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Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Israel's judo team suffers ongoing harassment in Morocco

Israel's judo team suffers ongoing harassment in Morocco
Israeli delegation arriving for World Masters competition held up at Rabat
airport for more than eight hours, competition's organizers remove Israeli
flag, and local audience waves Palestinian flags and chants 'we will murder
you.'
"We will murder you" and "you're not wanted here, go home" are just some of
the chants which were directed at the members of Israel's judo team over the
weekend, while they competed at the World Masters competition in Rabat,
Morocco.
Oren Aharoni YNET Published: 05.25.15, 23:46 / Israel Culture
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4660900,00.html

The Israeli athletes' problems began even before they got on the plane to
Morocco. Several hours before the Israeli delegation arrived at Ben-Gurion
Airport, the Shin Bet announced that its security guards would not be
joining the trip, and recommended that the team cancel its participation in
the competition.


But Moshe Ponti, chairman of the Israel Judo Association, decided not to
give up on the important competition, which provides a score for next year's
Olympic Games. He turned to Marius Vizer, chairman of the International Judo
Federation, who got the organized committee involved and made sure that the
Moroccan king's security guards would watch over the Israeli delegation.

In the meantime, the delegation was furious to learn that the Israeli flag
and the list of Israeli athletes had been removed from the competition's
official website. This led to another appeal to the International Judo
Federation chairman.

But when the delegation landed in Rabat, it turned out that the nightmare
had just begun: The members of the Israeli delegation were held up at the
airport for more than eight hours, in a large room with no chairs, food or
water. The Moroccan authorities explained that the delegation members had no
visas, but later changed their version and claimed that one of the
passengers had a weapon in his suitcase.

Only after the International Judo Federation chairman threatened to call off
the entire competition, the Israeli delegation members were allowed into the
country, and were escorted to their hotel by the king's security unit.

On the first day of the competition, the Israeli judokas experienced
hostility again, and the Israeli flag was nowhere to be seen. In response, a
representative of the International Judo Federation demanded that all the
flags of the participating countries be removed.

During the matches, the Israeli contestants were subject to the audience's
degrading behavior. Some raised Palestinian flags, others threatened to
"murder" them and some booed every time one of the Israelis went up to
compete.

Despite the ongoing harassment, the Israeli athletes managed to win the
fifth place twice and the seventh place three times.

"What happened in Morocco was a disgrace," said Israeli world champion in
judo, Yarden Gerbi. "As an Israeli, I am ashamed to wait at the airport for
eight hours and I am ashamed to hear my fellow team members getting booed –
all because we are Israelis. We came for the sake of sports, pure sports,
not politics, and this is a disgrace on Morocco and the organizers."

Moshe Ponti concluded, "I am very disappointed – not by the results, but by
the audience's attitude. I am asking myself whether we did the right thing,
coming to this country, and I always reach one conclusion: That I will go to
every Arab country I am allowed to go to. As for the sports aspect, there is
no doubt that we will draw conclusions and fix whatever mistakes we made."

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