Israel-Hamas war: the Israeli wrestling delegation will not travel to the pre-Olympic Games in Turkey

In a global context marked by numerous demonstrations by militant sectors, a new sequel to the War between Israel and Hamas broke out in the field of sports: the Israeli wrestling team will not appear at the World Olympic Qualifier in Istanbul to be held between May 9 and 13 by order of the Security Agency, Shin Bet, as a result of growing tensions between national governments.

As this is the last contest with tickets to Paris in dispute, the binding measure buries the Olympic chances of the five wrestlers from the Hebrew-speaking nation who would compete in the northwestern Turkish city - Joshua Stuart Finesilver, Mitchell Louis Finesilver, Yuri Kalashnikov, Melkamu Fetene and Ilana Kratysh - unless they are beneficiaries of the invitation seats of the international federation, United World Wrestling (UWW).

In this regard, Kratysh, the first Olympic fighter in the history of Israel, in Rio 2016, stated that she was suspicious of the decision and demanded: “I hope that the Israeli association (IWF) and the Olympic Committee (IOC) will demand that the world federation consider us and give us a free ticket to the Games.” In addition, she disconnected athletes from the war, stating that “athletes should not be harmed by the situation”.

The only ecumenical pre-Olympic tournament will award a total of 54 non-nominal places. Broken down, there will be three tickets in each of the six categories of the three modalities, men’s and women’s wrestling and Greco-Roman men’s wrestling. Previously, the continental qualifiers and the 2023 World Championship in Belgrade had awarded eight and five places by weight, respectively.

The desertion of the competition was announced one day after Turkey suspended trade relations with Israel, including import and export relations, a rupture after which the Israeli Foreign Minister, Yisrael Katz, called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “dictator” for “blocking” the ports.

Since March, Turkey has included a list of countries to which Israel warns not to travel because of the potential risk of terrorist attacks. A report indicates that Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas, has been residing in the country since the meeting with Erdogan on April 20, precisely in Istanbul. At the end of October, the Israeli government had ordered the withdrawal of the entire diplomatic delegation from the Embassy in Ankara, including Ambassador Irit Lillian, after a comparison between the holocaust and the bombings in Gaza was carried out by the Turkish president.

At the end of April, Thomas Bach promised to send invitations to the Palestinian National Olympic Committee whenever they failed to qualify on the field of play, considering that the damage to the sports facilities prevented the proper training of the athletes, a reason that differs from what happened with the Israeli wrestlers. So far, the president of the IOC has not referred to the case.