This report in the respected Israeli daily Haaretz is astonishing. It turns out that Israel’s 90-member delegation to the Tokyo Olympics did not include a single Palestinian citizen of Israel — even though they constitute one-fifth of the country’s population within the 1967 borders.
Let’s pause for a moment, and let this sink in. Black Americans make up about 12 percent of the U.S. population. But even in the terrible days of U.S. segregation, African-American athletes had at least been stars on our national teams. Runner Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, angering Adolf Hitler. (Another black medal winner that year, Ralph Metcalfe, went on to a distinguished political career in Chicago.) In the 1960 Rome Olympiad, Wilma Rudolph won the 100-meter, the 200-meter, and anchored the gold medal-winning 4×100 meter relay. A brash young boxer named Cassius Clay won gold in the light heavyweight division that same year, before turning pro and becoming better known as Muhammad Ali.
In the Haaretz article, reporter Jack Khoury, himself a Palestinian citizen of Israel, said he is not arguing “for the inclusion of Arabs just because they are Arabs.” But he goes on to explain:
No Arab community has the infrastructure for any sport that could provide local athletes the basis they need to progress to an international level. If an Arab athlete wishes to reach this standard, he or she must move to a Jewish community and depend on their family’s financial support, since there is no sponsor or organization that would support them. Many talented athletes in Arab communities have given up their dreams due to the costs involved.
Khoury says there is another problem: Palestinian citizens of Israel “are not migrants, but their loyalty and citizenship are often viewed with suspicion. This is why an Arab athlete can sometimes excel on a soccer team, but the Olympics, the Mount Olympus of sports, is closed to them.”
Khoury raises an even more delicate point:
It is also worth remembering that if an Arab citizen were to join the [Olympic] delegation and win a medal, they would have to decide whether they could receive it against the backdrop of a flag and anthem that represents only the majority of this country, rather than all its citizens.
“Sports Apartheid” is the correct term for preventing 20 percent of your fellow citizens from competing internationally. What’s also amazing is that until now, no one in the U.S. mainstream press has even bothered to report on this injustice. Finally, Roger Cohen at the New York Times did recently start describing the discrimination that Palestinian citizens of Israel experience, but he and his colleagues have plenty more reporting to do.
Jack Khoury ends his article: “Arab citizens are only watching the Games on television, and will apparently continue to do so for many more years.”
Apartheid South Africa all over again. They are delusional enough to act and talk like they are superior to all others. You can see it in the way their leaders openly talk, and the paid hasbara trolls who insult and show their disdain for all Arabs.
They look down on all others, the goyim, especially Arabs, unless of course they make nice with those in the UAE and other Arab nations that ignore the plight of the Palestinians, and are able to sell their fruit (most probably some from the illegal settlement areas) over there, or the Arab nations that shamefully buy their disgusting weapons.
Apartheid Israel is America’s pride, joy, and top charity case. So much for America wanting democracy all over the world.
Israel has many great runners in the IOF.
Check these super stars out.
https://imemc.org/article/angry-israeli-officer-smacks-fellow-soldiers-for-running-away-from-palestinian-protesters/
Should be good for a few medals .
A little thoughtfulness would be welcome here.
Competing in the modern Olympic games is a total treason of the old Olympic spirit of (Hellenic) unity celebrated by a general ceasefire. It is a major exacerbation of nationalism and war.
While it is perfectly justified to call to account the racial supremacist illegitimate regime of occupied Palestine, calling for invaded, occupied Palestinians who have been left under this dictatorship to compete, thus contributing to the advancement of their occupiers and torturers, marching under the bastard crusader kingdom’s flag, is definitely not a good idea.
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/israel-treats-its-olympic-victor-as-a-second-class-medalist-1.10073312
“Israeli Olympic medalist would have to get married abroad in a civil ceremony because he is not Jewish under Jewish law” Haaretz Editorial August 3, 2021
EXCERPT:
“Israel Treats Its Olympic Victor as a Second-class Medalist”
“Israel is the only democratic [?**] country in the world that does not allow civil marriage in its territory.
“When Artem Dolgopyat stepped up to the podium Sunday in Tokyo and received his gold medal, the Israeli anthem was played and the Israeli flag was raised. The country’s leaders hastened to appropriate the Israeli gymnast’s achievement. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett interrupted the cabinet meeting to congratulate him. ‘You’ve made history and brought us great pride,’ Bennett told him on the phone. President Isaac Herzog also congratulated him, saying, ‘You made history today. The State of Israel is proud of you.’
“But neither pride nor the history he made is of any interest to the state when he seeks to exercise a basic civil right and marry the woman of his choice.
“’The state won’t let him get married,’ his mother, Angela Bilan, said in a radio interview. ‘He has a girlfriend and they have been living together for three years, but they can’t get married. They don’t let him.’
“The Israeli Olympic medalist, his mother explains, would have to get married abroad in a civil ceremony, because he is not Jewish under Jewish law.”
___________________________________________________________________________
[?**] Also: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200918-knesset-rejects-bill-to-ensure-full-equality-between-all-israeli-citizens/
“…even though they [Palestinians] constitute one-fifth of the country’s population within the 1967 borders.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel#Ethnic_and_religious_groups
“According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2008, of Israel’s 7.3 million people, 75.6 percent were Jews of any background”
That is to say, just a hair under one quarter of Israel’s population isn’t Jewish – 20% Palestinian and a bit under 5% neither Palestinian nor Jewish.