The Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics (Feb. 6–22) opened with a massive round of booing at the opening ceremony, directed at the Israeli delegation as it entered.
Israeli athletes seemed to be expecting the poor reception. “I’m prepared. They can do whatever they want,” said Israeli skier Barnabas Szollos in advance.
After two years of genocide, however, Israel was still invited. Russia, due to its war with Ukraine, was given a 10-year ban.
Hasbarists went to work in vilifying the booing crowds, helped along by willing accomplices in the mainstream media. Australia’s Sky News host Chris Kenny delivered a searing indictment of how “antisemitism festers” with Israel’s booing at the Winter Olympics. “Think about the message that sends to the world,” Kenny said in a segment. “Especially with the sickening history of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s terror attack against the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics in 1972. But this is what Israelis and Jews are forced to live with, unless we stand up.”
The commentary coincided with Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia. Kenny played a clip of Herzog delivering a speech during the visit on how antisemitism is now a global problem. He then waxed on:
“Much of the animosity against Israel is fueled by misinformation. Claims of genocide, claims of deliberate starvation, claims of targeting civilians — you’ve heard it all over the past couple of years”.
Well, we’ve also seen it unfold before our eyes. And Israel and its cronies are fighting hard to contain what our lying eyes have told us.
What we’ve seen in the Olympics is the eruption of popular discontent, not only with Israel, but with the power structures that protected and enabled the genocide.
But not all media are subservient to Israel. Just over a week later, a Swiss commentator from Radio Television Suisse pointed out Israeli bobsledder Adam Edelman’s support for the genocide in several social media posts.
The Swiss commentator, Stefan Renna, questioned Edelman’s eligibility to participate, since the International Olympic Committee prohibits the participation of “any athlete who has participated in activities supporting war, either militarily or through their social media accounts.” It applied to Russian athletes, but apparently not to Israelis.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was livid. “Beyond disgusting that the Jew-hating Swiss ‘sportscaster’ spewed bigotry & bile at @Israel Olympic Bobsled team & its captain @realajedelman as they competed,” he wrote on X.
It didn’t last long. The clip was taken down.
Between Milano and Cortina, another event went viral on social media, as an Olympic merchandise seller, Ali Mohamed Hassan, said “free Palestine” to Israeli buyers.
“What did you say?” the Israeli woman who was filming asked. “Say it again.”
“Free Palestine,” Hassan repeated. “What is the problem?”
“This is the Olympics, Israel is allowed to participate, just like any other country. It’s not controversial,” the Israeli replied.
Hassan was adamant. “Yes, free Palestine, free Palestine, free Palestine”.
“Ok, good for you, thank you, thank you, you did it, you freed Palestine.” Someone in the background said, “he should be fired.” Pro-Israeli hasbara organization Stand With Us shared the video.
And the Olympic organizing committee fired him, saying, “It is not appropriate for Games staff or contractors to express personal political views while carrying out their duties or to direct such remarks at visitors.”
An arena for politics
These occurrences, alongside more organized street protests, marked the Olympics as a political arena. How could it not be? Israel has exterminated over a thousand Palestinian athletes in the genocide. Hundreds of sports facilities were turned to dust. Israel has targeted Palestinian sports, as it has targeted every other facet of life in Gaza.
So, of course, the Olympic mission statement claiming “to encourage and support the promotion of ethics and good governance” and to work in “service of humanity and thereby to promote peace” becomes its own joke.
Right now, the call to boycott Israel is still up to individuals. Sports is culture, just like it was with apartheid South Africa’s Sun City, an escapist whitewashing venture. Many broke the cultural boycott of South Africa in the 1980s, including Frank Sinatra, who played for $2 million. But eventually, it became too toxic to ignore.
For the moment, those who say “free Palestine” are kicked out, while Israel is welcomed and carries on with business as usual. The cry of “antisemitism” will persist in a desperate attempt to stem the tide. But the boos are growing louder.
One wonders how it will go at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, due to be held in Vienna this May. Iceland, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands have all pulled out of the contest after its board decided to let Israel participate. The isolation of Israel on the global stage grows.
Many of the Israeli, US, UK, and French official state archives that establish our own crimes against humanity and war crimes have been declassified for decades. Nothing prevents us or other states from demanding regional claims commissions be established and reparations paid to communities, the victims, or their heirs.
The UN has authorized claims for reparation and return of refugees in General Assembly resolution 194 III, 1948. There has also been a treaty that entered into force a long time ago which established “no statutory limitations apply”, and that means none. Attempts to establish Presidential impunity or claim there were no laws prohibiting piracy, pillage, or bloody murder are nonsense. There’s not a chance that our governments could prove the elements of an offense in criminal tribunals in 1945 and they had somehow become unclear or unenforceable by 1948 when the USA, UK, and France admitted in classified documents that they were participants in a criminal enterprise guilty of the same offenses. They facilitated a racist, theocratic Zionist regime in the commission of the same atrocities as the Nazis and their allied regimes. See for example the published orders for annihilation of Palestinian villagers issued by the Commander of the Golani Brigade in 1948.
“The isolation of Israel on the global stage grows.” Re Israel’s reputation, the New York Times ran this editorial yesterday:
How Israel Lost Americans…It’s been obvious for some time that Americans are souring on Israel, but a Gallup poll that came out on Friday marks a turning point. For the first time in the poll’s 25-year history, it found, more Americans sympathize with the Palestinians than with the Israelis….Israel’s imploding reputation is largely a consequence of its oppression of the Palestinians, in particular the mass killings in Gaza, which millions of Americans watched up close on social media. At the same time, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank — which is increasingly turning into outright annexation — is making Zionism and liberalism seem incompatible. Today, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, about 7.2 million Jews preside over a slightly larger number of Arabs, if you combine Israel’s Palestinian citizenry with the populations of Gaza and the West Bank. The majority of those Palestinians are stateless and have almost no guaranteed rights, as we see in the growing number of settler pogroms in the West Bank and the systematic ethnic cleansing of villages….
Opinion | How Israel Lost Americans – The New York Times