World Jewish Congress Calls for Ban of Iran at Olympics

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is calling for a ban on all Iranian athletes from taking part in the Olympics and other major sporting events, until the country’s top competitors stop boycotting events in which Israeli athletes are competing.

“It is high time that a strong signal is sent to Iran that unless this long-standing boycott is lifted, Iranian athletes will not be allowed to enter major international events such as next year’s Olympic Games in London,” said Ronald Lauder, the head of the WJC in a statement.

“This kind of bigotry can and must be overcome, and Tehran must give clear undertakings that Iranian athletes do not shun their Israeli counterparts at sporting events. [It is] a clear breach of the spirit and the letter of the statutes of international sporting bodies.”

Lauder called Iran’s repeated attempts to politicize sporting events “disgraceful” and added that the behaviour shown by Iranian athletes was “unsportsmanlike and smacks of anti-Semitism.”

Earlier this week, Iranian swimmer, Mohammed Aliezaei pulled out of a championship swimming race in Shanghai, in which Israeli, Gal Nevo was also competing. Aliezaei cited that he suddenly felt too tired to participate. In 2008, Aliezaei withdrew from an Olympic race against an Israeli, claiming that he was ill.

On Wednesday, the United Kingdom foreign office condemned the Iranian stance toward Israeli athletes, feeling that it has tarnished the spirit of the Olympics.

“The Iranians care as much about the spirit and point of the Olympic games as they do about nuclear non-proliferation and human rights,” a spokesperson for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office told the Jerusalem Post.

Last year, an Iranian athlete was banned from competing for his nation after taking part in a match against an Israeli in the World Masters Weightlifting Championship. Following the match, which the Israeli won, the Iranian refused to shake his hand. The snub was not good enough to escape punishment from his country.

The chairman of the National Olympic Committee in Iran has said that athletes are expected to follow the government policy against the “Zionist regime” and should “boycott all competitions in which Israeli athletes take part.”

The International Olympic Committee has criticized this stance, stating that “there can be no place for discrimination at the Olympic Games.”

“Refusing to participate in an Olympic event because of a fellow athlete or team’s religion or nationality, would not only be unsporting behavior but a serious breach of the principles of the Olympic Charter, which clearly states that ‘any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics and gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.’”

FINA, the world swimming organization, has said that it is studying the latest incident involving the Iranian boycott.

“If this is the case there’s no point in [Iran] coming to the world championships. We don't need these politics in our sport,” said FINA’s executive director, Cornel Marculescu.