Israeli Judoka Sagi Muki says protesters in Japan stole his uniform jacket
Olympians Muki and Peter Paltchik confront rally on Tokyo street, having traveled there for training camp; Culture and Sports Ministry said angered after not being updated on trip
Israeli judoka Sagi Muki said Saturday that pro-Palestinian activists protesting against Israel in Japan stole the jacket from his national team judo uniform when he confronted them on a Tokyo street.
In a video, Muki said he decided to speak with the protesters after coming across the “pro-Hamas demonstration” along with his teammate, Peter Paltchik. He said he was upset that “they are ignorant” about the ongoing war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.
“I tried to explain [to them], to fight for the truth and the State of Israel,” Muki said. “It was much harder than training, it exhausted me, but we won’t give up.”
According to Muki, some of the protesters snatched his judogi and ran off with it. An earlier photo shows him pointing to the Israeli flag on the uniform above his heart while standing in front of the demonstrators.
Muki did not say how he responded, but vowed “to continue representing Israel in the international sphere.”
Paltchik told Channel 12 news that the pair, who are both Olympic medalists, were “surprised” to see the protest on their way back from a training camp in the city, which they had traveled there to attend.
הג׳ודוקא שגיא מוקי מספר: ״בוקר קשוח פה ביפן. נכנסתי להפגנה של תומכי חמאס כדי להסביר שהם לא מבינים כלום – ואז לקחו לי את חליפת הג׳ודו. לא נוותר להם״ pic.twitter.com/IWPTbY442Y
— Raz Shechnik (@RazShechnik) March 30, 2024
“First of all I will say that things got a little out of proportion,” he said, adding that Japan is usually friendly to Israelis.
“One of the people shouting through a megaphone pushed me and shouted at my face ‘Free Palestine.’ It was jarring. It tore my eardrum. I saw a lot of people taking pictures from the side, so I wanted to show firmness from our side,” he said.
Paltchik said there was “no way” he would be provoked into using violence, though he believed the protesters may have wanted him to.
The Ynet news site reported Sunday that the Culture and Sports Ministry was incensed over the athletes’ conduct, as they did not update the ministry or the Israeli Olympic Committee on their departure for the training camp, and openly displayed their Israeli identity in a foreign country despite ongoing threats against Israelis amid the war.
“The Delegation Security Law requires the ministry to deal with official state delegations in which athletes represent the country,” the ministry said in a statement to the news outlet, while noting that a trip to a training camp in a low-threat country does not require official state security.
“Due to the security situation, it would have been good for the ministry to have been updated on the delegation that departed for this country so that we could offer the appropriate response and reinforce the guidelines,” the statement said.
