The presence of Israeli teams at a youth handball tournament in Doha has sparked calls on social media for Qataris to withdraw their children from the competition.
Israel sent a boys’ team and a girls’ team to the Handball World School Championship, a biannual international tournament for students aged 15 to 18, played since the early 1970s.
It is not the first time Israeli athletes have competed in Qatar, but their participation has brought renewed scrutiny to Doha’s foreign policy eight months into a diplomatic crisis with its Arab neighbors.
On Twitter, users claiming to be Qataris accused Doha of trying to normalize relations with Israel.
“I ask all parents to withdraw their children and prevent them from participating in this normalization of relations,” one user wrote in Arabic.
“Now it is the time to speak to your children about Palestine.”
Another tweeted that the tournament was “recognition of an occupier.”
— AFP
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