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Belgian City Accused of Antisemitism for Banning Israeli Athletes From International Frisbee Tournament
People walk at a square where Israeli flags are displayed, amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 16, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Ricardo Moraes
The Belgian city of Ghent and organizers of an international frisbee tournament are being accused of antisemitism and discrimination after an Israeli delegation of athletes was prohibited from participating in or even being present at the competition that started this week.
A delegation of Israeli boys and girls aged 13 to 17 are in Belgium to compete in the Under-17 European Championship Frisbee Tournament in Ghent that was scheduled to start on Tuesday and run until Aug. 10 at the Blaarmeersen, a sports and recreation park in the city. A total of 33 Israeli athletes traveled to Belgium to compete in the open and mixed divisions of the tournament, which will feature teams from 11 countries.
The city of Ghent had moved all of Israel’s matches in the tournament to the Moerkensheide sports park in the municipal of De Pint, amid security concerns about the presence of Israeli athletes at the Blaarmeersen. However, anti-Israel activists vandalized the Moerkensheide on Monday night, spray-painting buildings in the park with the message “BOYCOTT ISRAHELL NOW!” After Monday night’s vandalism at Moerkensheide, the mayor of De Pint rescinded permission to have the Israeli delegation compete at the sports park.
In a statement posted on the official Instagram account of the Israeli Flying Disc Association, the Israeli delegation said that on the opening day of the tournament, early in the morning and mere hours before the athletes were ready to compete, they were informed that the entire Israeli delegation has been banned from the competition following the vandalism that took place the night before and because of “fear of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.” The Israeli athletes believe the decision was made because of “local antisemitism.”
“It makes no sense that 15-year-old players and players can’t play the sport they love so much because of politics and antisemitism,” they said in a released statement.
The Israel Flying Disc Association said in a separate statement: “We are mad. We are mad because we see this as a political decision and not a security related one. Our security detail repeatedly say that there is no risk in us coming to any of the fields. We are mad because the tournament was so eager to take up a role in preventing a team in participating or spectating the tournament, just because of their nationality, which is discrimination by definition.”
The European Ultimate Federation (EUF) and European Flying Disc Federation (EFDF), both of whom are organizing the tournament, announced on Tuesday that Ghent authorities made the decision to ban the Israeli delegation “given the current local and international unrest, threats and recent incidents.” They added that authorities have concerns “of high risk disturbance of public order, a significant threat and the inability to guarantee safety at the event if all teams were to participate as planned.”
The city of Ghent announced that it “prohibits the participation of the Israeli delegation” and “the presence of the Israeli delegation” in the Under-17 European Championship Frisbee Tournament. The city also said it forbids “any references related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (such as flags, clothing, inscriptions, pamphlets, etc.) during the tournament due to safety risks, aiming to prevent potential escalation.”
All matches on Tuesday, which was supposed to be the first day of the tournament, were postponed until Wednesday at the Blaarmeersen.
The EUF and EFDF said they were “disappointed to have to make this sad announcement” but, nevertheless, they “must respect and follow the instructions given by the authorities and we must ensure that safety for all our participants, players, volunteers, and spectators is our number one priority.”
“EUF and EFDF recognizes this situation is sad, disappointing, and unfortunate, and we know that all players have come to Ghent to focus on playing Ultimate, to make new friends, and to create memories to last a lifetime,” the federations said. “We ask each and every participant, our Ultimate Community and all supporters to respect this decision and to show good Spirit both on and off the field to continue to promote Youth development within our sport.”
The Israel Flying Disc Association criticized tournament organizers, as well as Ghent authorities, for the decision.
“We are sad because we need to spend this morning explaining to 15-year-old boys and girls why the sport they love so much and is a sport that accepts anyone, from any race and origin, is having a competition where one specific nationality is not allowed to participate, and still the competition continues,” the association said. “Moreover, it is absurd that the Ghent police won’t do anything to make sure the event is secured and safe for everyone but will be there to ensure that no Israeli — 15-year-old girls and boys would be able to even get into the event.”
“The event organizers are even preventing us from arriving at the venue to contest the decision. This is exactly the opposite of Ultimate as a sport that communicates disagreements. This is discrimination,” the statement continued.
A municipal decree by Ghent states that in light of the “current precarious situation in the Middle East, in particular the conflict between Israel and Palestine … there is a high risk of disturbance of public order following the presence of an Israeli delegation at a public event” and also a “significant terrorist threat.”
“The presence and participation of the Israeli delegation in this tournament is a threat to public order and safety of the participants involved. For the sake of the aforementioned security problems, it is therefore absolutely necessary for the organizer to remand the Israeli delegation from the tournament,” the decree further stated, while additionally noting that “people and organizations” oppose Israel’s participation in the tournament because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Ghent ruled that because of the open nature of the Blaarmeersen and its vastness, “safety cannot be guaranteed” at the park and “the areas can neither be shielded nor secured.”
“In addition, there is no security from the organization on site, nor are security measures currently being provided,” the city decree stated. It also mentioned other concerns that the city has, like the fact that the tournament is open to the public and expected to attract a large number of attendees. The decree additionally lists several anti-Israel protests, demonstrations, and vandalisms that have taken place in Ghent in the past year “resulting in a lot of disturbances and calamities.”
The city said all these reasons “show undeniably that the probability is very real that there will be actions if an Israeli team participates in a European championship, with all the consequences that entails. Taking this into account, it is clear that the public order and safety of the spectators and participants cannot be guaranteed if the tournament were to take place on the Blaarmeersen in the presence of an Israeli delegation.”
A number of Jewish groups condemned the decision to ban the Israeli delegation from the frisbee tournament, including the World Jewish Congress (WJC).
“Prohibiting Israelis from an international frisbee tournament highlights a troubling trend of xenophobia in sports,” WJC said in a statement shared on X/Twitter. “This move by the European Ultimate Federation should be unequivocally rejected. It undermines the principles of fairness and inclusivity and contradicts the core values of sportsmanship. Not allowing Israelis to play because THEY face security threats appeases those who might commit aggression and represents a total failure of to protect the victims of such bigoted threats.”
The Combat Antisemitism Movement said the “horrendous, spineless decision hands a win to the terrorists and their supporters.”
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) called the move “blatant discrimination.” The AJC said: “We are shocked that Israel’s National Ultimate Frisbee team, already victims of anti-Israel vandalism, has now been banned from the European Youth Ultimate Championship in Belgium ‘for their own safety.’ This is blatant discrimination! Jewish athletes should never be excluded due to antisemitism. Host countries must stand up to bigotry, not reward it.”
The post Belgian City Accused of Antisemitism for Banning Israeli Athletes From International Frisbee Tournament first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations

US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks

IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.