Refusing to compete against Israelis due to their nationality, as Palestinian Olympic Committee chairman Jibril Rajoub encouraged Olympic athletes to do, is racist, Prime Minister’s Office spokesman for Arab Media Ofir Gendelman said on Wednesday.
“The Olympic Games celebrate friendship and respect,” Gendelman wrote on Twitter. “Not only [is] refusing to compete against someone because of his nationality un-Olympic, it’s also racist.”
Rajoub “glorified terrorism,” encouraging soccer tournaments and teams to be named after Palestinian terrorists, and compared Israelis to “Satan and Nazis,” FIFA’s chief of investigations said.
“The Olympic Games celebrate friendship and respect,” Gendelman wrote on Twitter. “Not only [is] refusing to compete against someone because of his nationality un-Olympic, it’s also racist.”
The #OlympicGames celebrate friendship & respect. Not only that refusing to compete against someone b/c of his nationality is un-Olympic, it's also racist.
An Algerian judoka who refused to compete against an Israeli b/c of his ethnicity was rightly expelled from the #Olympics .
— Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) July 26, 2021
Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine was rightly expelled from the Tokyo Olympics for refusing to compete against an Israeli, he said.
“However, Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, who is known for his radical anti-peace positions, met & commended this judoka for his hateful and unacceptable behavior,” Gendelman added. “This, too, must be condemned by all those who hold Olympic values dear.”
Earlier this week, Rajoub posted photos of himself with Nourine on social media, writing that he appreciates Nourine’s “courageous stance refusing normalization” after he forfeited rather than face off against Israel’s Tohar Butbul.
The International Judo Federation suspended Nourine and his coach, Amar Benikhlef, and they lost their accreditation.
“There is no place for meetings with whoever is connected to this official terrorism, not in sport or outside of it. I hope that this message goes out to all the Arabs who are normalizing... and even those who, unfortunately, sign agreements with branches of Israeli sports, in light of the oppression and the difficulties that Palestinian players face,” Rajoub said in an interview with an Algerian radio station that he posted on his Facebook page.
Rajoub is also the head of the Palestinian Football Association and campaigned to have FIFA, the international soccer association, boycott Israel.
In 2018, FIFA fined Rajoub $20,000 and banned him from the association for inciting hatred and violence against Argentina, which had agreed to play a friendly match in Israel. Argentina canceled the game following the threats.