Israel, trying to compete despite hostile environment
Israel faces these Games under pressure due to the conflict. The delegation highlights the hostility that its athletes are receiving from numerous fans, the harassment they are experiencing online and the impact they are suffering due to the events at home.
For Yael Arad, President of the Israeli Olympic Committee, the political battle has also reached Paris. It is difficult to focus on sport under these circumstances, he says, especially when athletes suffer death threats, see their personal lives leaked on social media, or are subjected to heckling.
It is a setback that has not prevented Israel’s 88-member team from winning their first medals at the Olympics thanks to judoists Peter Paltchik and Inbar Lanir, and they have a good chance of continuing to add to their tally in the coming days.
Psychological reinforcement is one of the resources used by the Israelis to better manage the competition. “We prepare our athletes for any kind of provocation,” explained Arad, “The main message we have given them is that we are here to compete, to show the national spirit. However, this kind of support does not always work when the pressure against it is so high.
Israel’s government has accused Iranian-backed groups of orchestrating a sophisticated campaign of online harassment and phishing attacks. “It’s been very tough. You know we are a nation in sorrow, in grief since October 7,” Arad added, referring to Hamas terror attacks against Israel that left 1,170 dead, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
A recent rocket attack by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah also claimed the lives of 12 children playing football in the annexed Golan Heights, which has further affected the team. “I am very pleased that our athletes can take the grief, pain and problems and convey hope and inspiration at home,” Arad said.
The ongoing conflict has caused controversy at the Paris event. Even before the sporting events began, the Palestinian Olympic Committee demanded that Israel be excluded for violating the notion of a truce that surrounds every Olympics and for killing up to 400 Palestinian athletes. According to an estimate by the Hamas-run health ministry, nearly 40,000 people have died in the 10-month Israeli assault on Gaza, while the territory faces severe food shortages and malnutrition due to Israel’s blockade.
Arad called the boycott call by his Palestinian counterpart, Jibril Rajoub, a “disgrace”. “I think it is a disgrace that instead of concentrating on sport, they bring politics onto the playing field,” he said. In the same vein, he added that Rajoub is “a convicted terrorist” who has spent 17 years in prison for attacking Israeli soldiers.
Arad also defended Israeli judoka Paltchik, his country’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony, who faced criticism from Rajoub and other pro-Palestinian activists for a post he made on social media last October. Paltchik posted an image of a bombing, launching a message equating Hamas with ISIS. “It’s not being against a country or a people, it’s being against a terrorist organisation,” Arad said in defence of the athlete.
Security around the Israeli team has been exceptionally tight, with elite French police guarding the athletes around the clock and accompanying them every time they leave the Olympic village. Arad, a former judoka who won Israel’s first-ever Olympic medal, said Israeli competitors are used to being protected since the 1972 Games in Munich, when the Palestinian militant group Black September attacked and killed Israeli athletes in the Athletes’ Village. “We have confidence in the security of Paris. And my role, along with that of my team, is to give these athletes the possibility to concentrate solely on sport,” he concluded.