MAJOR international tournaments, such as the Olympics, the football World Cup, etc, are supposed to bring people together to celebrate sports and the spirit of competition. Yet even in the sporting arena, geopolitics is never far from the surface, as has been made clear by the organisers of the ongoing Paris Olympics. While Russia and Belarus have been banned from the Games, as punishment for the former’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel faces no such opprobrium. This is so even though various bodies, such as the Palestine Olympic Committee, the Palestine Football Association as well as activists, had called upon the International Olympic Committee to ban Israel from coming to Paris for its monstrous campaign of death in Gaza. The Palestinians pointed out that Israel had violated the Olympic Truce, and highlighted the fact that 400 Palestinian athletes have been murdered by Tel Aviv. In fact, it was reported that one of the Israeli flag-bearers at the Games had said that he had ‘happily’ signed bombs dropped on Gaza. Unfortunately, to the IOC, Russia’s invasion of a sovereign state is a worthy justification for banishing Moscow, but Israel can be given a free pass despite its barbarous assault on the Palestinians. This hypocrisy has been on display by most Western states since the beginning of the current hostilities.

Bans and boycotts, though inadvisable, are nothing new in global sporting competitions. For example, the pro-Western bloc, including Pakistan, stayed away from the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The USSR and its allies returned the favour by boycotting the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. But whatever the circumstances, the same yardstick should be applied. If Russia and Belarus deserve censure for the Ukraine invasion, then Israel should equally be held to account and banished from international sporting competitions for its occupation of Palestinian and Syrian land, and its ongoing campaign of extermination in Gaza.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2024