Two Palestinian soccer teams used the images of kidnapped Israeli soldiers on a flyer for a soccer cup final being held in Gaza. PHOTO: Simon Wiesenthal Center

A flyer advertising Sunday’s Palestine Cup Final in Gaza between the Shuja’iyya and Rafah clubs carried the faces of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped and killed during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, saying the match was between their kidnappers.

The flyer carries the names of the two competing soccer teams, and above each is the name and picture of the soldier kidnapped in that team’s area.

Below, a caption in yellow reads, “the two teams [lit. poles] of kidnapping soldiers, in the final of the Gaza Cup.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, reacted strongly to the flyer. He said, “it is difficult to put into words how great the outrage is at Hamas’ bottomless inhumanity.”

Cooper also had criticism for the UN, saying that, “while the UN prepares its next denunciation of Israel for defending her citizens last summer from Hamas terrorism and while world leaders demand that Israel agree to a timeline to reach a two state solution, those leaders maintain their silence at the outrages like today’s flyers and allow Hamas to use the remains of dead Israeli soldiers to taunt grieving Israeli families.”

The bodies of both Shaul and Goldin continue to be held by Hamas in Gaza.

Cooper ended by saying that, “Instead of granting a Hamas group the legitimacy of an NGO at the UN,” referring to the recent status upgrade of the Palestine Return Centre at the international body, “world leaders… should denounce Hamas [for] their genocidal hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.”