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2024 olympics
Shot Putter Paralyzed by Israeli Sniper Is Palestine's Lone Paralympian
"I want to raise my country flag here in Paris and to show the people we are still here," said Fadi Deeb. "We're still alive—we have hopes, we have dreams, we have goals."
Aug 12, 2024
Following an Olympic Games that activists said was tainted by the participation Israeli athletes including a flag-bearer who signed bombs bound for Gaza, a shot putter who was disabled by an Israeli sniper and who lost at least 17 relatives to Israel's onslaught is set to be the sole Palestinian competitor at the upcoming Paralympics in Paris.
"I want to raise my country flag here in Paris and to show the people we are still here," 39-year-old Fadi Deeb said during a Monday interview with Democracy Now! ahead of the August 28 Paralympic Opening Ceremony. "We're still alive—we have hopes, we have dreams, we have goals."
"There is no safe place in Gaza... everyone is like a target for the killing machine."
Deeb, who is from Gaza City, was shot in the spine by an Israeli sniper in 2001 during the Second Intifada, or general Palestinian uprising.
"It's a very hard situation to... balance between my sport as an international player and one who is going to compete in the Paralympic Games, and... my family, all of my sisters, my brothers still in Gaza Strip," he explained.
"There is no safe place in Gaza... everyone is like a target for the killing machine," Deeb continued. "So, what is happening now... it's a genocide. It's not a war... I lost my brother on December 7, 2023 and two of my nephews... And for whole of my family members, I lost like more than, like, 17 persons. So, the situation is very hard."
The Palestinian death toll from Israel's 311-day bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza surged toward 40,000 on Monday, according to local and international officials, with at least an additional 103,000 people wounded or missing. Most of those killed have been women and children.
Almost all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, while Israel's total blockade of the coastal enclave has forced the starvation of at least hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Dozens of Gazans—almost all of them children—have died from malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care.
Asked by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman about the "amputation crisis" in Gaza—the charity Save the Children says an average of 10 children a day have lost one or more limbs during the war—Deeb said that it's "a very hard situation, because, as I told before, there's no difference... if you are children or women... everyone is a target."
According to the Palestine Olympic Committee and Palestine Football Association (PFA), at least 400 Palestinian athletes, including nearly 70 children, have been killed by Israeli forces since October as of July 26. Among the dead are Hany Al-Masry, a former player and general manager of the Palestinian Olympic soccer team.
Still, eight Palestinians managed to compete in the Paris Olympics, although they did not win any medals.
The International Olympic Committee has been accused of double standards for banning Russian athletes over their country's invasion of Ukraine but allowing Israeli athletes—including Israel Defense Forces veterans and an Olympic flag-bearer who recently signed bombs to be dropped on Gaza—to compete.
Last week, PFA president Jibril Rajub
called Israel's alleged deliberate targeting of Palestinian athletes a blatant violation of the Olympic Charter.
Despite all this, Deeb said he is hopeful.
"To be a player and to compete in this competition for the Paris 2024... gives me, like, too much responsibility to talk about my country, to show the people about Palestine," he said. "It's not just war. It's not just blood. There is life. There is hopes. There is goals. There is dreams."
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Why Israel Should Be Banned From the Paris Olympics
If the IOC has excluded Russia from the games for actions contrary to the Olympic ethos of peace, then consistency demands scrutiny of all participants.
Apr 09, 2024
An ancient adage states, "To kill is to invite punishment, except when done en masse." Despite the passage of over half a century since the United Nations Charter's inception and the centennial of the National Olympic Committee's founding in 1894 in Paris, the assertion that sports remain apolitical continues to present challenges.
In a notable September 2023 action, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) initiated legal proceedings against Russia, citing a violation of international peace, and subsequently barred its participation in the Olympic Games. This move echoed a prior decision that also excluded Russia's football team from the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
Eligibility for Olympic participation hinges on the IOC's endorsement, which can be revoked at any discretion, often without justification. This authority was notably exercised during the war in Ukraine, where the eastern regions' occupation led to the seizure of Ukraine's National Olympic Committee offices. Concurrently, concerns arose over the politicization of the Olympics by nations like Russia, where athletic triumphs have been appropriated to fuel expansionist agendas and bolster nationalistic fervor. The athletes' intent notwithstanding, their achievements may inadvertently endorse these ideologies. This was exemplified when Russia, following its annexation of Crimea, invested an unprecedented $51 billion in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics—equivalent to the cumulative cost of all prior Winter Games—while the IOC maintained a conspicuous silence on both the annexation and calls for an Olympic boycott.
Given the IOC's stance that violators of international peace should not partake in global events like the Olympics, it begs the question: Why is Israel not subject to similar prohibitions? Historically, even in the absence of IOC intervention, host nations have exercised their right to impose sanctions on countries compromising global peace, often supported by international allies and civil society movements. The expectation for the IOC, and other nations, to prevent Israeli participation is rooted in historical actions.
Questions are being raised about the IOC's consistency in upholding its standards.
For example, Belgium, hosting the 1920 Olympics, excluded its geopolitical adversaries, including Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey, with Germany’s exclusion extending until 1928. Similarly, the 1928 London Olympics did not extend invitations to Japan and Germany. These decisions were autonomously made by the host countries. However, the IOC itself has taken decisive action, such as barring South Africa from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and maintaining this exclusion through the 1968 Mexico City games until the apartheid regime's end in 1992. The IOC invoked a comparable rationale to exclude Afghan athletes during Taliban rule in 2000.
Recent reports suggest that Israel intends to send a substantial delegation to the upcoming Olympic Games. Amid this, there is a growing discourse on the IOC's impartiality and the potential for international advocacy to influence its policies. Questions are being raised about the IOC's consistency in upholding its standards, particularly in light of allegations regarding the repurposing of Gaza's Elimuk Stadium. Reports of the stadium's conversion into a detention and interrogation center have sparked calls for accountability and action. Furthermore, the reported destruction of the Gaza Olympic Committee's office and the killing of Palestinian athletes have intensified debates over Israel's participation in the Paris Olympics. In light of these events, organizations like Amnesty International have highlighted the urgency of investigating alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
The crux of the debate lies in the absence of steadfast principles for upholding peace and countering aggression and occupation. The notion that nations breaching the sovereignty of others should be excluded from the Olympics and global sporting events, as a reflection of the "community of nations," remains contentious. While some argue that, based on this principle, the United States might have faced Olympic bans for its involvement in the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars, the reality is that the idea of "sports transcending politics" and the exclusion of "the wrong country" from the Olympics is more aspirational than actualized. Moreover, it's noteworthy that the IOC has even penalized athletes for expressing moral and humanitarian support for Palestinians, indicating a complex interplay between sports, politics, and ethics.
If the IOC has excluded Russia from the games for actions contrary to the Olympic ethos of peace, then consistency demands scrutiny of all participants. It raises the question of whether it is appropriate for any nation, if condemned by the International Court of Justice for grave violations, to compete without addressing its international obligations
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Campaign Urges IOC to Ban Israel From Paris Olympics Over Gaza Genocide
"To allow Israel, in the midst of a genocide, to participate in the upcoming Olympic Games would signal to the international community that the IOC approves of the gravest of war crimes."
Jan 18, 2024
As the executive board of the International Olympic Committee met Thursday in Gangneung, South Korea, more than 300 Palestinian sports clubs and civil society groups launched a campaign to ban Israel from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Athletic clubs participating in the #BanIsrael campaign—organized by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel—include men's and women's soccer, basketball, and volleyball teams, some of whose members have been killed during or even before Israel's current war on Gaza.
Participants are urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to "apply its principles and fulfill its obligations by banning Israel from the next Olympic Games to be held in Paris in July 2024, until it ends its grave violations of international law, particularly its system of apartheid and its ongoing genocide in Gaza."
According to Palestinian and United Nations officials, more than 24,600 Palestinians have been killed—most of them women, children, and elders—during Israel's 104-day Gaza assault in response to the Hamas-led attacks of October 7. Nearly 62,000 others have been wounded, and over 7,000 Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble.
"There is no place in the Olympics for genocide perpetrators."
A recent report published by the Palestine Football Association stated that at least 85 Palestinian athletes, including 55 soccer players, have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets. Those figures include 55 youth.
Among the dead are Hany Al-Masry, a former player and general manager of the Palestinian Olympic soccer team.
The campaign noted that Israel has been brought before the International Court of Justice on allegations of genocide in a case led by South Africa and supported by numerous nations, groups, scholars, and artists.
"To allow Israel, in the midst of a genocide, to participate in the upcoming Olympic Games would signal to the international community that the IOC approves of the gravest of war crimes," the campaign asserted.
The campaign compared the IOC's imposition of comprehensive sanctions on Russia and Belarus in response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine with its inaction in the face of Israeli crimes. Russian officials bristle at what they say is the IOC's unequal treatment, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov calling the body's stance "outrageous."
"Once again we see an example of the bias and ineptitude of the International Olympic Committee, which time and again proves its political bent," Lavrov said on social media last year.
In an opinion piece published Thursday in The Guardian, Karim Zidan, who writes about the intersection of sports and politics, contented that "the glaring disparity in the treatment of Israel and Russia by the IOC... sends a troubling message regarding the perceived value of human rights and dignity, particularly in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
"By refraining from applying the same standards to Israel as they did to Russia, these sporting organizations appear to suggest that Palestine, as a member state and participant in major international events, is not deserving of the same level of sympathy, dignity, or the commitment required to uphold their fundamental human rights," Zidan added.
Not only has the IOC treated Israel differently, the campaign said, it has punished teams and athletes who have taken principled stands for Palestine or against Israeli crimes.
Palestinian athletes underscored the intimate cost of Israel's onslaught.
"Israel's attacks on Palestinian sports are personal for us," said Balata Youth Center, a soccer club whose 16-year-old player Said Yousef Mohammad Odeh was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank village of Odala in 2021.
"He is among dozens and dozens of Palestinian athletes killed by Israel, including in its genocidal assault on Gaza," the club continued. "It's time to put an end to Western-dominated sporting bodies' shameful business-as-usual approach with genocidal Israel."
"Creative global campaigns to exclude apartheid South Africa made a significant contribution to dismantling that country's oppressive regime," Balata Youth Center added. "We need to employ the same level of pressure, from the boardrooms to the streets, to force the IOC to end its hypocrisy and ban Israel. We need your support to peacefully disrupt the road to the Paris Games."
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for Palestinian human rights notes "growing calls for Israel to be excluded from international sports."
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition launched by the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 demanding "an immediate suspension of Israel from participation in all international sports until it fully complies with international law and sports regulations."
Hundreds of Irish athletes across various sports are urging an investigation into potential Israeli violations of the Olympic Charter, which states that the "practice of sport is a human right."
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