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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.”
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
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