Big kudos to the World Sailing organisation for standing up for the rights of Israeli athletes to not only compete in an international competition, but have their flag displayed and anthem played exactly like all the other countries of the world. JPost
:
Oman has withdrawn from hosting the 2016 Youth Sailing World Championships which were due to take place in December after refusing to submit written confirmation that it is able to guarantee full and equal participation by all, in accordance with World Sailing’s Regulations.
Israel’s Yoav Omer and Noy Drihan did not have an opportunity to defend their titles at the youth windsurfing World Championships in Langkawi, Malaysia, late last year, with World Sailing blaming Malaysian authorities of forcing Israel’s windsurfers to withdraw from the event. The governing body added that sanctions would be imposed in the future event of a breach of the “no discrimination” regulations at a regatta.
World Sailing then demanded written confirmation from all venues that have already been selected and confirmed for forthcoming World Sailing championships to guarantee they can meet the updated regulations, resulting in Oman’s withdrawal.
We’ve seen examples where international sports competitions are hosted in Muslim or Arab Muslim countries where Israelis are either excluded or our flag and anthem are inexplicably missing or suppressed. We’ve seen Iranian Judoka’s forfeiting matches to avoid touching Israelis.
It’s time to make it official: any nation that can’t guarantee entry to Israelis and full rights for our flag and anthem shouldn’t be considered for hosting international sporting events. Similarly, any nation whose athletes suffer so strongly from Zionist Derangement Syndrome™ that they won’t compete against Israel or Israelis should also be excluded from competitions until they grow up.
The next really huge one is the football in Qatar 2022. They were the ones who suppressed the flag in 2013 but, to their credit, put it back in 2014.
