Israeli Minister of Sports and Culture Miri Regev attends the weekly cabinet meeting on June 21, 2015 in Jerusalem. (DAN BALILTY / POOL / AFP)
JERUSALEM — The NBA has apologized and removed wording from its website
referring to "Palestine-occupied territory" on Friday after complaints by an
Israeli minister.
Israeli sports minister Miri Regev had sent a letter to
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver calling Palestine "an imaginary 'state'," and
asking for the reference to be removed from the basketball league's
website.
"We do not produce the country listings for NBA.com and as soon
as we became aware of it, the site was updated," said Kathy Behrens, the NBA's
President for Social Responsibility. "We apologize for this oversight, and have
corrected it."The UN along with most of the international community considers
the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 war that the
Palestinians claim for a future state, as occupied territory.
Regev, a
hawkish minister from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, thanked
Silver on Friday for removing the language, saying "Israel's lands are not
occupied; therefore what was written was false and should have been deleted."
She added that the NBA listing was not in line with President Donald Trump's
recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Trump's declaration
this month sparked protests across the Palestinian territories, and Palestinian
leaders said the US could no longer serve as a Mideast peace broker.
READ MORE: UN General Assembly adopts resolution on status of Jerusalem