UK applause as Malaysia loses Paralympic event
Asian country stripped of right to host international swimming championship over its ban on Israeli athletes
POLITICIANS AND Jewish leaders have welcomed the decision to strip Malaysia of a major international swimming competition after it refused to allow Israeli athletes to compete.
After a meeting in London on Sunday, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said Malaysia had not offered Israel any guarantees on visas, the singing of anthems or the use of flags at the World Para Swimming Championships. The IPC said the Malaysian government — led by antisemitic Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad — had reneged on “assurances that all eligible athletes and countries would be allowed to participate in the event with their safety assured”. Mr Mohamad has a his- tory of making antisemitic statements and told the Oxford Union earlier this month he had a right to speak “against the Jews”.
Jewish Leadership Council chief executive Simon Johnson said his organisation applauded the “firm and decisive action taken by the IPC” and added that “discrimination in sport has no place”.
Joan Ryan MP, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, said she “strongly welcomed” the IPC’s decision. In a defeat for antisemites, [the IPC has] made clear that singling out the world’s only Jewish state will not be tolerated.
“Malaysia should not be allowed to host international events, sporting or otherwise, until it reverses its policy of discriminating against Israelis.”
Labour’s Tom Watson — who had led calls for Malaysia to be stripped of the right to host the swimming qualifying event — called it: “A sad but necessary decision.”
Board of Deputies President Marie Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad, who is open about his hatred of Jews and the Jewish state
van der Zyl said: “Malaysia’s Prime Minister continues to heap shame upon his office for his overtly racist comments against Jews.
“It is a pity for ordinary Malaysians that their prime minister’s bigotry has deprived them of the opportunities championships present.
“We hope that, wherever their new home, the championships will be a tremendous, inclusive and sporting success.”
The Foreign Office told the JC last week that the proposed ban on Israelis was “fundamentally wrong” after Mr Watson said a new host must be found if Malaysia persisted with it.
The JC can also reveal that Countdown host Rachel Riley sent a speech to be read out at a Zionist Federationprotest due to take place outside the IPC meeting in London on Sunday, which was cancelled when the committee reached its decision.
In her speech, Ms Riley had been due to say: “Malaysia’s leader has cited ‘humanitarian grounds’ as to why he’s denying Israeli athletes’ entry to the games... citing media coverage that has focused on ongoing problems in Israel/ Palestine to add weight and ballast to his claims.
“Yet in the same media coverage, when discussing his ‘humanitarian’
concerns, what I’ve often seen go unmentioned is Mahathir Mohamad’s bare-faced, not even remotely Israelrelated, unveiled Jew-hatred, which he’s publicly declared that he’s ‘glad of’, when labelled an antisemite.
“His Holocaust revision, references to ‘hooked noses’, and decades promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories that ‘Jews run the world by proxy,’ are just a few examples of his flagrant antisemitism that are conspicuous by their absence.
“For Malaysia to cite ‘humanitarian’ concerns is the highest hypocrisy.”
Singling out the world’s only Jewish state will not be tolerated