This article originally appeared in The Field’s newsletter, Game Points, on July 31, 2024. Sign up here to get the newsletter directly delivered to your inbox every week.
Palestinian boxer Waseem Abu Sal wore a specially embroidered white shirt as he carried his nation’s flag in the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 26.
The opening day of an Olympic Games is a festive occasion. It marks, with great pomp, the start of an edition of the most prestigious sporting event in the world. At the Games, special regard is accorded to the Parade of Nations, the ceremony in which the contingents from each country make an appearance to celebrate national pride and the spirit of sportsmanship.
Abu Sal’s outfit depicted bombs from a fighter jet falling on a child playing football on a bright sunny day. His mark of homage to the victims of Israel’s war on Gaza stood in stark contrast to a much-publicised gesture by one of Israel’s flag bearers, Peter Patchik.
Paltchik, a 32-year-old judoka and a bronze medallist from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in a now-deleted tweet, had posted photos of ammunition shells on which he had scrawled, “From me to you with pleasure.” He added the hashtags #HasmasisISIS and #IsraelAtWar.
Israel’s participation in the Olympic Games has been widely condemned because of its continuing assault on Gaza, in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 39,715 people had been killed in Gaza as of July 25, the day before the Paris Olympics got underway.
On Tuesday, reports emerged of Israel carrying out an air raid in Beirut, Lebanon.
Israel’s presence at the Olympics is in sharp contrast to the absence of Russia and Belarus. Both nations have been banned from competing at the Olympics. While Russia has been banned because of its invasion of Ukraine, Belarus has been penalised for allowing Russia to use its territory for military purposes. Only a handful of athletes from both nations have been allowed to compete under a neutral flag in Paris.
Israel’s war on Gaza has been horrific in scale and impact. The people in Gaza are facing starvation due to a lack of food and clean water. The appalling conditions have also resulted in an outbreak of many diseases, including polio.
More than 20,000 children are reportedly missing in Gaza, with thousands more left with no family. According to the Secretary General of the Palestinian Sports Media Association, more than 300 Palestinian athletes have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
Days before the opening ceremony, Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president, held an event at the Paris Olympic Games village with the slogan “Give peace a chance”. At the event, Bach took photos with Ukrainian, Palestinian and, ironically, Russian and Israeli athletes too.
The IOC stands accused of hypocrisy, given the alacrity with which it supported the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from various sporting events but failed to make the same call against Israel, which has the support of its ally, the United States.
A glance at the IOC’s own history should give it the courage to make the right decision and ban Israel from the Olympic charter.
In 1962, the IOC banned South Africa from the Olympics due to its apartheid policy. South Africa was banned by almost all sporting federations for the better part of three decades. It was only when the apartheid regime was dismantled in the 1990s with Nelson Mandela’s election as president that South Africa was welcomed back into the sporting world.
On July 19, just a week before the Olympics were to get underway in Paris, the International Court of Justice described Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands as unlawful and said that its discriminatory laws and policies against Palestinians violate the prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid.
Israel has not been a welcome presence in Paris among fans. Its national anthem has been booed in stadiums and messages of support for Palestine have been visible across Paris.
Bach and the IOC have so far voiced slogans of the give-peace-a-chance variety. But in the bigger picture, it has been more for cosmetic effect rather than holding any substance.
It is time Bach and the IOC give justice a chance.
