Politics hogs the Olympic spotlight in the Middle East
Bickering between Israel and Arab nations has marred the first week of the Olympics
By N.P.
THE MIDDLE East, a generally unhealthy place, fares miserably in the Olympics. Of its 21 countries with a combined population of 360-odd million, only five have won any medals in Rio, and only one—Iran—has reaped better than a bronze. Egypt, with a larger population than Britain, has two bronze medals, against the latter’s 15 gold, 16 silver and 7 bronze. But rather than make headlines from their athletics, the region’s sportsmen have retreated to a more familiar field: politics.
The first fracas erupted before Rio’s proceedings even began. Unfamiliar with Levantine intrigue, the Olympic committee put the Israeli and Lebanese teams bound for the opening ceremony on the same bus. But their countries are still at war and frown on fraternisation. And when the Israeli team tried to board, Lebanon’s captain barred access. Later during the games, Egypt’s judo champion, Islam El Shahaby, dropped the mandatory bow and snubbed the outstretched hand of his Israeli counterpart. A female Saudi judoka deftly dodged contact with an Israeli by skipping her first round match. Because of injuries, insisted the Saudi media; because of racism, brayed Israel’s.
Such non-contact sports are a regular Olympic fixture. In 2004, an Iranian judoka scheduled to wrestle an Israeli was disqualified for being overweight. Investigators declared she had not deliberately indulged in binge eating, but Iran’s government rewarded her with $125,000, the same sum it gave its gold-medalists.
Even participants from Jordan and Egypt, countries with peace treaties with Israel, have a hard time juggling the mixed messages from governments and fans alike. Generals in Egypt, Jordan and most recently Saudi Arabia are cosying up to their Israeli counterparts, but their security establishments retain strict laws on contact, including tourism even to Islam’s holy sites under Israel’s control. Fans, too, can be duplicitous. Islamists and Palestinians chide signs of normalisation; those further away long for a release from past shackles. A poll on the Twitter feed of a Sudanese artist living in Qatar claimed 77% of participants supported Arabs playing Israel. “A boycott is silly and makes Arabs look immature,” tweeted a Sudanese academic.
Israeli athletes might cheer the free pass they gain when Arabs refuse to compete against them. That favourite Israeli taunt—that Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity—could be used once again. Mr El Shahaby's snub seems mere tokenism compared to the bullets that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Nonetheless, the Israeli press has strongly criticised his bad sportsmanship. “There is still a long way to go in fighting the years of propaganda against us,” bemoaned the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. Others chided Arabs for anti-semitism. Nazi stereotypes have prevailed, one commentator argued, ever since much of the Arab world’s intelligentsia sided with Germany in the second world war in the hope that it might rid them of their British masters and the project for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Israel’s holier-than-thou protestations, though, risk sounding shrill. Yisrael Hayom, Israel’s leading newspaper and a mouthpiece for Mr Netanyahu, gave copious space to a campaign demanding that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sever ties with Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestine Olympic Committee. A former head of the Palestinian security forces, Mr Rajoub has coordinated closely with Israel in the past. Yet the newspaper called him “a terrorist”.
The Middle East is not unique. Politics and the Olympics have gone hand-in-hand for a century. After the first world war, the IOC banned the losing axis of Germany, Austria and Turkey, and barred Germany and Japan again after the Second World War. America and its allies (including Israel) boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. South Africa too was kept out from 1964 to 1988 on account of its apartheid white-supremacist rule. As Israel builds higher barriers between Jews and Palestinians in areas it occupies, the boycotters find the South Africa analogy particularly apt.
