Israelis protest ‘discriminatory’ ban from frisbee event in Belgium
Federation says Gent municipality prohibited the ‘presence of the Israeli delegation,’ citing ‘high risk of public order’
Cnaan Lidor is The Times of Israel's Jewish World reporter
Israeli athletes in Belgium on Wednesday accused the European frisbee federation and local authorities in the Gent area of discrimination following their exclusion from an international tournament over ostensible security concerns.
A spokesperson for the Israeli team of 33 athletes currently in Belgium dismissed the organizers’ reasons for the decision to exclude the team from the four-day tournament.
“We see this as a political decision and not a security-related one,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “The event organizers are even preventing us from arriving at the venue to contest the decision.” She added that the team members are angry and that “this is discrimination.”
The European Ultimate Federation, the organizer of the European Youth Ultimate Championship 2024 in Gent, Belgium, announced Wednesday that the Israeli team was banned from the event following the postponement of all matches on Tuesday, which was supposed to be the tournament’s first day.
The reason cited for the postponement was an action by anti-Israel activists who spray-painted slogans on a tournament venue in the village of De Pinte near Gent. De Pinte was selected as the venue for some matches after anti-Israeli activists protested the Israeli team’s presence at the event’s original intended venue in Gent proper.
In a statement Wednesday, the Federation said that the municipality of Gent “prohibits the participation of the Israeli delegation” and “the presence of the Israeli delegation” as well as “any references related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The tournament, which comprises hundreds of competitors from 11 countries, would resume Wednesday without the 33 Israeli athletes who traveled to Belgium to attend the event, the Federation said.
“We are disappointed to have to make this sad announcement and for the overall outcome for all teams who have worked so hard to train and get to the event. We must however respect and follow the instructions given by the authorities,” it said.
A municipal decree by Gent’s city government stated that “there is a high risk of public order disruption due to the presence of an Israeli [team]” and that some “frisbee organizations oppose Israel’s participation in the tournament due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.” It is “not unthinkable that some groups may attempt to boycott the Israeli team’s matches to draw attention to the Palestinian-Israeli issues,” the statement added.
To the Israeli delegation, the reference to concerns of a boycott belied the municipality’s claim that the cancelation was purely about security concerns.
Israel is regularly accused of committing genocide against Palestinians at anti-Israel rallies in Belgium since October 7, when Hamas terrorists killed some 1,200 people in Israel and abducted another 251. The onslaught prompted Israel to invade Gaza with the stated goal of dismantling Hamas and retrieving its hostages.
Israel has rejected the accusations of genocide as baseless. It says that the Israel Defense Forces is targeting Hamas combatants, not Palestinian civilians, but points out that civilian casualties in the fighting are unavoidable as terrorists operate from deep within the population.
Some 40,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza as a result of the Israeli offensive, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. The statistics are unvetted and do not distinguish between civilians and terrorists, of whom Israel says it has killed about 15,000.
Separately, Jewish groups and others have criticized vocally a Belgian columnist, Herman Brusselmans, for writing in his Sunday column (in Flemish) that he feels the urge “to shove a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I see” because of images of children suffering in Gaza. Brusselmans also said that “not all Jews are murderous scumbags” in his column in Humo.
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, called for Brusselmans to be prosecuted for inciting racist violence.
“Declaring his intent to murder is a shocking criminal offense. His heinous writing cloaked in free speech and legitimate political opinion must be dealt with by utter condemnation and harsh legal action,” Goldschmidt wrote in a statement.
