For as long as it has existed, the Olympics has shrouded itself in the language of international fraternity and peace. Yet more than 10 months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has yet to take action against the pariah state’s participation in the Paris games. Edge of Sports host Dave Zirin speaks with Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, for an exclusive interview. Rajoub describes the hardships and obstacles Palestine’s athletes have overcome from the “fascist, racist occupation” to attend the Paris Olympics, and calls out the silence from the IOC regarding Israel’s genocide.
Studio Production: Jules Boykoff
Post-Production: David Hebden, Adam Coley
Transcript
Dave Zirin:
Hey, this is Dave Zirin from Edge of Sports TV, only on the Real News Network. I’m speaking with Jibril Rajoub, who, among many titles, is also the head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. We’re coming to you from Olympic Paris. Mr. Rajoub, thank you for joining us.
Jibril Rajoub:
Appreciate your kindness. Hopefully that, through this platform, I can convey the message of my people to the French people, which is a message of hope, peace, love, and determination to enjoy our fundamental rights. Right of self-determination, to live in peace, security, in our sovereign, independent, Palestinian state.
Dave Zirin:
What has the challenge been for you to bring an Olympic team to Paris, given the context of everything that’s been happening since October?
Jibril Rajoub:
I have the worst challenge, which is exclusive for the Palestinians. A fascist and racist occupation trying to liquidate, to destroy my Palestinian people through official terror, aggressions. Trying to negate us. But the other face of the picture is our commitment, our ambitions, and even our commitment to expose our justice cause through the ethics and the values of sport. Sport is a strategic choice. Athletes, to expose our justice cause, [are] the most effective tool, and this is… I think the Israelis don’t like and don’t want [this], because they want to present us totally in a different shape and character.
But I am insisting, and I am working in spite [of the] closure, killing, suffocation, ethnic cleansing in Gaza, destroying all the facilities of sport—and even some of them are used as concentration camps in the West Bank. We had to suspend all official sport activities, because of the Israeli crazy and stupid and fascist choices on the ground. But in spite of that, you see that we came with eight athletes trying to convey a message to the international community: It’s the time to end the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Dave Zirin:
What makes sports so effective in conveying your message and your cause?
Jibril Rajoub:
I think sport today is a global language. Sport is a humanitarian, peaceful means. [And] therefore, I myself—I suffer. And I don’t want to see anyone suffer. I have spent 17 years in Israeli jails, which was worse than the Bastille. But in spite of that, I don’t want to cause suffering to anyone, no matter who is he and where is he coming from. I do believe that using sport, using athletes as an asset in our resistance and in our struggle, it’s very effective. And even here in France, the way that we were received, and all over the world, is encouraging me and motivating me to continue this path. A peaceful, a non-violent tool—sport, athletes, football, and so on.
Dave Zirin:
That goes to my next question. How has the Palestinian delegation, the Palestinian athletes, how have you been welcomed, treated, received here in Paris?
Jibril Rajoub:
Very friendly. With roses, smiling. Wherever we go, the French people, the normal people, are welcoming us in a friendly, smiling, lovely way. Even the president of France received me well and encouraged me to continue. And also, he’s trying to send a message of hope to our people. And I think he can. He can [play] a great role in the current situation, to send a message of hope to the Palestinians. Frustration, losing hope, will lead to bad consequences. We expect France—French people, French parliament, government, and the president—in the current situation, to play [a] crucial [role]… It’s important not to let the Palestinians [lose] hope. It’s the time. Believe me, it’s the time. Otherwise, pushing us to the vicious cycle of bloodshed and killing, they are playing on the hands of this fascist, crazy, stupid Bibi and his racist government. Bibi is the same model of hopeless. Bibi and his government is a real threat for regional stability and global peace. They’re expansionists, they’re fascists. The way that they are behaving, the way that they are talking about the Palestinians, as if we are not existing.
They cannot deny that more than seven… about seven million Palestinians live in historic Palestine. Could they ignore? Could they continue on this apartheid?
Dave Zirin:
Wow.
Jibril Rajoub:
The ball is in the court of the international community, the free peoples, France. The French Revolution two centuries ago inspired the whole world. 13th of July, 1789 inspired the whole world. It’s the time. It’s the time for the disciples of that revolution to come up and say, “Enough is enough.”
Dave Zirin:
As you well know, there is the Olympic Charter. There is also something called the Olympic Truce. Israel has violated the Charter and the Truce flagrantly.
Jibril Rajoub:
Israel is insisting to violate all the principles, all the truces, all the charters, and continue their crazy and fascist doctrine to dictate facts by killing, by destroying, by occupying, by suffocating the Palestinians. The Israelis have no right because of the Holocaust, which we denounce, which we are against. We did not do that. Someone else! Why should we be a scapegoat? Why should we pay the price? Do the grandsons of the victims of the Holocaust have the right to do the same against the Palestinian people? The killing of tens of thousands in Gaza. The destruction of the whole infrastructure. What does this mean? For what? Do they have the right? [What is their] justification? Because of the Holocaust? We are not responsible and we should not. And this inferiority complex for the Europeans should be removed. And even for the Jews themselves, they have to understand that this crazy and stupid and rightist, fascist government is a real threat for their own existence.
Dave Zirin:
So why, given that they have violated the Olympic Charter, that they have violated the Olympic Truce—why is Israel allowed to still compete at the Olympics?
Jibril Rajoub:
The athlete who raised the flag, a judo champion, he himself signed a missile, sending it to the kids of Gaza, ‘From me to you.’ Does he have the right to attend? The president of the Olympic Committee of Israel visited, encouraged. And even some players and athletes were part of the Israeli occupying forces killing [inaudible]. Having official sport activities in the Occupied Territories—East Jerusalem, West Bank—is a clear cut violation of the Olympic Charter and [inaudible] statutes.
The ball is in the court of Europe, who are responsible for the Holocaust. And it’s the time for them to raise [inaudible]. It was not a great honor for France and for the IOC to have the Israelis. It’s not a political issue for me. It’s a moral issue. It’s a legal issue. It’s a sport issue. It’s ethical issue. But this is the Holocaust inferiority complexity in Europe, which is leading, which is motivating.
Dave Zirin:
What does the International Olympic Committee not understand?
Jibril Rajoub:
Brother, I am not the expert person. I did my best, and I will continue on two directions. From one side, I will keep developing sport, encouraging the youth in Palestine to follow the ethics and the values of a sport as an effective platform to expose the suffering of our people. And, at the same time, to keep on working on all fronts in order to have Israel sanctioned, being punished by IOC and FIFA. Believe me, when I go to the history of South Africa, 60 years, 80 years, last century, it was kindergarten [compared to] what the Israelis are doing against the Palestinians.
Dave Zirin:
Wow. I also really wanted to ask you about the Algerian judoka who did not compete against… I know that’s Algeria, not Palestine. But should athletes not even compete against Israeli athletes here? What counsel would you give athletes, especially athletes who are appalled by what’s happening?
Jibril Rajoub:
Once again, I think the Israelis did lose their right to attend and to compete. And I don’t think that anyone who, for sport reasons, cannot play should be sanctioned. I would like to address an Israeli athlete with the ethics of the game. Could he tolerate competing against a Nazi athlete? Believe me, this is the same. This is the same. Don’t ask the victim. Ask the criminal.
Dave Zirin:
Our show is, of course, in the United States. Our article that we publish will be in the United States. What message do you have for the people of the United States, and the politicians of the United States who are arming Israel?
Jibril Rajoub:
They are arming, they are supporting, they are defending, and they are protecting, I think, for their own ethics and values, right of self-determination, human rights principles, and even for their own national security interests in the Middle East and all over the world. I call for them to raise a red card to Israel. The Israelis have the right to live in peace and security, but within their internationally recognized borders. The establishment of a Palestinian sovereign state next to the state of Israel. The emergence of such a state will contribute to regional stability, global peace. And the Israelis, I am sure, then have the right and will enjoy security and stability. The Israelis cannot continue their expansionist and their fascist policies on the ground and at the same time think that they can enjoy security and being integrated in the Middle East. No security, no integration without the emergence of an independent sovereign state.
Dave Zirin:
You’ve been so generous with your time, but one more question. What do sports mean?
Jibril Rajoub:
For me?
Dave Zirin:
No, no, no. To the people of Gaza. And how has this war taken that away from them?
Jibril Rajoub:
Please, please, please, please. All sports facilities in Gaza, 100 persons, destroyed—athletes, employees, staff of a sport, killed. Hundreds still missing. I don’t know whether they are under rubble or in Israeli jails. And also hundreds have been injured. Sport is no more existing in Gaza. What is existing is our determination, our commitment, our principles. In the West Bank, because of the Israeli suffocation policy, we have to suspend all leagues and sport activities. The movement with those settlers, fascist settlers, the disciples of Baruch Goldstein who are behaving like the bully of neighborhoods against the Palestinians. We cannot move. We cannot do anything. And also sport is no more working in the West Bank. It’s the time. It’s the time now.
Dave Zirin:
Wow. And I must ask you one last question. Does it feel sometimes like your head is just going to explode when you have all of this Olympic pageantry and joy while people in Gaza suffer so much?
Jibril Rajoub:
Not easy. Not easy. But frustration, giving up, surrendering is not part of my Palestinian national doctrine. My commitment to my people, [our] national aspirations—it’s a genetic issue. Giving up? White flag? Never, never. And I will keep leading the youth, the athletes, the fans in the right direction to achieve our people’s national aspirations and our people’s legitimate right, fundamental right, to live in their own independent Palestinian sovereign state, according to the UN resolutions and legitimacy. Okay, brother.
Dave Zirin:
Jibril Rajoub, thank you so much for joining us on Edge of Sports.
Jibril Rajoub:
All the best. Thanks to Catherine.
Dave Zirin:
We’ll be back after this.
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