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Eugene

(62,767 posts)
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 03:44 PM Aug 2016

Rio Olympics 2016: Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby sent home for handshake snub

Source: BBC

Rio Olympics 2016: Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby sent home for handshake snub

15 August 2016 Olympics

Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby has been sent home from the Olympics after he refused to shake the hand of Israeli opponent Or Sasson after their bout.

The 34-year-old was "strongly reprimanded" by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after his first-round loss on Friday.

The IOC say his conduct was "against the spirit of friendship embodied in the Olympic values.'"

The Egyptian Olympic Committee condemned El Shehaby and sent him home.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/37090339
24 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Rio Olympics 2016: Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby sent home for handshake snub (Original Post) Eugene Aug 2016 OP
JPost Editorial: A handshake’s importance shira Aug 2016 #1
eat it, loser 6chars Aug 2016 #2
This decision by the IOC True Dough Aug 2016 #3
He might be going home to an area that's heavily Muslim Brotherhood Warpy Aug 2016 #4
Once again Uponthegears Aug 2016 #5
Yes- if they were bigots and anti-Semites. But they were not. Nt hack89 Aug 2016 #6
Okay Uponthegears Aug 2016 #7
He comes from a culture that hates jews hack89 Aug 2016 #10
No need to go further Uponthegears Aug 2016 #11
Jew hate precedes the occupation. hack89 Aug 2016 #12
Neither Smith nor Carlos aranthus Aug 2016 #8
That is a fair distinction Uponthegears Aug 2016 #9
Not even remotely similar. Repulsive comparison nt geek tragedy Aug 2016 #13
You don't know much about Uponthegears Aug 2016 #14
He insulted an opponent. It was hate based on national origin, not geek tragedy Aug 2016 #16
You have no more basis Uponthegears Aug 2016 #17
You have obviously not read much in this site's Israel/Palestine Group. geek tragedy Aug 2016 #18
And a lot of people who wish to excuse Uponthegears Aug 2016 #19
So if his action was due to "Israel's human rights violations" FBaggins Aug 2016 #20
Or Uponthegears Aug 2016 #22
GOOD. There's only so much people can hide for fear ericson00 Aug 2016 #15
I think this picture of another handshake clinched it for me: Little Tich Aug 2016 #21
No surprise Mondoweiss approved of this "BDS at the Olympics" shira Aug 2016 #23
It may come as a surprise to you, but I don't agree with everything that's posted on Mondoweiss. Little Tich Aug 2016 #24
 

shira

(30,109 posts)
1. JPost Editorial: A handshake’s importance
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 03:50 PM
Aug 2016
One of the goals of the Olympic Games is to bring together the nations of the world to compete in an atmosphere of good sportsmanship and mutual respect....

...Peace between Israel and Egypt must not be only between governments. It must also be fostered between peoples. Shehaby had a chance to make a public display of the potential for such peace. Unfortunately, he squandered it.

In contrast, during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Luz Long used a handshake to reject Nazism’s racist ideology. After losing to Jesse Owens in the long jump competition, the German athlete approached Owens before hundreds of thousands of spectators and shook Owens’s hand.

Owen later said of that experience: “You can melt down all the medals and cups I have, they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24 karat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment.”

The power of a handshake should not be underestimated.


http://www.jpost.com/printarticle.aspx?id=464103

Warpy

(113,131 posts)
4. He might be going home to an area that's heavily Muslim Brotherhood
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 04:01 PM
Aug 2016

with a lot of his extended family part of it.

We don't know the whole story.

However, he looks like a bigot and a poor sport who has completely misunderstood the Olympics. He will never be back, no matter how good he is at his sport.

The whole thing is sad and a little nauseating whenever anyone brings a political or religious grudge to this event.

 

Uponthegears

(1,499 posts)
7. Okay
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 07:06 PM
Aug 2016

So this actually has absolutely nothing to do with whether this young man demonstrated poor sportsmanship, or whether he improperly used the Olympics to make a political statement. All of the talk that we have heard about those subjects was just hogwash.

What it actually has to do with is that his critics do not approve of his views toward Israel yet lack the honesty to say "Expel him from the Olympics because he does not support Israel"

THANK GOD he didn't have a BDS bumper sticker.

Thanks for clarifying.

hack89

(39,180 posts)
10. He comes from a culture that hates jews
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 08:03 PM
Aug 2016

A culture that accepts and promotes blood libel. Where the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are believed as the truth. A culture that would punish him for any perceived friendliness to a Jewish athlete.

His was not a principaled position. At best it is moral cowardice, at worse he is a bigot.

 

Uponthegears

(1,499 posts)
11. No need to go further
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 08:38 PM
Aug 2016

We know where your coming from.

Nuff said

Got it

You are upset that Muslims won't just "get over" the Occupation. You are free to your opinion.

hack89

(39,180 posts)
12. Jew hate precedes the occupation.
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 08:51 PM
Aug 2016

The history of the region does not start in 1967. It includes an attempted Arab war of annihilation the moment Israel came into existence. It includes four humiliating defeats for Eygpt by Israel. This guy doesn't give a shit about the Palestinians. His country certainly doesn't considering their horrible treatment of the Palestinians and their visceral hate of Hamas.

aranthus

(3,386 posts)
8. Neither Smith nor Carlos
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 07:16 PM
Aug 2016

refused to shake the hand of a fellow athlete. What they did was disrespectful of the US, but it wasn't poor sportsmanship to another athlete. So a false analogy.

 

Uponthegears

(1,499 posts)
9. That is a fair distinction
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 07:54 PM
Aug 2016

(although Carlos and Smith brought no disrespect to the US, the US brought disrespect to itself).

Many people have said that he should have refused to fight at all if he wanted to make a political statement. In fact he was under incredible pressure from some more extreme elements to do just that. Having chose to fight, however he should have followed what he knew would be the custom.

An interesting side story is that the Israeli fighter knew ahead of time that he was not going to shake hands.

 

Uponthegears

(1,499 posts)
14. You don't know much about
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 09:45 PM
Aug 2016

What happened in 1968 or about at least one of the men involved.

But you go right ahead and express your opiniion.

While there is nothing that compares with the greatest human rights violation in the history of the world, American slavery, those of us who lived through and near the events immediately preceeding John's and Tommie's act of utter defiance, understood that they were standing for far more than just themselves, or even us.

I tend to accept the idea that, having competed, he should have shook hands, but this faux outrage has nothing to do with sportsmanship.

 

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)
16. He insulted an opponent. It was hate based on national origin, not
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 10:12 PM
Aug 2016

protesting human rights abuses.

 

Uponthegears

(1,499 posts)
17. You have no more basis
Tue Aug 16, 2016, 06:06 AM
Aug 2016

For believing that his actions were based on a personal animosity toward his competitor than that it was based in a desire to draw attention to Israel's human rights violations in the Occupied Territories.

Indeed, the fact that such gestures have taken place at other events suggests the latter.

At least be honest and admit that it is your opinion regarding the relative equities vis a vis Israel and Palestinian Muslims that.drives your outrage, not a love of sportsmanship.

 

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)
18. You have obviously not read much in this site's Israel/Palestine Group.
Tue Aug 16, 2016, 06:11 AM
Aug 2016

And give me a break about how insulting an Israeli athlete based on his nationality is about human rights. It's not, it's about hatred of the state of Israel for its very existence.

You don't see this kind of 'protest' applied to Russia, or China, or Iran, or Egypt for that matter.

Only the Jewish state.

Lots of anti-Semites hide behind the occupation as a pretext for their Jew-bashing. This guy didn't even do that.

 

Uponthegears

(1,499 posts)
19. And a lot of people who wish to excuse
Tue Aug 16, 2016, 07:13 AM
Aug 2016

Israel's human rights abuses in the Occupied Territories, abuses recognized by the UN, hide behind misuse of the term anti-Semitism.

Btw, you see MORE than symbolic gestures like a declined handshake in Russia; you used to see far MORE than symbolic gestures in Egypt; and, if it wouldn't get you summarily executed in China and Iran, you would see far more than symbolism there as well.

FBaggins

(27,802 posts)
20. So if his action was due to "Israel's human rights violations"
Tue Aug 16, 2016, 08:33 AM
Aug 2016

Than the crowd's overwhelming rejection of his action is evidence of strong support for Israel, and not disgust at his racial motivations? Right?

 

Uponthegears

(1,499 posts)
22. Or
Tue Aug 16, 2016, 10:46 AM
Aug 2016

the desire to separate sport from politics?

You forget, Smith and Carlos we also "rejected."

THAT, however, as is evident from mountain of "Israel v. Muslim" responses, is NOT what motivates the faux outrage present in this string.

 

ericson00

(2,707 posts)
15. GOOD. There's only so much people can hide for fear
Mon Aug 15, 2016, 10:03 PM
Aug 2016

of extreme elements, if they're gonna try to use the Muslim Brotherhood as some sort of excuse for what El Shehaby did.

If some Israeli athlete, say, refused to shake hands with an Arab (or any Muslim in general), the anti-I left would be up in arms.

Little Tich

(6,171 posts)
21. I think this picture of another handshake clinched it for me:
Tue Aug 16, 2016, 09:14 AM
Aug 2016

Shooting gold medalist Jin Jong-oh, left, of South Korea and bronze medalist Kim Song Guk, right, of North Korea, shake hands during their medal ceremony. Photo / AP
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11692822

El Shehaby did the wrong thing, and the reprimand was justified.
 

shira

(30,109 posts)
23. No surprise Mondoweiss approved of this "BDS at the Olympics"
Mon Aug 22, 2016, 06:03 PM
Aug 2016
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/milestone-the-olympics/

Note in the comments section that Annie Robbins (Editor at Large Mondoweiss) gushed at this form of "BDS".

Little Tich

(6,171 posts)
24. It may come as a surprise to you, but I don't agree with everything that's posted on Mondoweiss.
Mon Aug 22, 2016, 08:46 PM
Aug 2016

Snubbing other competitors due to their nationality is not what the Olympic Games are about.

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