Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has reiterated that the nation will continue to deny Israeli para swimmers visas for the 2019 WPS World Championships in July.
“We will not allow them [to enter]. If they come, then it is an offense,” he said in a press conference Tuesday, “If they want to withdraw the championships’ hosting rights from Malaysia, then they can try to do so.”
Malaysia has long enforced a policy of disallowing Israeli passport-holders from entering the country due to a lack of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
From July 29th to August 4th, 2019, the Malaysian city of Kuching is set to host hundreds of swimmers from 70 countries for the meet, which is one of the possible qualifying opportunities for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. To be eligible for Tokyo, para-swimmers are supposed to have competed at either a WPS World Series event, Worlds, any WPS Regional or Regional Open Championships, or the 2019 Parapan American Games in the timeframe of October 1, 2018 through the 2020 WPS European Open Championships (the dates of which have yet to be announced).
The International Paralympic Committee tells SwimSwam that it is working to remedy the situation.
“We are disappointed at the comments made by the Malaysian Prime Minister regarding the participation of Israeli Para swimmers at the World Championships this summer,” the IPC said. “We will continue to pursue every single avenue with the Local Organising Committee, Malaysian National Paralympic Committee and State Government to try and ensure that all of the world’s best swimmers can compete at this event as World Championships should be open to all eligible nations. We aim to find a solution to this issue.”
Beyond the prime minister’s remarks, a group of 29 NGOs including Palestinian Cultural Organisation Malaysia, Viva Palestina Malaysia, al-Quds Foundation Malaysia, Humanitarian Care Malaysia and ASEAN Coalition for Palestine have come out in support of the ban, and gave The Sun Daily following statement:
“Boycotting and isolating Israel is the very least that can and should be done to express moral outrage. If it worked against apartheid South Africa, it will work against apartheid Israel.”
“The Malaysian Government is doing the right thing in barring Israelis from this country.”
In addition to the IPC, the Israeli Olympic and Paralympic Committees have also been working to find a solution, to no avail thus far.
It’s time to find a new venue and stop this blatant discrimination. You open up a can of worms when one country gets to decide who to not invite for international competition. Malaysia has every right to decide who they let into their country, but when you agree to host an international competition you must abide by that organization’s rules or you forfeit your right to host.
Host countries must have assurances to accept all eligible athletes before they can be awarded as host countries.The best solution is to change the avenue and be fair to all participants.
NOBODY, NO COUNTRY IS ABOVE THE LAW, ABOVE REPROACH AND ABOVE CRITICISM, WITHOUT FAULT OR WITHOUT BLAME….. NOBODY… EVEN ISRAEL!!! IF THEY DO SOMETHING WRONG, IT NEEDS TO BE SAID!! BUGGER BEING CALLED ANTI-SEMITIC.. TRUTH IS TRUTH!!!
Oh before anybody says I am muslim, no, I am a white middle aged English woman.
Obviously those that have replied don’t know the definition of “apartheid” and should look up the definition in the Webster’s dictionary and have never been to Israel.
There is no apartheid in Israel as Jews, Christians and Muslims are free to travel anywhere in the country, do not have separate entrances to any establishment based on religion or race, do not have separate seating in buses, restaurants, are allowed to stay in any hotel of their choice without discrimination, are allowed and do go to any educational institution of their choice, are allowed to vote and elect the candidates of their choice to the Israeli parliament.
That being the case, how is Israel an “apartheid state”?
Perhaps… Read more »
For those who maintain Israel is Apartheid (and don’t know the definition of “apartheid”, below is a link to a newspaper article in which a Muslim Arab woman is running in the Israeli elections as a member of the governing party (the Likud- a right of centre party). So much for the lies about apartheid….gives question about all the other claims against Israel!!
https://www.timesofisrael.com/family-denounce-muslim-arab-likud-candidate-will-shun-her-until-she-recants/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2019-01-10&utm_medium=email
The solution is simple, FINA or whichever organization that decides the hosts of these competitions should stop letting countries like UAE, Qatar or Malaysia host these events unless they are fully committed to having an Israeli delegation at their country.
It is a disgrace that athletes from Israel are introduced as athletes from ISR in addition to racing under the FINA flag. There is no room for politics in any sport.
Nothing short of disgraceful.
Was protesting and attempts to ban South Africa from competition wrong?
The underpinning of apartheid is legal distinction between races, genders etc. Israeli law makes no such distinctions between any people. That doesnt mean Israeli policy shouldnt be protested, but it does mean it is nothing like South Africa once was; Nothing in Israeli law/constitution disadvantages non-Jews. Likud policy is what creates the problem. Very different from SA.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/ways-israeli-law-discriminates-palestinians-180719120357886.html
That article is about Palestinian citizens within Israel; I.e non-Israelis (they do not hold citizenship). The Israeli constitution & legal charter treats all Israeli citizens equally – But that doesnt mean social inequalities don’t exist. Non-nationals being treated differently is not specific to Israel either… For example, non-Arabs are forced to meet much stricter qualifying criteria for Emirati citizenship than Arabs. (And only ethnic Arabs can stand for public office).
Palestinian citizens are blocked from leasing about 80 percent of the land controlled by the state according to Adalah.” lol didn’t even read the article. Yeah discrimination in those countries isn’t okay either and I do condemn orgs that host events in those countries
So, aljazeera now is supposed to be an independent and accurate source of information and comment….you then should use Aljazeera as a source of safety and equality in the Arab world.
If you never lived in the area, you should not even express an opinion let alone saying that “Likud creates a problem”
Was bidding to host an international event in bad faith wrong?
How is it different from the promise of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe out the state of Israel from the face of the Earth or from cursing new congresswoman Rashida Tlaib keeping in her public office the map of the world that doesn’t have Israel on it or from Spanish swimming association not sending their swimmers to compete at International meets in Israel?
They aren’t threatening violence….it’s a map…. not going as a choice is diffeeent from not being allowed. There are better parallels to draw here.
It is only in simplified plain geometry like the Euclidean one the parallels never intersect. In the real world all your and my parallels will end up in one point that is well known to people for thousands years already.
Israel isn’t a legitimate state so why would it be on a map
If that’s so then why this guy denies visas for people from this land? Is it because they may happen to be handicapped Jews? Sure, it’s understandable. I can’t imagine anything more dangerous.
Uh if his reason for not allowing them is the fact they are Jewish that is completely unacceptable. However if their reasoning is Israel is an apartheid state carrying out ethnic cleansing then yes it is fine.
First, the premise that Israel is an apartheid state is utter nonsense, promoted by anti-Israeli ridiculous and viscous proganda from those who are totally ignorant of the facts and have never gone to or investigated the democracy that exists in Israel. While one may disagree with the way that some of the way things are there, it is the only true democratically elected leadership in the area, that has a rule of law enshrining the democratic rights of all the citizens of the county, Jewish, Muslim and Christians. If you don’t believe it, then go there and investigate it for yourself.
In case you don’t read history, the United Nations recognized Israel as a legitimate state in 1948. Perhaps you can enlighten the world about Palestine as a state. Did it ever have an elected parliament, it’s own currency, a judiciary or set of laws and constitution? In fact, Palestine was a name given to the region by the British after defeating the Ottoman Empire in WW l. This area under the Ottomans (Palestine) was divided among the Jordanians, Lebanese and Syrians and I believe Egypt…it was never a state or a recognized entity.
its very simple..theres no israel state..thats the fact..
The best answer on this page 👌
At this point the only solution is to move the championships. If the leader of the country comes out against their participation then that is pretty definitive. The earlier the move is, the better it is for the athletes and federations that have to readjust.
Sport authorities must have reassurance from hosting states to accept ALL athletes before awarding competition venues