Israel-Palestine conflict’s shadow on Olympics: Athletes withdraw instead of competing against Israelis, players booed, anthems jeered
The Judoka Tohar Butbul emerged from the tunnel slapping his face and arms, letting out a roar. With much purpose, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist marched to the centre of the mat, where he turned and stood facing the entrance, waiting for his opponent to emerge.
He waited and kept waiting. But no one stepped out. Messaoud Redouane Dris, from Arab-majority Algeria, did not want to compete against Butbul, who is from Israel. Officially, Dris did not pass the weigh-in; he was 400 grams heavier than the permissible weight in the 73 kg category.
But in reality, the instance that took place on Monday morning at Le Arena Champs de Mars was another instance of an athlete from Israel being snubbed at the Paris Olympics in the backdrop of the conflict in Gaza.
At the Paris Olympics, Team Israel isn’t exactly ‘Bienvenue-d’.
Days before the opening ceremony, a Member of the Parliament representing the La France Insoumise party, Thomas Portes said Israeli athletes ‘are not welcome at the Paris Olympics’.
Inside the Paris metro network, stickers demanding a ‘ban’ on Israel were pasted on the doors of many trains with a statement, in bold and caps, that read: “Genocide is not an Olympic Sport”.
When Israel’s football team took the field for their first match of the Games at the Parc des Princes, against Mali last week, the country’s national anthem was so loudly jeered that the volume of the stadium’s speakers had to be increased to drown out that noise.
And at the swimming arena, 100m women’s backstroke specialist Aviv Barzelay walked out for her heat to a smattering of boos.
Wherever they went, the 88 Israeli athletes competing at the Paris Olympics have been made to feel unwelcome. That morning at the Champs de Mars was just another day in the life of an Israeli athlete at the Games.
“Unfortunately, I already experienced this at the last Olympics against another athlete,” Butbul told reporters after he lost in the second round. In Tokyo, two of his potential opponents, Algeria’s Fethi Nourine and Sudan’s Mohamed Abdalrasool were ready to give up their Olympic dreams rather than facing an Israeli.
Butbul added: “It’s hard because I want to fight, to news myself. It’s my job. I am an athlete. He’s a sportsman too, I’m sure he wanted to fight, he also worked hard to get to this point. But he, like the others, is the victim of decisions that are not his.”
In the overall context, an opponent withdrawing must be the least troubling issue for Israeli athletes, who have faced death threats and been targets of cyber attacks.
Earlier this week, Le Monde reported that the French police opened an investigation into death threats received by three Israeli athletes at the Paris Games. The newspaper added that the incident came days after ‘Israel’s foreign minister warned his French counterpart of an alleged Iranian-backed plot to target Israeli athletes and tourists during the Paris Olympic Games.’
The incident occurred when France’s cybercrime unit, which goes by the acronym OFAC, was asked to remove the private data of Israeli athletes. According to the Agence France Presse, data — including blood test results and log-in credentials — were published on social media, with the hackers allegedly also revealing the military service status of Israel’s athletes only.
“Pharos, a platform that reports unlawful content online, has called on the OFAC to remove the athletes’ details,” the AFP reported.
The Israeli contingent has been provided high-level security at the Games. Unlike athletes from other nations, a lot of them are escorted to and from events by elite security units and have been given round-the-clock protection, including at the Village. Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, is also helping with the team’s security and the sportspersons have been cautioned over how to react against any possible provocations directed at them.
The local French authorities, meanwhile, also shifted a memorial ceremony for the Israeli athletes killed in the 1972 Olympics from Paris’ City Hall to Israel’s embassy.
Inside the Games Village, meanwhile, Israel’s athletes said they are mingling with other athletes, going to the dining hall and freely wearing their country’s colours. “I am feeling very safe and very good here because of the security,” badminton player Misha Zilberman, who is participating in his fourth Olympics, told The Indian news. “At the Olympic Village, we are all athletes there. There is no pressure. It is quite comfortable. I can walk freely, no escorts. In Paris, too, we can walk freely.”
