PNN – On the eve of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, whispers of the suspension of the Zionist regime due to committing war crimes in Gaza are heard. A topic that has so far included South Africa, Russia and Belarus.
In the last two months, developments in Gaza and issues related to Zionist crimes are in the headlines of the world media. Recently, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Watch has announced that 20,031 Palestinians have been martyred in this war, 8,176 of whom are children.
In spite of the four-day temporary ceasefire that has been in effect since Friday and has been repeatedly violated by the Zionist regime’s army, international demands for pressure on Tel Aviv are increasing. From the observers’ point of view, one of these channels of pressure is sports restrictions such as the suspension of participation in the 2024 French Olympics.
Recently, the American Magazine the Nation investigated the possibility of suspending the Zionist regime from the Paris Olympic Games and wrote: “They did it with Russia and South Africa, why can’t they do it with the Zionist regime?”
The apartheid era and the rejection of the Olympics in South Africa
History has proven that different countries of the world have been under sanctions many times for various reasons and they have not been allowed to participate in the Olympics, and South Africa during the apartheid period is one of these cases.
Apartheid was a racist system that ruled South Africa since 1948 as a legacy of colonialism. Voting rights, political status and facilities belonged to the whites and the coloreds were separated. Whites were considered first class citizens; Indians and Yellows had limited rights as second-class citizens, and blacks were third-class citizens and had no rights.
In South Africa under apartheid, even in sports, competitions of each race and class were separate, and the national team consisted of only whites. In this country, all sports were racially segregated with separate clubs and administrations. Only white clubs participated in the South African team at the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games – later known as the Commonwealth Games.
The International Olympic Committee, under the leadership of Avery Brundage, called this an internal South African issue and did not take action, emphasizing the separation of politics from sports.
Since 1948, black athletes have complained about their exclusion to the International Olympic Committee, but were told to take the matter to the Commonwealth Games.
It remained isolated in the early 1960s when South Africa declared itself a republic and withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations. From the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to the 1999 Barcelona Olympics, South Africa was embargoed and did not have the right to participate in these games due to apartheid.
Of course, great steps were taken to transition from apartheid and the scandal of this open racial discrimination. For example, in 1959, a teacher named “Dennis Brutus” decided to fight racism through sports. He wanted to publicize South Africa’s racial discrimination in order to be kicked out according to the country’s Olympic statute. When the protests started, Brutus was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He continued his protest activity with Mandela and Sisulu from prison.
Finally, the sports-cultural boycott and protests made the world aware of the discrimination and oppression of apartheid. Finally, apartheid South Africa’s apartheid system practically disappeared from the 1990s. In 1991, as part of the transition to multiracial equality, a new Olympic Committee was formed and admitted to the International Olympic Committee, and the country participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Boycott of Russia and Belarus from the Olympic Games
The crisis in Ukraine is on the verge of two years, and during this period, the West, centered on America, has used all its power to put pressure on Russia and its allies, and these pressures have even spread to the field of sports.
Following Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee banned Russia and Belarus from participating in all Olympic and non-Olympic world events. This sanction includes that no international sports events will be held in Russia and Belarus; No flags and anthems or national symbols of Russia and Belarus should be installed at international sports events; No government will invite these two countries for an international sports event.
They initially barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in sporting events, and after some criticism, this policy was changed to state that Russian athletes could participate in these events but not under the Russian and Belarusian flags.
Then they make the flag of the National Olympic Committee and the athletes who participate from Russia in these international sports events compete under this flag, and the medal is registered in their name – not Russia’s. In the next stage, they eliminated the Russian football team from the World Cup.
A few months ago, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, invited 203 countries to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Russia, Belarus and Guatemala were not mentioned among these countries. The non-invitation of these three countries to the Olympics was met with the reaction of “Amelie Aude Castre”, the Minister of Sports of France.
In his speech, referring to the conditions of the International Olympic Committee for the countries of Russia and Belarus, he said: Our goal is to act on the principle of non-discrimination, which is also emphasized in the United Nations Charter. Now we have to wait to find out if neutrality is also practical for Russian and Belarusian athletes. We want athletes from these countries to participate in competitions without flags, without anthems and with full commitment to anti-doping rules.
Now it’s time to suspend the Zionist regime from the Olympics
The Zionist regime can rightly be considered as a perfect example of a government that relies on terrorism and war crimes. In the last 75 years, this regime has used all methods related to crime against the Palestinian people. But the peak of these crimes was after the Al-Aqsa storm operation. In 50 days, the Zionist regime committed a crime against the people of the Gaza Strip that even the western supporters of this regime did not dare to publicly support Israel’s attacks. A quick look at Israel’s crimes in the Gaza war before the 4-day ceasefire clearly confirms the brutality of Israel’s attacks:
These cases are only a part of Israel’s crimes in the Gaza Strip. Now the main and important question is, with this amount of crime, shouldn’t this regime be suspended from the Paris Olympic Games?! Definitely, this issue should become a global demand and prevent the presence of this child-killing regime in a sports event.
The result of the speech
The situation of apartheid South Africa, which was excluded from the Olympics, is very similar to the gross violation of human rights by the Zionists. Many blacks active in the field of human rights and the fight against apartheid believe that the crimes of the Zionist regime in different periods have shown that despite the similarities between the apartheid system of the regime and South Africa, the apartheid based in the occupied territories is much more violent, more obvious and more inhumane than the similar situation in Africa. It is expected that at least a similar fate will happen to them regarding the Olympics.
Recently, the American newspaper “New York Times” in a report compared the US killings in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan as well as the Zionist regime in Gaza and concluded that “the crime that America committed in 20 years, Israel committed in less than 2 months.
In addition to South Africa’s rejection of the Olympics due to apartheid, the sports boycott of Russia and Belarus also showed that boycotting other countries because of their policies is apparently not reprehensible. If Russia can be sanctioned for invading Ukraine, then other actors can be sanctioned, and Iran cannot even be blamed for sanctioning the Zionist regime.