The largest news site in Qatar, 'dohanews', published today (Tuesday), an extensive article about the participation of the Israeli national team in the World Championships in water sports, which is currently being held in the country.
The article examined the military history of the Blue and White delegation, their support for the war, and of course the question was asked why Israel participates at all.
In one of the photos they attached, the swimmer Denis Loktev appears in a post from 2018, in which he is in an IDF uniform and holding a weapon, or they attached posts of the open water swimmer Aden Girloanza and claimed that she makes "insensitive comments towards the Palestinians and their struggle".
In response to the site's "in-depth" investigation, a Qatari official said: "Qatar has a proven track record of successfully hosting major sporting events. When hosting an event, Qatar adheres to the entry requirements set by the relevant international sports federation. In accordance with the policies of global sports bodies, All host countries of such sporting events are required to grant non-discriminatory access to their events."
If this is not enough, the site brought the response of the BDS organization, which promotes boycotts and economic sanctions against Israel including organizing demonstrations.
BDS strongly reacted to the participation of the Israelis in the world championship because it is "something beyond normalization", and he does so in a long letter, under the title: "The destruction of the Palestinian people continues in Gaza and the enemy swims in Doha".
Swimmers compete in Qatar last weekend, photo: AFP
The letter stated: "The official authorities of Qatar have approved a sports delegation from Israel to participate in the World Aquatics Championship. It would have been more correct for the official authorities of Qatar to at least respect the decisions of the joint Arab-Islamic summit, which called for an end to Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip and urged to harness the efforts to pressure the Israeli enemy to stop his horrors."
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In recent years, quite a few Israelis have participated in sports events in Qatar and achieved significant achievements, such as judoka Inbar Lanir winning the World Championship last year.
Just last week, the fencer Yuval Freilich won the gold medal in the Grand Prix and in the championship in question, because of which the article appeared, so far the open water swimmer Matan Roditi has achieved the criterion for the Paris Olympics and the artistic swimming team has advanced to several finals.
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