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Iran banned a weightlifter for life after he took a photo with an Israeli opponent
(JTA) — Iran’s weightlifting federation banned one of its athletes for life after he shook hands and posed for a photo with an Israeli athlete at an international competition in Poland.
Mostafa Rajaei finished second in his category at the 2023 World Master Weightlifting Championships on Saturday. Rajaei, standing on the podium wrapped in an Iranian flag, shook hands and took a picture with Israeli Maksim Svirsky, who finished third.
“The weightlifting federation bans athlete Mostafa Rajaei for life from entering all sports facilities in the country and dismisses the head of the delegation for the competition, Hamid Salehinia,” Iran’s weightlifting federation said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse.
Iran, whose leaders regularly call for violence against Israel, forbids its athletes from competing against Israelis, including at the Olympics. Iranian athletes have previously forfeited or cited medical complications in efforts to avoid facing against Israeli athletes.
Iranian weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei has been banned for life by the mullah terror entity . Why? Because he shook hands with Israeli weightlifter Maksim Svirsky at sports competition in Poland. pic.twitter.com/mQmFRbunrg
— Avi Kaner ابراهيم אבי (@AviKaner) August 30, 2023
“In addition to apologising to the leader of the revolution, the families of martyrs and all the people of Iran, I promise we will certainly never witness incidents like this in the weightlifting family,” federation head Sajad Anoushiravani said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera.
In 2019, the International Judo Federation banned Iran from all international competitions in the sport over its policy toward Israeli athletes. But after an appeal, the ban was reduced to four years and is set to expire next month.
The punishment stemmed from the treatment of Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei, who said he was ordered to throw matches to avoid facing Israeli Sagi Muki at the World Judo Championships in 2019. Muki ultimately won the tournament, and Mollaei stopped competing for Iran. (Mollaei visited Israel in 2021 for a judo competition, where he competed under the Mongolian flag.)
In 2018, the head of Iran’s wrestling federation resigned over the country’s policy of forcing its athletes to forfeit matches against Israeli opponents. In 2010, the head of foreign relations for the Iran’s soccer federation resigned after his office accidentally included Israel in its New Year’s greeting cards.
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The post Iran banned a weightlifter for life after he took a photo with an Israeli opponent appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Benjamin Netanyahu was burned in effigy on the streets of Montreal during a Friday night riot
Justin Trudeau condemned for subsequently attending a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto.
The post Benjamin Netanyahu was burned in effigy on the streets of Montreal during a Friday night riot appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Report: IDF targets Hezbollah chief in Beirut
Illustrative. Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Hadath, Lebanon October 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
JNS.org – A massive explosion in a building in Beirut on Saturday killed 11 people and wounded dozens in what Arab media said was a failed Israeli attempt to kill Hezbollah’s head of operations, Muhammad Haydar.
Israel did not immediately claim responsibility specifically for the explosion early on Saturday in the eight-story building in the Lebanese capital’s Basta neighborhood. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said only that Israel struck an unspecified target in Beirut, the fourth strike in the city in a week.
Basta is situated in the city’s center. The bulk of Israel’s strikes in Beirut have been in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, a Hezbollah stronghold in the city’s south.
Lebanese media reported that at least 63 people were wounded in the strike.
Avihai Edraei, the head of the Arabic-language department of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, posted a tweet on X on Saturday calling on residents of Dahiyeh to evacuate their homes. They are living near Hezbollah installations, he said, against which “the IDF will act in the near future.”
The targets of Saturday’s strikes “were located by Hezbollah in the heart of the civilian population. Prior to the attack, many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians,” the IDF wrote in a statement. A headquarters, a weapons depot, “and additional Hezbollah terror infrastructures” were attacked, the statement said.
According to Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, Israel has killed 2,450 terrorists in Lebanon and Syria. Lebanese health authorities said that 3,365 people have died in strikes by Israel. Those data do not distinguish between terrorists and civilians. On the Israeli side, terrorists have killed 121 people, with 76 of them being soldiers.
The post Report: IDF targets Hezbollah chief in Beirut first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Troubling Details Emerge About Disappearance of Chabad Rabbi, Inaction of UAE Authorities
Zvi Kogan. Photo: LinkedIn via i24 News
i24 News – i24NEWS learned chilling details about the disappearance of Chabad emissary Zvi Kogan, who went missing last week in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Kogan did not show up for scheduled meetings he had during the day. After he failed to make contact, his wife contacted the security officer of the Chabad house, who alerted the local authorities. Information about the incident was also shared with the Israeli authorities.
Kogan disappeared from a location about an hour and a half from Dubai. i24NEWS can report that complaints were made to both the Dubai Police and the Abu Dhabi Police on Thursday, yet no actions were taken by either.
i24NEWS also became privy to the information that although Kogan’s car got a speeding ticket on its way to Oman, in this case too the authorities in the Emirates and Oman did nothing.
i24NEWS can also confirm that there is tremendous anger in Israel at the Emiratis, who did not respond to the suspicious signs and did not act in time. In fact, actions were only taken after the intervention of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
The story has troubling echoes of the abduction by Iranians of German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd; he was kidnapped from Dubai to Iran via Oman and was eventually executed.
The post Troubling Details Emerge About Disappearance of Chabad Rabbi, Inaction of UAE Authorities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.