OPINION - Double standards against Russian and Israeli athletes: Clouds hang over the IOC

By Jules Boykoff

- The author is an American academic, author, and former professional footballer.

ISTANBUL (AA) - When Palestinian Olympic soccer coach Hani al-Masdar was killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza last January, one might have thought that the International Olympic Committee (OIC) would have sprung into action. After all, the Palestine Olympic Committee [1] has been officially recognized by the IOC for decades. But recognition did not translate into sympathy, despite the IOC’s stated commitment [2] “to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity” and “respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”

- IOC's double standard

The IOC’s silence illuminated a double standard. After all, when Russia invaded Ukraine two years earlier, the group was quick to respond, condemning [3] Russia for its bellicosity. “Because war is the antithesis of the Olympic ideal,” said [4] one IOC vice president, noting: “We condemn the acts of the Russian Federation. They have lost their right to membership of the international Olympic community.” Russian athletes at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will compete as “individual neutral athletes” [5] who must meet “strict eligibility conditions.” [6] They’ll participate without the Russian flag or anthem.

But when asked about whether Israel would be allowed to participate in Paris, IOC President Thomas Bach was unequivocal: [7] “No, there is no question about this.” The 87 Israeli Olympians [8] who travel to France will participate under Israel’s flag. This is despite the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces have now killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, with the British medical journal The Lancet calculating [9] that the actual death toll is closer to 186,000 when one considers indirect deaths and the many thousands who are buried under the rubble. This amounts to almost 8% of Gaza’s entire population. To say that Israel’s response to Hamas’s horrific attack on Oct. 7 has been disproportionate is to make a massive understatement. Human Rights Watch co-founder Aryeh Neier has called it genocide. [10]

To state the obvious, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s decimation of Gaza are not the exact same situation. History simply doesn’t gift us with geopolitical identical twins. However, analyzing the IOC’s stated justification for forcing Russian athletes to participate in Paris as “individual neutral athletes,” shows that a similar standard could also apply to Israel.

In banning the Russian Olympic Committee and using the “individual neutral athlete” standard, the IOC pointed to two key factors: (1) Russia desecrated the Olympic Truce—a symbolic resolution passed by the United Nations encouraging member states to shun war during the interval that brackets the Games—when it invaded Ukraine during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics period, and (2) Russia violated the Olympic Charter when its military seized [11] territory in Ukraine containing “regional sports organizations which are under the authority of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine” that were then taken over by the Russian Olympic Committee.

- Palestinian National Olympic Committee's territorial integrity is violated

Since Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza have not yet taken place while the Olympic Truce is in effect, that factor is moot. However, Israel has certainly violated the territorial integrity of Palestine. Every football pitch in Gaza is either destroyed or damaged. [12] As journalist Karim Zidan noted, Israel transformed [13] Gaza’s storied Yarmouk Stadium into an internment camp where Palestinians were detained and interrogated. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has proposed [14] going even further: assuming indefinite military control over Gaza. All this plainly “violates the territorial integrity” [15] of the Palestinian National Olympic Committee.

And yet, the IOC has cowered behind the flimsy scrim of being “politically neutral,” [16] in the words of the IOC’s president. This stance ignores the grim reality that choosing neutrality often means implicitly siding with the aggressor, assuaging the powerful, and abandoning everyone else.

The IOC’s approach to Israel, when compared to Russia clearly ripples with hypocrisy. But as Numan Kurtulmus, the Turkish parliament speaker, told [17] Washington Post journalist Ishaan Tharoor, it is also “a kind of racism because if you don’t accept Palestinian victims as equal to the Ukrainian victims, it means you want to create a kind of hierarchy within humanity.” Marjane Satrapi, a renowned French-Iranian writer who said she would boycott the Olympics if the far-right National Rally came to power, added: [18] “How can you be racist in 2024? This is such archaic thinking.” Barring a volte-face by the IOC, such “hierarchy” and “archaic thinking” will be on full display at the Paris Games.

[1] https://olympics.com/ioc/palestine

[2] https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf

[3] https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-strongly-condemns-the-breach-of-the-olympic-truce

[4] https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1122576/bach-coates-russia-belarus-stance

[5] https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ain-eligibility-review-panel-established-by-ioc-eb-paris-games-time-protocol-elements-agreed-on

[6] https://olympics.com/ioc/paris-2024-individual-neutral-athletes

[7] https://apnews.com/article/paris-olympics-ioc-bach-israel-russia-8b6005213cb0e680bf533c0454ece216

[8] https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/07/09/israel-doubles-security-budget-for-2024-paris-olympic/

[9] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext

[10] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0j1rk0c

[11] https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-executive-board-suspends-russian-olympic-committee-with-immediate-effect

[12] https://www.sportspolitika.news/p/gaza-football-stadiums-israel-war

[13] https://www.sportspolitika.news/p/i-will-never-forgive-them-gaza-grieves?r=2r4z7

[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/world/middleeast/netanyahu-postwar-plan-gaza-palestinians-reject.html

[15] https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-executive-board-suspends-russian-olympic-committee-with-immediate-effect

[16] https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/ioc-games-cannot-be-referees-political-disputes-bach-2023-03-22/

[17] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/07/10/nato-summit-ukraine-gaza/

[18] https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/060724/marjane-satrapi-nous-sommes-tous-chez-nous-en-france

* Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu