Monday, September 12, 2016

All This Progress, Yet So Much Still Remains

I read about a very disturbing story from the Paralympics today.  The women's goalball team from Algeria finally arrived in Rio after multiple delays, flight cancellations and missed connections.  As a result, the Algerians have had to forfeit their first two scheduled games...one of which happened to be against Israel.

It's the missed game against Israel that's raising red flags.  More than a few people think that the Algerians arrived late on purpose, just so they wouldn't have to face Israel.  I sure hope that's not the case.  Because I sure want to believe that they actually did have to deal with nightmare travel rather than avoiding the Israel matchup.

The IPC is obviously not happy about this situation, and they're looking into it.  But, you can tell how skeptical they are of the Algerians' account.  Craig Spence, the IPC's communications director, noted that it doesn't take six days to get to Rio (which is the second-largest city in the largest country in South America).  He also pointed out the fact that there are plenty of other nations that gladly would've taken Algeria's place in the tournament.  However, if the IPC were to take the step of disqualifying Algeria, it would likely be challenged in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (that seems unlikely to happen anyway, seeing as Algeria has left itself with virtually no chance of advancing to the medal round, rendering a DQ unnecessary).

Sadly, this wouldn't be the first time that an Islamic country deliberately stayed away from a meeting with Israel, and it probably wouldn't be the last either.  Which, especially in this day and age, is downright unacceptable.  Sports are supposed to bring people together.  Not drive them further apart.

Now, I'm nowhere near well-versed enough to delve into the very complex and tense political situation in the Middle East.  But I can think of plenty of examples where an athlete from an Islamic nation refused to take on an Israeli opponent.  A wrestler from Iran went all the way to London for the last Olympics and didn't even compete because he drew an Israeli in the first round.  I can even recall a situation in swimming, I think it was a meet in Qatar, where they didn't even put the Israeli flag on the graphic showing which lane each swimmer was in.  It was just a blank white box.  There was also a women's tennis tournament that tried to deny entry to Israel's Shahar Peer a few years ago before the WTA stepped in and told them that if they didn't accept her, there would be no tournament altogether.

Middle Eastern politics are obviously incredibly complicated.  The basic gist of it is that many Islamic nations don't recognize Israel as a nation (or even ackowledge Israel's right to exist).  Algeria, while in Africa, is still an Islamic country that's close to the Middle East and shares many of the same ideologies.  Algeria and Israel have no diplomatic relations, and you can't even enter Algeria with an Israeli passport (or even a visa from Israel).

Whether it's for religious or political reasons (or a combination of the two), I don't know, but the relations between Israel and its Middle Eastern neighbors has been this way for quite some time.  That's why Israel, despite being located in Asia geographically, has been considered a member of Europe when it comes to international sports since the early '90s (they were actually kicked out of the Asian Games in 1981 due to pressure from the Arab nations).

If an athlete (or national team) opts not to take on an opponent from Israel, that's their choice.  And if there are consequences involved, so be it.  That's actually considered the noble and honorable thing in some countries that don't recognize Israel, and it's often rewarded when they get back home.

But it would be such a bigger statement if they chose to use sports as a way of building bridges.  Like when those shooters from Russia and Georgia embraced during the London Games, despite the fact their two countries had just gone to war with each other.  Or when the Koreas marched in together at the Sydney Games.

Those moments spoke volumes.  Much more than hearing the same old story one more time.  The one that brings the tensions between Islamic nations and Israel back to the surface.  Again.

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