On the same day that Israeli forces bombed a girls’ school in central Gaza, killing at least 30 people and injuring over 100, Israel’s soccer team was allowed to compete without sanctions at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Even though Paraguay defeated Israel 4-2, TRNN’s Dave Zirin reports that “Israel actually won this, because they were allowed to play at all.” In this on-the-ground report from Paris, Zirin covers the protests and politics surrounding Saturday’s soccer match.
Studio Production: Jules Boykoff
Post-Production: David Hebden, Cameron Granadino
Transcript
Dave Zirin: Hey, this is Dave Zirin from Edge of Sports TV, only on the Real News Network.
I’m here standing outside Parc des Princes Stadium here in Paris, where the Israeli soccer team is about to take on Paraguay.
Now, why am I here? Because the question about Israeli athletes and them having the permission to play in these games is one of the hot-button issues in Paris right now, and, frankly, around the world, particularly on this day of all days where an Israeli airstrike killed 30 people sheltering in a school in Gaza.
So we’re wondering, are there going to be protests here? You hear some noise in the background. What are those protests going to look like? We’re going to find out right here at the stadium. Maybe there’ll be nothing. Maybe there’ll be something. But I’m excited to find out, because the resistance at these Olympics are the politics they do not want to talk about.
Just a few things about the mood outside the stadium. You do see some folks in Israeli flags. I’m not seeing yet Palestinian flags, but Paraguay has shown up in a big way. So that’s something, and we’re going to keep recording and keep finding out what’s happening as Israel meets Paraguay at a contest where a lot of people think Israel has no place on the field.
The security outside the Israel-Paraguay game, it was like nothing you can imagine and nothing I’ve ever experienced before a sporting event. Incredible amount of police, your body was checked twice, machine guns everywhere.
And yet despite all of that, look at this man, in a wheelchair, with a Palestinian flag, somehow got it into the arena. I got to tell you, if he was able to do all that, it’s actually humbling to think about what he went through. Humbling to think about how important it was for him to make a statement of dissent against Israel’s presence.
Okay, the match is over. Paraguay won 4-2 over Israel, but that’s not the story here. Because Israel in a way, actually won this because they were able to play at all, and that’s a problem.
Here’s the problem at play. Look, Israel should not be in these games at all because of what’s called sportswashing. Right now, Israel is acting like a pariah nation. It is bombing Gaza. It is bombing Rafah, and yet they are allowed to come to these games and be sportswashed and accepted as a legitimate part of the international sports community and the international community. And that’s the problem.
A huge number of Israeli players are members of the Israeli Armed Forces, and yet here they are playing. Meanwhile, Russia was sanctioned because many of their players were in the Russian Armed Forces. The hypocrisy is blaring, and yet there Israel was. Their national anthem played, a whole stadium of people stood up and paid respect. There were Israeli flags everywhere. And this is the problem.
And that is exactly why we need to be vigilant about saying that Israel has no place in international sports competition as long as it is acting like a settler-colonialist state. For Edge of Sports TV, I’m Dave Zirin.
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