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International Bowls Organization Reverses Ban on Israel at UK Championship After Facing Backlash
People hold an Israeli flag as a helicopter carrying hostages released amid a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel arrives at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv district, Israel, Nov. 28, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
An international bowls organization on Tuesday revoked its ban against Israelis from competing in the upcoming Bowls World Indoor Championships in the United Kingdom following global outcry.
The World Bowls Tour (WBT) earlier this week disinvited three Israeli athletes from competing in the international championships set to take place Jan. 10-26 at the Potters Resorts Hopton-on-Sea in Norfolk. The move affected Daniel Alomin in the singles, and Amnon Amar and Itai Rigbi in the open pairs. Bowls is a sport in which a player rolls a ball, called a bowl, toward a smaller stationary ball, which is called a jack. The object of the game is to roll one’s bowl closer to the jack than that of their opponents.
The WBT suggested on Sunday that the ban was enforced after they faced pressure from pro-Palestinian groups because of Israel’s involvement in the WBT Scottish International Open in Scotland in November 2024. The organization also claimed security concerns as the main reason for the ban.
On Tuesday, the WBT said in a new statement that the three Israeli players are welcome to compete in the UK competition next month following “significant additional security measures.”
“The WBT acknowledges that this has been a difficult time for all involved and we are pleased that we have been able to achieve an outcome that includes players for all supporting countries,” the organization added.
In a separate lengthy statement, which was not publicly shared but obtained by The Guardian, the WBT also apologized for the initial ban.
“We would firstly wish to extend our sincere apologies to both you and to PBA Israel, for any upset or offense that we have caused by the withdrawal of the invitation to the three members of PBA Israel in advance of the January 2025 championships. This was absolutely not our intention; however as we made clear, we had found ourselves in a very difficult position in relation to the security of the venue and to the competitors and other attendees,” the statement read.
“However, over the past 48 hours we have been exploring practical ways in which our concerns could be overcome, so as to enable the invitation to PBA Israel to be reinstated,” the statement continued. “We are pleased to say that following discussions with various partner agencies, we have been able to confirm today an increase in the security presence at the event. The WBT Board is accordingly satisfied that this increased level of security which will be in place is sufficient to be able to welcome the PBA Israel Team to the event starting on 10 January 2025.”
The WBT concluded by explaining that it “felt compelled” to initially ban Israeli athletes from next month’s competition to ensure “the safety and security” of everyone involved in the tournament. “Following significant feedback and credible concerns regarding the potential risks posed to competitors we had felt it necessary to act responsibly, so to ensure the wellbeing of everyone involved,” the organization added.
The WBT board of directors announced the initial ban against Israeli athletes on Sunday in a released statement that was posted on Facebook. They said the decision was made following “recent challenges” experienced by the WBT directors regarding Israel’s participation in the WBT Scottish International Open.
“There has been a significant escalation in related political concerns. These issues have been extended to the upcoming World Indoor Championships,” they noted. “As a result of the intensity of the situation, the WBT Board, in consultants with our event partners and other relevant stakeholders, have made the difficult decision to withdraw the invitation for Israel to participate.”
“This decision was not taken lightly and has been made in the best interests of the events [sic] success and integrity,” they added. “Bowls is, and always has been, a sport that unites people and this choice reflects our commitment to protecting the Championships and ensuring they run smoothly for everyone involved. We remain hopeful that circumstances will allow us to welcome PBA Israel to the WBT stage in the future.”
World Bowls, which is an international sports federation for the sport of bowls not affiliated with WBT, said it had no connection or involvement in the decision to ban Israel.
The ban was widely condemned by Jewish groups and supporters earlier this week. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said, “There can be no justification for this overt act of discrimination against Israeli participants, who are excluded solely on the basis of their nationality.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), which is a British volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism, claimed the WBT “caved to pressure from the anti-Israel mob.”
“World Bowls Tour says that bowls is a sport that unites people. But that apparently does not apply to the Jews, who are excluded,” a CAA spokesperson said. “This decision is a disgrace to international sport and sends the message that racist intimidation works. Athletes should be judged by their skill, not their race, ethnicity, or nationality. Unfortunately, that principle does not apply to Jewish athletes.”
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) wrote to the directors of WBT and pointed out that the ban is a clear breach of the UK’s Equality Act. Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UKLFI, warned WBT that if it did not reverse the ban, the Israeli athletes could file legal proceedings against the organization for breach of the Equality Act. UKLFI similarly contacted John Potter of Potters Resorts and Ambassador Cruise Lines, the sponsor of the Bowls World Indoor Championships, about the allegedly illegal ban.
Local MP Rupert Lowe, whose constituency includes the venue where the Bowls World Indoor Championships will take place in January, said he was “genuinely disgusted” by the ban. He said about the Israeli athletes: “As far as I am concerned as the local MP, these individuals are welcome in our constituency.”
“This is following a concerted campaign from the pro-Palestine mob to have these Israelis barred from competing,” he added. “What message does this send? If the mob screams and shouts, they can get competitors of a certain nationality banned from entry? It is insanity, pure insanity. The organizers are cowards. Sport should be a unifier, and it should be above politics.”
After WBT reversed its ban following the public outcry, Lowe thanked the organization for making “the right decision.”
“This is how you deal with the bullies taking to the streets of OUR country every weekend. Stand up to them, don’t accept their hateful tactics,” he wrote in a post on X. “The Israeli team will be welcomed in Great Yarmouth, and I wish them well for the event. The World Bowls Tour have made the right decision. I thank them for that, and their apology to the individuals involved. Wonderful news — 2025 is the year we fight back against the hate mob.”
The post International Bowls Organization Reverses Ban on Israel at UK Championship After Facing Backlash first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.