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Amid the Gaza War, Israeli Athletes Face Discrimination, But Triumph Overseas
Since October 7, sports have been put on the backburner in Israel. But as Israel fights to defeat Hamas in Gaza, some of the country’s athletes are returning to competition, especially as qualification tournaments get underway for the Paris Olympics. In 2021, Israel had its best ever Olympic Games, winning a record four medals — two of which were gold — in Tokyo.
In recent days, the 2024 Israeli team has grown, with IQFoilers (windsurfers) Sharon Kantor and Tom Reuveney securing their Olympics spots at the recent World Championships; Kantor won the women’s event, and Reuveney finished eighth. This is a very special event in Israel’s sporting history, as three of its 13 Olympic medals (including its first ever gold) came in this event.
Elsewhere, the Israeli swimming team is currently in Qatar at the World Championships. The highlight, thus far, was Anastasia Gorbenko’s fourth place in the 200m Individual Medley. At this stage, Israel has qualified swimmers in nine different events at Paris, as well as the team-based artistic swimming duet.
In 2024, Israel will send its first soccer team to the Olympics since 1976. Time will tell if Israeli athletes will qualify in sports such as archery, skateboarding, climbing, surfing, and fencing.
Israel hasn’t sent a fencer to the Olympics since 2008, but that could change after Yuval Freilich won gold at the Epee Grand Prix event in Qatar. What a surreal thrill to hear Hatikvah played in Qatar during these times.
The current situation in Israel has caused turmoil for many of our athletes overseas. There was quite a ruckus about our women’s basketball team playing against Ireland, where the Irish team refused to shake hands with their Jewish competitors.
Israel’s U20 ice hockey team was told they wouldn’t be able to take their place in the Division III Group A World Championships in Bulgaria due to security concerns. After a backlash, this was reversed, and the Israeli team went undefeated to win promotion to Division II Group B.
In tennis, Mika Buchnik made it to the second round of the girl’s singles at the Australian Open, while Guy Sasson lost in the final of both the quad singles and doubles. The Davis Cup team lost a tricky tie to the Czech Republic, and in September, the Israeli team hosts Ukraine in a bid to stay in World Group I.
Our combat athletes in Judo, Taekwondo, and MMA continue to shine, with Olympic spots on the line for those in judo and taekwondo.
And while the Summer Olympics get all the attention, Israel is also making great strides in winter sports. Figure skater Sophia Shifrin did a fantastic job at the Winter Youth Olympics in South Korea, finishing 12th in the Women’s singles.
At the start of the year, Israel-Premier Tech cyclist Stephen Williams won the Tour Down Under, while the team was in second place, just four seconds behind the top spot.
Despite all that is going on in the world, our athletes put their emotions to the side and compete at the highest level. We couldn’t be prouder of them.
David Wiseman is the co-founder of Follow Team Israel and the Head of Online Reputation Management for Buzz Dealer.
The post Amid the Gaza War, Israeli Athletes Face Discrimination, But Triumph Overseas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Three Israeli Hostages, Including Dual US and French Citizens, Set for Release in Gaza on Saturday
A view of a banner depicting Keith Siegel, who is a dual US citizen seized during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and taken hostage into Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, is seen with other images of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Hamas said on Friday it would free the father of the youngest hostages seized in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and two others including a dual US citizen and a dual French citizen in the next exchange of Gaza hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, and Ofer Kalderon will be handed over on Saturday, said Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the armed wing of the Palestinian terrorist group, in a post on his Telegram channel.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed on Friday that Jerusalem has received the names of the three hostages who are set to be released from captivity in Gaza under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
“A detailed response will be provided after reviewing the list and updating families,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Yarden Bibas is the father of baby Kfir, only nine months old when he was kidnapped, and Ariel, who was four at the time of the cross-border attack.
There was no word on the fate of Kfir and Ariel, or on their mother Shiri, who was taken at the same time. Hamas said in late 2023 that they had been killed by Israeli bombardment, in the early months of the Gaza war.
Video of their capture began circulating soon after they were seized. It showed a terrified Shiri clutching her small children in a blanket as they were bundled into captivity surrounded by terrorist assailants.
The father, Yarden, 34 at the time of the attack, was also abducted and a clip circulated showing him bleeding from a head injury suffered from hammer blows.
Israeli-American Keith Siegel, who was taken hostage with his wife Aviva, was seen in a video released by Hamas last year. His wife was released in the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange in November 2023.
Ofer Kalderon’s two children Erez and Sahar, abducted alongside him, were also freed in the first exchange. The joint French–Israeli national’s family said they were waiting with “immense joy mixed with paralyzing anguish” for his release.
On Thursday, Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza while Israel freed 110 Palestinian prisoners after delaying the process in anger at the swarming crowds engulfing one of the hostage handover points.
Under the ceasefire deal that halted more than 15 months of fighting, 33 hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza are to be freed in the first six weeks of the truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been serving life sentences in Israel for terrorist activities.
Fifteen hostages, including the five Thai workers, and 400 prisoners have so far been exchanged, and Hamas has told Israel that eight of the 33 are now dead. Ninety Palestinian prisoners, including nine serving life sentences and 81 serving long-term sentences, are to be swapped for the three Israelis on Saturday, Hamas’s prisoner information office said.
Netanyahu has drawn criticism in Israel for not having sealed a hostage deal earlier in the war after the security failure that enabled Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists to burst across the border and storm nearby Israeli communities.
But there has also been opposition to the current deal, which some critics in Israel have said leaves the fate of most of the hostages in the balance and Hamas still standing as Gaza‘s dominant entity, despite months of warfare and the death of its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.
The truce has enabled a surge in international humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians amid dire supply shortages.
Hamas-led terrorists started the war with their surprise invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 hostages were abducted in the attack in Israel, the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Around half the hostages were released in November 2023 during the only previous truce, and others have been recovered dead or alive during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
More talks on the implementation of the second stage of the deal, due to begin by Feb. 4, are meant to open the way to the release of over 60 other hostages, including men of military age, and a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
If that succeeds, a formal end to the war could follow along with talks on the mammoth challenge of reconstructing Gaza.
The post Three Israeli Hostages, Including Dual US and French Citizens, Set for Release in Gaza on Saturday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jews in Australia Up Security, Conceal Identity After Spate of Antisemitic Attacks
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Jewish students in Sydney returned to school on Friday with a heightened security presence, days after police said they foiled a planned antisemitic attack in the city using a trailer filled with explosives.
A spate of attacks in recent months have alarmed the country’s Jews, drawn criticism from Israel, and placed pressure on the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who faces re-election in polls that must be held by May.
Antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on three sites including the Mount Sinai College in the city’s east early on Thursday, one of almost a dozen incidents in the city in recent months that police say appeared to be coordinated.
Students there returned on Friday after Australia‘s summer break, with police and private security stationed outside the building.
“We’re really grateful that the police are here and protecting us,” said Gina Ferrer, a mother dropping off her child at the school.
“I love this country, I think it’s the best country in the world, but for the first time in my life I actually feel really let down by Australia.”
Matt Thistlethwaite, the federal lawmaker for the area that has a high Jewish population, said he had been working with local police to increase patrols in the area.
SECURITY HEIGHTENED
Australia has been grappling with a series of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings, and cars since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in late 2023.
Police in New South Wales state, which includes Sydney, said on Wednesday they had found explosives in a caravan, or trailer, that could have created a blast wave of 40 meters (130 feet).
There was some indication the explosives might be used in an antisemitic attack that could have caused mass casualties, police said.
The escalating attacks have prompted Jews to hire security guards for private events and remove visible signs of their Jewish identity, according to security companies and community leaders.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the umbrella group for Australia‘s Jews, said some Jews were removing skull caps worn by men as a symbol of faith while outside, and taking down mezuzah, a parchment scroll containing Hebrew verses traditionally attached from the doors of Jewish homes.
“The more of these attacks that we see, and particularly given their gravity and the scale, people will begin to question how they can live in Australia as Jews, and that will then force them into a very difficult choice,” he said.
Stephen Vogel, founder of Sayeret Security, a private security company catering to the Jewish community in Sydney, said he had seen an increase in business in recent weeks.
“People are a little bit more nervous at the moment and want to have security for them for their functions, just to mitigate any potential risk,” he said.
The post Jews in Australia Up Security, Conceal Identity After Spate of Antisemitic Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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German Official Under Fire for Claim Israel Stokes ‘Disinformation’ Against UNRWA
Security personnel work at the UNRWA headquarters, in Jerusalem, May 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
i24 News — The German commissioner for humanitarian aid, Ina Heusgen, is facing intense criticism for her claim that Israel is waging a “disinformation” campaign against UNRWA and caused the deaths of 100,000 people in Gaza.
Sources familiar with a closed German parliament (Bundestag) meeting on Wednesday exclusively told i24NEWSthat Heusgen lashed out against the Jewish state and its efforts to root out Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Heusgen claimed Israel conducts a “policy of disinformation” against The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
According to Israel’s government, dozens of UNRWA employees played a role in Hamas’s slaughter of over 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023.
Heusgen claimed only 9 UNRWA workers had links to Hamas, and they were immediately kicked out. She added the UNRWA employees were fired even though “the Israeli allegations could not be independently verified.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told i24NEWSabout Heusgen’s remarks that “casting UNRWA as a victim is just garbage” and he added that “denial is used as a weapon” by Heusgen.
Cooper said her refusal to recognize UNRWA’s role in the massacre and UNRWA’s “pro-war” school curriculum “is a denial of what happened on Oct. 7.”
He termed Heusgen’s denial “the same psychosis regarding if anyone can get away with denying the Shoah, it is playing out right now.”
Cooper, who participated this past week in a German Justice ministry event on combating antisemitism in Berlin, said, “I would love to ask Heusgen in a meeting, ‘Have you given any thought that Hamas built hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels under UNRWA facilities? Did UNRWA ever go to the Israelis or western journalists to say there is a highway of terrorist tunnels under the Gaza Strip?’”
The German foreign ministry official, Heusgen, added, without evidence, that Israel killed 100,000 people in Gaza. She continued that “you have to ask yourself whether the military response was the right solution.” She noted, “The debate is very difficult here in Germany when it comes to criticism of the Israeli government.”
The Bundestag session became intensely personal for Heusgen, who said, “My husband [Christoph Heusgen] is not an antisemite. Ehud Olmert called him after Wiesenthal’s allegations and told him that he didn’t think he was an antisemite.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the former German ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen, in its 2019 list of top 10 outbreaks of antisemitism for his remarks equating Israel with the Hamas terrorist organization during a United Nations Security Council session.
On Jan. 6, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, blasted Christoph Heusgen for urging Germany to enforce the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Prosor wrote on X: “It took Heusgen 20 days to whitewash Hamas’s barbaric massacre — an ‘action’ in his terms — claiming it didn’t happen in a vacuum. He cherry picks international law to fit his anti-Israel agenda. For years, he has twisted its principles to put Israel in the dock, constantly demonizing and delegitimizing Israel while justifying war criminals’ repulsive attacks.”
Don’t confuse me with the facts—Heusgen’s version. When there’s an agenda, reality is bent to fit.
It took @MSCheusgen 20 days to whitewash Hamas’ barbaric massacre—an ‘action’ in his terms—claiming it didn’t happen in a vacuum.
He cherry picks international law to fit his… pic.twitter.com/p8Rbs76yDf
— Ambassador Ron Prosor (@Ron_Prosor) January 6, 2025
Prosor did not immediately respond to an i24NEWS press query about Ina Heusgen’s attacks on the Netanyahu administration’s UNRWA policy.
Ina Heusgen was embroiled in a nepotism scandal in 2017. The German media reported that her husband secured her a high-earning job at the UN by using his government contacts. The Heusgens did not respond to i24NEWS press queries.
Rabbi Cooper said, “I applaud Israel’s decision to kick out UNRWA. UNRWA is an advocate for the deadly status for Palestinians and keeping them as refugees.” The Biden and Trump administrations have refused to fund UNRWA.
Germany is one of the major funders of UNRWA. In March 2024, Berlin announced that it is providing EUR 45 million to the agency.
Cooper said, “I am hoping that more serious voices will emerge from German officials. What Germany’s says and does on issues of antisemitism and terrorism are extraordinarily important.”
Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, did not immediately respond to i24NEWSpress queries. According to the IDF, since the start of ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 27, 2023, 405 soldiers have fallen in combat. Hamas officials claim that Israel has killed more than 47,000 people in Gaza. Hamas does not distinguish between terrorists and civilians. The Hamas number of 47,000 plus fatalities cannot be independently verified. It is unclear what the source for Heusgen’s 100,000 dead in Gaza is.
The post German Official Under Fire for Claim Israel Stokes ‘Disinformation’ Against UNRWA first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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