The Council on American-Islamic Relations has submitted a request to bar the Jewish state from participating in the Olympics, citing statistics from the Hamas Health Ministry and claims of genocide taking place in Gaza.
CAIR called on the International Olympic Committee to ban Israeli athletes from participating under an Israeli flag in the 2024 Summer Olympics, which opens in Paris on July 26.
In a letter penned by CAIR’s Deputy Executive Director Edward Mitchell, the organization wrote, “Allowing the Israeli government to officially participate in the Olympics undermines the very principles upon which the Games are founded. It conveys a message that the international community is willing to overlook genocide and war crimes when the victims are not Europeans. This is unacceptable.”
The letter was addressed to IOC President Thomas Bach.
Mitchell continued to claim that “more than 38,000 Palestinians, including at least 15,000 children, have been mercilessly killed in the Israeli government’s indiscriminate attacks on Gaza.”
The Gaza Health Ministry has been recognized, even by the U.N., to have grossly inflated the number of casualties, especially concerning women and children.
In February, 26 French lawmakers from left-wing parties sent a similar letter to Bach demanding that Israeli athletes be stripped of the flag and national anthem due to their country allegedly committing genocide.
Bach told the press in early March that there was no issue with Israel or its athletes participating in the summer games this year. When a reporter from the Associated Press asked whether Israel will be put under the same ban as Russia, Bach responded, “No, there is no question about this.”
In December 2023, two months after the war began and as calls to prevent Israel from participating were already circulating, Yael Arad, president of the Olympic Committee of Israel, told French sports daily L’Équipe that Israel and its athletes will “100% be present in the Paris Olympics.”
‘May there be many medals’
In June 2024, Minister of Culture and Sport Miki Zohar announced that any Israeli athlete who brings home a gold medal will receive a stipend of 1 million shekels (about $273,000). He added that stipends for silver and bronze medals will amount to 700,000 (some $191,000) and 500,000 shekels ($137,000), respectively. Zohar added that these stipends will be tax-free.
“We yearn for pride in these games,” Zohar told reporters. “It is very important for the State of Israel at this time. Just so there is no doubt, the grants are also for Paralympic athletes. May there be many medals; we will raise the money for everyone. Just create the problems for me. The coaches will receive 50% of the total amount, and for them, it’s taxable.”
The 2024 Summer Paralympics begins in Paris on Aug. 28.
CAIR has been an antisemitism strategy partner of the U.S. government in the past but was recently removed from the list of partner organizations after making inflammatory statements about Israel’s role in the current war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.
Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, responded on Tuesday to reports that there is U.S. intelligence Iran is trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
“Are you sure this is not an Israeli plot to ignite another war between the U.S. and other countries in the Middle East at its behest?” Awad wrote on social media.
Jason Greenblatt, a former Middle East envoy in the Trump White House, noted that CAIR is a nonprofit. “What kind of crazy, irresponsible talk is this?” he wrote. “The U.S. government should immediately investigate CAIR’s tax-exempt status.”
CAIR and other members of the United States Council of Muslim Organizations, which bills itself as the “largest American Muslim civil-society umbrella organization,” released a statement in October blaming Israel for Hamas’s massacre of some 1,200 people.
“The recent unprovoked and continuous attacks by Israel on Palestinian towns, cities and refugee camps have resulted in tragic loss of Palestinian lives,” the umbrella group stated, with no mention of Israelis murdered, raped, wounded and taken hostage.