As Israeli and Palestinian judoists hit the tatami mats at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, the war raging in their homeland was at the front of their minds.
Two athletes – one from each side – fought and lost to separate opponents.
But once defeated, they gave different messages that highlighted how personal it was for competitors, and how difficult it has been for the organisers to create an Olympic truce after 10 months of conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
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“I think here at the Olympics, we are here to make peace, but if you are making war in our country and want to make peace here, it’s like you have two faces,” Feras Badawi, one of eight Palestinian athletes at the Games, told reporters having just lost his first round match in the under 81 kg category against Tajik Somon Makhmadbekov.
He said he could never compete against Israeli athletes or shake their hands amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza that has seen at least 39,400 Palestinians killed since Israel unleashed its offensive against Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people.
Minutes later, in the women’s under 63 kg category, Israeli judoka Gili Sharir was also contemplating her defeat to reigning French Olympic champion Clarisse Agbegnenou, but like Badawi faced questions about the broader political context.
“We can’t ignore what’s going on, we can use it to our advantage. I believe in Israel, I love Israel and it was an honour for me to fight with the Israeli flag on my chest,” Sharir, one of the 88 Israeli athletes in Paris.
She said that as an Israeli athlete she was used to people not shaking her hand, but wished sport could take precedence over politics.
The exchanges at the Champs de Mars arena came after an Algerian judoka was disqualified from a potential match-up with an Israeli on Monday and were the latest example of how the conflict has cast a shadow behind the scenes at the start of Olympics.
The expectations ahead of the Games were that there could be widespread protests on the margins. At events where Israeli athletes competed the concern was that there could be significant actions displaying anti-Israeli sentiment, but that has been sporadic.
There have been some vitriolic chants at soccer matches and French prosecutors have opened an investigation into death threats against Israeli athletes, a worrying turn of events 52 years after 11 Israelis were killed at the Munich Games in 1972.
Verbal jousts have mostly emanated from the respective officials of both delegations as they seek to defend their corners.
At the opening ceremony, Palestinian athletes wore political symbols on their jackets, drawing a rebuke from Israeli officials, who said they had broken the Olympic charter.
From the outset the Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) sent letters to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Football Federation asking for Israel to be suspended over the war, which it said equated to Russia’s suspension over its assault on Ukraine.
On Tuesday, POC chief Jibril Rajoub, who spent 17 years in Israeli prisons, lambasted what he called the IOC’s double standards for not responding to his letters and ignoring its own charter as he outlined the heavy toll the war had taken on Palestinian athletes.
He accused some Israeli athletes of glorifying the war on social media and in particular targeted Israel’s judoka flagbearer Peter Paltchik over a media post.
“Is he qualified in such a global, international, peaceful, humanitarian event to raise a flag?” Rajoub told reporters. “They should raise a red card to Israel.”
The Israeli embassy in Paris dismissed Rajoub’s accusations calling it a “smear campaign” to “discredit and hurt him using lies and deception”.
At the Israeli Olympic Committee, officials did not mince their words. Speaking to Reuters, Yael Arad described Rajoub as a “convicted terrorist”.
“You know, people can choose who they want to cheer but it’s an outrageous disgrace to use the arena for political or much more for attacks of the Israeli athletes,” she said.
“But we choose to see the good side. We choose to see the Israeli flag which is the biggest and strongest brand of Israel. When we see it we think about prevailing (after) Oct. 7,” the former Olympic judoka said.