Prominent Jewish cricket star questions motives around Usman Khawaja’s protest

The timing of Usman Khawaja’s summer-long stance to promote peace, and his efforts to highlight the conflict in the Middle East, have been challenged by a former international Jewish cricketer.

A Jewish former international cricketer says he supports Usman Khawaja’s push to wear a dove symbol on his bat but has questioned whether the Australian opener has only been moved by the plight of one group of victims in the Middle East conflict.

Mandy Yachad, an opener who played in South Africa’s first one-day international series after readmission in 1991, is also one of only a handful of known Jewish cricketers to have reached international level.

An observant Orthodox Jew, Yachad – who also represented his nation in hockey – told this masthead that he was an advocate for Khawaja’s desire to state his position publicly, however queried whether Khawaja had felt as strongly about the Israelis killed by Hamas terrorists as the Palestinians killed by Israeli reprisals.

“I totally respect and support Usman Khawaja’s right to express his views and particularly as the symbol he has chosen is the universal symbol of peace (for which we Jews pray many times a day in our prayers) and having regard to his statement that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,’” Yachad said.

Usman Khawaja was denied the chance to wear a dove symbol on his bat in the Boxing Day Test. Picture: Getty

“I trust and hope, based on Khawaja’s stand for human rights and equality of lives and his statement about his daughters (namely that ‘when I’m looking at my Instagram and seeing innocent kids, videos of them dying, passing away, that’s what hit me the hardest…I just imagine my young daughter in my arms …’), that he felt the same way, in his personal bereavement, about the tens of innocent children (and hundreds of others) who were slaughtered, burnt, mutilated and taken hostage in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.

“Or is it only now, when as a consequence of the conflict which arose as a result of that barbaric attack that, unfortunately, Palestinian children are being killed, that he is expressing such views?”

Usman Khawaja has found himself in the headlines for reasons other than his batting this summer. Picture: Getty

Khawaja has stressed that his request to don messages on his apparel during the Test series against Pakistan has been based on humanitarian grounds rather than a partisan approach to the Israel-Hamas war, in which more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry, after more than 1000 Israelis were killed in the initial October 7 massacres.

The first Muslim to play Test cricket for Australia, Khawaja posted an Instagram video on the eve of the Perth Test after his initial request to wear shoes with humanitarian slogans written on them in Palestinian colours was knocked back by the ICC.

“What I’ve written on my shoes isn’t political, I’m not taking sides, human life to me is equal. One Jewish life is equal to one Muslim life, is equal to one Hindu life, and so on. I’m just speaking up for those who don’t have a voice,” Khawaja said in an emotional message.

An emotional Khawaja spoke about the topic on his Instagram.

He also tweeted during October that there were “innocents on both sides suffering unfortunately. Particularly those being starved of food and water. There has to be compassion. #humanity.”

However Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley hinted that the fact Khawaja’s initial application had been related to the Middle East situation, and in particular the fact Khawaja had been outwardly pro-Palestinian in his position, contributed to the ICC’s subsequent rejection of his attempt to wear stickers of a dove with an olive branch during the Boxing Day Test.

Khawaja posted another video on Monday night in which he sought to call out the ICC’s perceived double standards in allowing the likes of Marnus Labuschagne to display religious symbols and references on their apparel while denying his request.

Khawaja’s motives, and the timing of his messages, have been questioned. Picture: Hetty

But the fact that Khawaja chose the music of musician Ye (formerly Kanye West) – who had aired anti-Semitic remarks in 2022 – as the backing track to his social media video, raised eyebrows within the Jewish community.

Ye coincidentally apologised on Wednesday for his past antisemitic remarks.

Hockley told SEN on Wednesday that he felt the dove was inoffensive.

“The ICC has rules I think they are there for good reason and we have to respect that,” Hockley said.

“For me. It was the process it was understanding what Uzzie wants to say and I think what was clear is that it was nonpartisan, apolitical, non-religious, that he is a real passionate believer in human rights and he will continue to advocate over his own channels and we will continue to support that.”

Originally published as Prominent Jewish cricket star questions motives around Usman Khawaja’s protest