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We have the right to ponder why the action against Russia was undertaken with such haste whilst the International Olympic Committee are reluctant to act upon the anti-Palestinian entity, aka Israel.
by HASSEN LORGAT
ON Friday, July 26, the world will witness the participation of the state of Israel’s athletes at the Olympic Games. Athletes from a country that is perpetrating a genocide will jump and run and be present alongside the sporting nations of the world.
Russian and Belarusian athletes, at the same time, will not be able to hold their heads high. While they will be present they will not compete under the flag of their nation. I hold no brief for the latter countries but, in this essay, I will use them as an example to explain the double standards at play in the Olympic movement.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus will officially be there as neutral contestants while their counterparts from Israel – a regime considered as engaging in a genocide – will walk proudly under their flag and anthem. It has been confirmed that at least 30 of the Israeli athletes are known to be members of the Israeli occupying army, navy, and or air force.
As a South African, the duplicity of Western powers galls me. The acquiescence of the world community is a tragic betrayal of the values of the Olympic Charter, which is seemingly up for sale.
As South Africans, we know what collective action did for us, but we have to work harder to ensure that those who enable and perpetrate genocide and ethnic cleansing are not to be washed clean by sports. This means putting more pressure on our own governments as sportswashing and the complicity of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) relegates this body to just another mafia outfit beholden to the Western powers. The attitudes and positioning of Western governments and world sporting and cultural bodies reminds me of a statement accredited to US President Franklin D Roosevelt who supposedly remarked, in reference to the US ally and Nicaraguan dictator, General Anastasio Somoza García: ‘Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch’.
International organisations in whose service?
Why was the IOC so quick and good to act on Russia? Or is it the case that the IOC, like the International Criminal Court (ICC) and others, was not really set up for equal and dignified participation and justice for the formerly colonised countries? Or were they set up as mere instruments for the continued marginalisation and their continued subjugation?
When we hear the comments of the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, on CNN on the role of the court, we can confirm the latter perspective. Khan was talking about a senior official telling him that the ICC was ‘built for Africa and for thugs like Putin’, and not for the West and its allies. But I must not prejudge the issue and give the ICC a chance to explain themselves regarding Russia.
The IOC describes itself as an non-governmental, international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. This makes it more astounding when compared to such high and powerful institutions of the United Nations system, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as well as other multilateral institutions of world governance.
It is worth reporting that the speed of the decision to suspend Russia itself warrants an Olympic gold medal. The IOC ruled in just four days that Russia is a bad boy (although they were slow, lagging behind their media and dominant national public sentiments). In the case of South Africa, it took the IOC over two decades and the threats by a united Africa and other countries that forced it to disinvite South Africa to the 1964 Summer Olympics and eventually expel the racist country in 1970. After the formation of the BDS on July 9, 2005 (coinciding with the first anniversary of persuasive opinion of the ICJ in the matter where the West Bank apartheid wall was declared a violation of international law) the push to isolate Israel culturally and politically gained momentum.
Russia before the IOC dock
The story begins when the Russian Federation launched its ‘special military operation’ by land, air, and sea on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. There had been tensions between the two countries for some time and some of it evolved around demands of Russian-speaking peoples’ rights and the intention of Ukraine to join NATO.
The IOC told the international community that ‘the unilateral decision taken by the Russian Olympic Committee on October 5, 2023 to include, as its members, the regional sports organisations which are under the authority of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine (namely Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia) constitutes a breach of the Olympic Charter because it violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in accordance with the Olympic Charter’.
This meant that all benefits for belonging to the club were gone for Russia and its athletes, as per their recommendation of March 28, 2023. It followed that the IOC reaffirmed the view that Russia and Belarus cannot convene events in their countries (since February 2022, when the war began). The athletes from these countries could participate as ‘Neutrals’ or as an ‘Individual Neutral Athletes’.
This definition or status granted permission to the athletes from those nations to participate for the first time in the 2022 Winter Olympics and, as we know, the Paris Summer Games. It also meant that they could not use their country flag, colours or anthems. Athletes were also vetted to ensure that they did not support (actively) the Russian state or its intelligence services. Like pariahs, Russian or Belarusian state officials were barred from the Games.
As the dead bodies on both sides piled up, there seemed little appetite by the IOC to push for peace but it rather re-opened avenues to continue or begin a new Cold War.
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The duplicity and hypocrisy when compared to how others have been treated will become obvious as I turn to how the IOC failed to cross the justice hurdle when it comes to Palestine.
The case for Palestine and the expulsion of the Zionist state
Killing Palestinians is not just a national pastime, but seems to be a national sport in Israel. The IDF occupying soldiers kill and maim with impunity. The precision of sniper attacks cried out for attention from us all even when a sniper took out Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akhleh (who would have reported on Gaza, but she and over 162 journalists, mostly Palestinians, have been killed for doing their work!).
Long before October 7, various reports and sources – including the Palestinian Ministry of Youth and Sports, the United Nations, and human rights organisations – reported that more than 80 sports facilities have been destroyed or damaged in Gaza since 2008.
After October 7, 2023, Zionist leaders began vilifying the people of Gaza. The labelling of Gazans as human animals and the calls for the total annihilation of Gazans seems not to be enough to suspend Israeli athletes. The marches and the calls for the expulsion of Israel from the IOC and the football red card campaign that calls FIFA to kick out Israel from world football have not yet yielded success for campaigners.
Israel violated the Olympic truce
What is obvious is that the IOC chief, Thomas Bach, is out of tune with the global masses and has backed Israel to the hilt. The Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) on July 22, 2024 released a statement from Paris where they reiterated their call that Israeli athletes be banned from the Olympics because of the war on Gaza. They used similar language Bach et al used in the Russia matter: they asked the IOC to ban Israel because they were violating the Olympic truce. The idea of the Olympic truce has its roots in ancient Greece and was revived in 1992 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It calls upon all nations to observe the truce during the modern Games.
The POC further told the IOC that ‘that Palestinian athletes, particularly those in Gaza, are denied safe passage and have suffered significantly due to ongoing conflict’. Importantly, they point out that ‘approximately 400 Palestinian athletes have been killed, and the destruction of sports facilities exacerbates the plight of athletes who are already under severe restrictions’.
These arguments are not new but were reiterated and were contained in earlier media releases of the POC detailing the tragic loss of life, including those of Palestinian athletes and children, due to Israeli aggression, as well as the destruction of sports facilities and the use of sports venues for non-sporting purposes.
In addition, they point out the numerous instances where military actions have resulted in significant suffering within the Palestinian sports community, including:
- the tragic death of Palestine’s first Olympian due to a lack of medical supplies, and
- the destruction of sports infrastructure in Gaza, encompassing 57 facilities.
Importantly, the POC pointed out that Israeli sports community members were actively engaged in military operations and the promotion of divisive activities in illegally annexed territories.
As the POC highlighted, these actions were violations of the Olympic Charter’s principles of non-discrimination and respect for human dignity, threatening the integrity of the Olympic Games. They also called on the IOC to take a firm stand against human rights violations as they did in the case of South Africa, Rhodesia and Afghanistan. What was required was active and appropriate measures against those responsible for these transgressions.
According to Secretary General of the Palestinian Sports Media Association (PSMA), Mustafa Siyam, 90 percent of the sports facilities in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed and vandalised since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, stressing the need to take punitive steps against Israel.
These facts are not the sum total of the devastation of Gaza and Palestinian lands, as some groupings have asserted. The destruction of these facilities is not only undermining the right to play and to recreation and fulfilment of the Palestinians’ full potential as human beings, but it was and is fundamentally a loss of national identity and community well-being and a sense of living together with joy and conviviality.
Stadiums have been turned from places of joy and community well-being into places of torture, imprisonment, and executions. The degradation and the indignity, the humiliation of Palestinians itself is a form of torture which was evident to all at Gaza’s Yarmouk Stadium, where many ordinary Palestinians were forced to strip off all their clothes (minus underwear) and to be out in public. The killing of athletes, and the destruction of their homes and their sports facilities is part of the regime’s goal to kill the spirit of Palestinian resistance and sense of self.
Territorial annexation
The other argument relied upon by the IOC to suspend Russia was its violation of territory. On July18, a few days before Netanyahu’s visit to the USA to harness and milk his bi-partisan support, the Israeli Knesset voted overwhelmingly against Palestinian statehood. The motion was backed by some Knesset members from Benny Gantz’s party, thereby killing even the remotest commitment to a two-state. It was the same day that the POC warned of the grave humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza (quoted above).
On July 19, 2024 the ICJ ruled that the 2020 referral from the United Nations General Assembly makes it persuasive to the majority of the world’s countries. It declared many of the actions of the Israeli regime unlawful, which the whole world must stop. In brief, the ICJ ruled that:
- Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law and violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Zionists were ordered to cease all settlement activities, evacuate settlers, and return the land to Palestinian control.
- Reparations will have to be paid for Palestinians (all natural and legal persons in the OPT, Occupied Palestinian Territories) who have endured occupation since 1967.
- Despite withdrawing its forces and settlers from Gaza in 2005, Israel maintained colonial and occupational power of Gaza, controlling its airspace, shared border, and coastline. The Zionist blockade was or is considered occupation.
- Settler violence be condemned and Israel’s failure to prevent and stop settler violence against Palestinians further entrenches the occupation and violates international humanitarian law. It must be stopped, the court ruled.
What has been the response? From the international football federation (FIFA), we find only more of the sports of ducking and diving, whilst the IOC does not sit on the fence – it is clearly on and in the camp of Israel. The IOC has only to look at this brief insight into one of the sporting codes of the Olympic movement: football. The feature ‘Dead bodies and rubble: the lost generation of Gaza’s footballers’ emotively details the devastating consequences of the conflict on Gaza’s youth, sports and wider Palestine community. If Israelis are present in many sporting codes like football whilst Palestinians are absent, bear these basic facts in mind:
- Over 150 sports fields have been destroyed in Gaza;
- Many football stadiums have been reduced to rubble;
- The Gaza Strip’s only Olympic-sized swimming pool was destroyed;
- The territory’s only rugby pitch was destroyed; and
- Several sports clubs and training facilities have been destroyed.
What is left for us to do is to keep on doing what we are doing. We must do more to convince the many nations, in particular on the African continent, that the fight for a reformed IOC, justice in Palestine and sanctions and boycotts of Israel are necessary to bring about the beginnings of life for Palestinians in the Gaza… whilst not turning a blind eye to the low intensity ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Palestine.,
Conclusion
I, alongside the world’s citizens, demand a ceasefire – not a truce – as Palestinians in Gaza (and the West Bank) are dying every day. The numbers of Palestinians believed to be killed is at a minimum 39 000, which cumulatively could be over 182 000 according to Lancet.
We have the right to ponder why the action against Russia was undertaken with such haste whilst these bodies are reluctant to act upon the anti-Palestinian entity, aka Israel. This has largely to do with reasons and links (economic, political and strategic, military, etc.) with the West or the Global North. Those interests clearly trump human rights considerations. If the ideals of sports are peace and solidarity then it must start with accountability and the need to bring to justice the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity.
For me, I sadly have to admit the Olympic ideals I once believed in are dead at the altar of the politics of greed and money. Corporations rule! Money always follows the powerful.
It is time for us to organise mass participatory sports and hikes for fun, as they did in the early 19th and 20th centuries. We have to rediscover how to rebuild communities and solidarities without the intrusion of corporate funds. We can start but have to do more to critique the Olympic movement as we cross the floor away from competitive monied sport.
- Hassen Lorgat has worked in trade union movement, civic associations, and anti-apartheid sports movement led by the South African Council on Sports (SACOS) as well as NGOs for the past while. He is active in many solidarity movements and is currently the manager of Policy and Advocacy for the Bench Marks Foundation.
