As per policies by global sporting bodies, all host nations of such sporting events are required to grant access without discrimination to its venues.
Sixteen Israeli swimmers are set to participate in the 2024 World Aquatics Championships staged in Qatar, which comes amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza that has killed at least 27,238 Palestinians and wounded 66,452.
Qatar is hosting the major sporting event from February 2 to 18.
The swimmers are Eden Blecher, Shelly Bobritsky, Maya Dorf, Eva Fabian, Ido Gal, Noy Gazala, Eden Girloanta, Catherine Kunin, Aya Mazor, Nikol Nahshonov, Ariel Nassee, Matan Roditi, Neta Rubichek, Anastasia Gorbenko, Daria Golovaty, and Denis Loktev.
Controversy surrounds the swimmers
Denis Loktev brazenly embraced his role in Israel’s occupation forces, showcasing it on social media through a 2018 Instagram photo where he is seen holding a gun in uniform, accompanied by the caption “IDF Style”.
Other swimmers like Eden Girloanta have dedicated a whole Instagram Highlight to openly support Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and make extremely insensitive remarks about Palestinians and their struggle.
There, she undermined the ongoing war in Gaza by sharing posts on her platform that read: “There is no fuel in Gaza but Hamas is firing rockets non-stop. Make it make sense.”
The 23-year-old posted someone’s else post on her platform, which read: “How is it that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is sitting in his lavish villa in Qatar while Gaza is going through a so called genocide? How is it that his net worth is $4 billion dollar, yet Gazan live in poverty? How is it that Gaza is running out of food and water but they do have money for 7000+ rockets and bullets? Think before you donate. You’re contributing to terrorism.”
Girloanta also shared another post that included a meme of the Gaza population in 1967 being 350,000 and in 2023 standing at 2.2 million, with a man that is sarcastically saying “Tell me more about ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza…”
She dedicated multiple posts where she attempted to discredit the Al Ahli Hospital massacre. She shared a post and wrote: “And here’s another proof if you aren’t (for some stupid reason) convinced just yet.”
On October 17, a single Israeli strike killed more than 500 people at once at the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, turning a refuge for displaced Palestinians into a scene of horror.
That death toll was by far the highest of any single attack in Gaza since 2008, authorities confirmed. Israel blamed the attack on a Hamas ‘misfire’, however, multiple news organisation investigations proved it was launched by Israel.
The Israeli occupation forces quickly scrambled to distance themselves from the hospital massacre and immediately attributed it to Palestinian factions operating in Gaza following global outrage.
However, the denial appeared to come too little too late.
Hananya Naftali, a very close digital aide to Israel’s Netanyahu had already confirmed the Israeli Air Force targeted “a Hamas base within a hospital” before then removing the post.
While Israel claimed intelligence indicated Islamic Jihad’s role in the disaster, Raf Sanchez, an NBC News foreign correspondent, said Islamic Jihad rockets “do not tend to kill hundreds of people in a single strike”.
In another brazenly insensitive post, Girloanta shared someone else’s post that read “Gaza – if you can make your own bombs you can make your own electricity.”
She also said every donation for Palestinians in Gaza goes to Hamas leadership, including Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, and Moussa Abu Mazrook. The 23-year-old Israeli swimmer also shared a fake AI-generated photo of Ismail Haniyeh in a private jet against a background of Qatar’s skyscraper, with a caption written by her that reads: “Again, this is where your IG donations are going to.”
Qatar adheres to sporting rules
As a response to an inquiry about the swimmers’ authorised attendance, a Qatari official in a statement to Doha News said: “Qatar has a proven track record of successfully hosting major sporting events. When hosting an event, Qatar adheres to the entry requirements set out by the relevant international sporting federation.”
As per policies by global sporting bodies, all host nations of such sporting events are required to grant access without discrimination to its venues.
Their participation comes despite the Israel Swimming Association’s (ISA) initial “concerns” about the safety of the athletes in the Gulf country. However, the Israeli authorities gave the green light for the trip but fell short of providing official comments.
BDS movement breaks silence
The BDS movement, which promotes boycotts and economic sanctions against Israel, has categorically condemned the participation of the Israelis as it is “something beyond normalisation.”
In specific, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) denounced “in the strongest terms the Qatari official authorities’ permission for a sports delegation representing the Israeli settler-colonial and apartheid regime to participate in the World Aquatics Championships to be held in Doha.”
“In this particular context, it would have been more appropriate for Qatari official authorities to at least respect the decisions of the Joint Arab-Islamic Summit, which called for an end to the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and urged harnessing efforts to pressure the Israeli enemy to cease its atrocities,” the statement read.
“This includes building alliances with Arab, Islamic, and friendly nations worldwide to urge the International Swimming Federation to prohibit Israel from participating in an international championship while the genocide continues in Gaza. Instead of removing obstacles for Israel, it would be more fitting to deny it the opportunity to exploit a sporting event held on Arab soil to whitewash its ongoing crimes over the past 75 years.”
“While the Israeli enemy continues its genocidal war against our besieged Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, disregarding the decisions of the International Court of Justice, and as the voices of those with conscience calling for the expulsion of the enemy from all international forums, including sports arenas, grow louder, allowing an Israeli delegation by a sister Arab state is considered a step beyond normalisation,” the statement read.
“Now, in the time of genocide, the sports sector – along with other essentials of life – in the Gaza Strip is facing the most horrific violations and massacres,” it said.
Israel’s attacks in Gaza have led to the destruction of stadiums and the loss of Palestinian athletes’ lives, eradicating every facet of sporting life in the region.
Since October 7, Israel has killed over 88 athletes from various Palestinian teams, including 67 footballers.
Israel has also destroyed nine sports facilities, including five in Gaza and four in the West Bank and five in Gaza. This also includes the iconic Al-Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza, which was built in 1938 and is one of the oldest in the entirety of Palestine. Instead, Israel transformed it into a detention centre, where it humiliated and abused dozens of Palestinians.
Palestinian footballers struggle to find locations to play matches due to the destruction of facilities across Palestinian lands by Israeli forces. Restrictions and checkpoints also mean it is difficult for players to gather and train.
In March 2023, Israel attacked some 2,000 Palestinians during a football game. Footage that circulated online showed Palestinian players and fans being tear-gassed, with many cases of suffocation being reported.
“This ranges from targeting and killing Palestinian athletes, or injuring them, to the conversion of football fields, once filled with cheers, enthusiasm, and sportsmanship, into detention camps for investigation and torture, ultimately leading to their demolition and destruction,” the PACBI statement read.
Whilst it took four days for FIFA to ban Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Palestinians who have been witnessing years of occupation have yet to witness a similar move against Israel.
For years, rights groups and the BDS movement called on football associations and the international community to terminate Israel’s participation in sporting events.
Flagrant human rights abuses committed by Israel include their attempts to isolate Palestinians from being involved in global tournaments. In 2019, Israel decided to cancel the FIFA Palestine Cup by denying Gaza’s players travel permits.
Israel’s restrictions on the movement of Palestinians are highly repressive, with at least 700 obstacles placed around the West Bank and up to 140 checkpoints.
“Allowing Israeli participation in these championships, aside from being a dangerous normalisation, is complicity in whitewashing Israel’s image stained with the blood of tens of thousands of our people. It will further fuel public anger and rejection of any attempt to drag them into normalising the presence of perpetrators of genocide against our people on their own land,” PACBI said.