Bakyt said. “It doesn’t represent us and we’re again about respect and diversity. That’s what we’re celebrating. That’s what we’re proud of.”
Brandon Rattiner, a member of the Jewish Social Council, condemned the coach’s actions in an interview with the New York Post.
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Rattiner added that he thought “central questions” was when the coach refused to shake his hands on the Jewish coaches.
The coach and an assistant coach were both suspended. (Lance King/Getty Images)
“The most important question here is when the coach refuses to engage away,” he said.
“Keeping Jewish people responsible for Israeli’s state actions is a textbook form of anti -Semitism.”
