It was the model of dignity and decorum in a ludicrous situation. When Israeli judoka Tal Flicker won a gold medal last week at the Judo Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, his excitement was diminished by the Emirati host federation. Because of Flicker\u2019s nationality, the UAE refused to play the winner\u2019s national anthem or raise his nation\u2019s flag. Instead, while the gold medal winner stood under a flag of the International Judo Federation and the federation\u2019s theme song played, Flicker had to quietly sing his own private rendition of Hatikvah, the Israeli anthem.<\/p>\n
Similarly, when Israel\u2019s Tohar Butbul beat an Emirati judoka, the defeated competitor turned his back on Butbul\u2019s extended hand, carrying through the tournament\u2019s motif of betraying the values of judo in particular, and sports more generally.<\/p>\n
Israel went on to win five medals in all at the tournament, with the rudeness by Emirati organizers repeated again and again. (The Israeli team was also forced to remove their nation\u2019s flag from their uniforms.) Yet Flicker\u2019s grace, and that of the other winners, was a model that Israelis and Jews worldwide \u2013 indeed, anyone with a smidgen of sportsmanship \u2013 should admire.<\/p>\n
In what was a small consolation, two senior Emirati sports officials later apologized to the head of the Israeli judo delegation for the loser\u2019s refusal to shake Butbul\u2019s hand. But there has been no apology for the larger silliness around the Israelis\u2019 participation in the competition.<\/p>\n
In an ideal world, international sports federations and other bodies would reward behaviour like the UAE\u2019s by preventing them from hosting major events for a specific period and demanding in advance that the most basic tenets of sportsmanship be respected by any country that hopes to host.<\/p>\n
In the bigger picture, the incident demonstrates the absurd treatment Israel receives in the international community more broadly. The latest example, which also happens to involve the UAE, occurred on Monday in Paris at the 39th general conference of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The UAE struck a commemorative medal to mark the renovation of UNESCO\u2019s conference room. The medals feature a portrait of Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE\u2019s finance minister (a keepsake for sure!) and one was left on the desk of every UNESCO member-state except \u2026 the Jewish one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state of Israel has no need for gifts,\u201d said Carmel Shama-Hacohen, Israel\u2019s ambassador to UNESCO, \u201cbut this ugly and uncivilized step, here in the world\u2019s organization for culture and education, which follows the outrageous treatment of our judokas during the tournament in the UAE\u2019s capital, shows how much hatred, incitement and dark mentality surround these people.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so it seems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was the model of dignity and decorum in a ludicrous situation. When Israeli judoka Tal Flicker won a gold medal last week at the Judo Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, his excitement was diminished by the Emirati host federation. Because of Flicker\u2019s nationality, the UAE refused to play the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7533,801,4330,7530,7531,7532,1371],"class_list":["post-26569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-ji","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-antisemitism","tag-israel","tag-judo","tag-tal-flicker","tag-tohar-butbul","tag-unesco"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}