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It will not stop here: for the boycott of Israeli athletes by their rivals

Two judokas, an Algerian and a Sudanese, refused to compete against the purity of Botbol and made headlines around the world.

Israel has suffered from boycotts in the international arena since the early 1970s, but the organizations' response is generally minor and ineffective.

And the boycotting athletes?

Not everyone dies for it.

Ask Said Moulay

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• Said Moulay

• judo

• 2021 Olympics

• Tokyo 2020

David Rosenthal

Monday, 26 July 2021, 15:01 Updated: 16:06

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Said Moulay after winning (Judo Association)

"I have decided to sacrifice my participation in the biggest sports competition of all, to support the Palestinian struggle. That is the minimum I can do for this people."

These things have been written over the last few days on the Algerian judoka social networks Fathi Nurin. Last Thursday, on the eve of the opening of the Olympic Games, Nurin retired to avoid a meeting with the Israeli Tohar Botbul. After his and his coach's accreditation was revoked, they were kicked out of Tokyo back to their homeland, but that didn’t seem to really bother them, at least ostensibly.

They were not the first and certainly not the last, not in the history of the Olympics, not in the current competition and not even against Botbol itself.

This morning (Monday) Sudanese Muhammad Abdelrasul refused to compete with Botbol.

He is facing a fate similar to that of Nurin, for better or worse.

This case has already made headlines in the media around the world.

The German Bild published the headline "The Next Antisemitic Scandal?"

And noted together with the confiscation of Abdelrasul also the case of Nurin.

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"I decided to sacrifice to support the Palestinian struggle."

Fathi Nurin with Jibril Rajoub (Photo: Palestinian Association Facebook page) (Photo: Screenshot, Palestinian Association Facebook)

A boycott in general is not a new matter at the Olympics. In fact, ideological absences are an old and familiar phenomenon at the level of states, not of individuals. Spain was the first to refrain from appearing in Berlin in 1936, but did so because it was involved in a civil war. Melbourne in 1956 was boycotted by eight countries, including Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon but also the Netherlands, which refused to attend the event due to the Hungarian oppression by the Soviet Union that took place right at the outbreak of the Games. The Egyptians, by the way, withdrew due to Operation Kadesh and Israel sent only three athletes for it.

The phenomenon spread at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and culminated in the 1980 Moscow and Los Angeles Games in 1984. 34 countries withdrew from what was known as the "African Boycott".

The reason then was the refusal of the International Olympic Committee to suspend New Zealand from the Games, which held a rugby match with South Africa, which was boycotted by most countries of the world due to apartheid policies.

64 countries from the Western bloc did not arrive in the capital of the Soviet Union, including Israel, and in return the 14 countries that made up the Eastern Bloc were absent from Los Angeles.

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The height of the boycott.

Sergei in Libya ran with the torch in Moscow in 1980. 64 countries did not attend the Games (Photo: GettyImages, Allsport)

From the Israeli angle, the biggest boycott of all occurred in the 1958 World Cup qualifiers. Israel was supposed to play against Turkey, Indonesia and Sudan and in fact qualified for the games in Sweden, but due to regulations had to play at least one game before the tournament to advance to it and lost to Wales.

We actually qualified for the 1970 World Cup, but that too happened after the retirement of the North Korean team on the way.

The greatest disaster of all occurred at the 1972 Munich Games with the murder of 11 athletes, but even before that, a negative change began in the treatment of Israelis in various international settings. In 1971, at the Asian Football Championship for teams in Bangkok, the Iraqi police champion Baghdad did not show up for the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, which went through a stage on the way to winning the tournament. Two years later, Tehran did not invite the youth team to the Asian Cup tournament for the first time, and the team remained in Israel. In 1974, several months after the end of the Yom Kippur War, the Congress of the Asian Federation accepted the Kuwait proposal to no longer involve Israel in the Games of the Asian Nations and to ban it from hosting games. Football Association chairman Menachem Heller said: “We have nothing to look for in Asia. The Arabs and their supporters have taken over football and that is a good reason to demand a move to Europe. "

From the Yom Kippur War, through the expulsion of Israel from the sporting framework in Asia to the ruling revolution in Iran (during the Shah's rule, Israel was in friendly relations with the Iranians), hostility towards the Israelis began to make waves. Some boycott athletes do this out of a true and sincere ideology, at least that's what they are broadcasting. What is really going on in the hearts of these people, who have worked so many years to participate in the games, we will never know. This is not a simple decision, which usually does not depend on them. Egyptian Islam al-Shahabi was put under a lot of pressure to get on the mat in 2016 against Uri Sasson. He came up despite this, lost and refused to shake the Israeli's hand. At least he competed, which is impossible to say about Said Mulai, who has become a symbol in Israel of opponents of the sports boycott.

The 2019 Judo World Championships held in Tokyo was a fairly routine event until the semi-finals. Israeli judoka Sagi Muki qualified for the final weighing up to 81 kg, and waited for the winner between the Iranian and Belgian Moulay Kas. Moulay lost and then did not return to Iran, but came to Germany, where he has an apartment. In an interview with Iran International, Iranian TV broadcast in Britain, said Moulay that had been pressured and threatened by the various parties, including the head of the IOC in his country, losing on purpose in order not to compete against Mookie. he was forced to do so when the security forces arrived at the family house. in December 2019 gained citizenship in Mongolian.

the circle closed Moulay final In February this year, the former Iranian judoka arrived at the Tel Aviv Grand Prix (at the end of which he won the silver medal).

Close a circle.

Mulai wins the silver medal at the Grand Prix in Tel Aviv in February this year (Photo: Official website, Oded Karni, Judo Association)

Modern Iranian history includes many boycotts of Israeli athletes.

A famous case is that of Arash Mirsmali, who in 2004 did not show up for the battle against the Israeli Udi Wax and suffered a technical loss.

It was later revealed that he had been promised $ 115,000 in compensation.

The International Olympic Committee has fought the phenomenon over the years, but has failed to eradicate it.

Punishment does not deter anyone, and even eviction is not a particularly high price.

Athletes continue to boycott Israel, not always of their own free will.

The World Judo Federation does not intend to pass in silence the boycotts of Nurin and Abdelrasul, as evidenced by the punishment the Iranians received in April this year - a four-year ban from all settings.

It remains to be seen how the Algerian and Sudanese federations will react there this time.

Assisted in the preparation of the article: Ron Amikam and Asher Goldberg

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