Lebanese Olympians ‘refuse to ride in bus with Israelis’

[lostinblue 1,989]

Lebanese Olympians ‘refuse to ride in bus with Israelis’

Members of the Lebanese delegation to the 2016 Olympic Games refused to travel on the same bus as their Israeli counterparts to the opening ceremony in Rio on Friday, with some attempting to block athletes from entering the vehicle, according to a report by an Israeli trainer who claimed to have witnessed the scene

“The bus driver opened the door, but this time the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the aisle and entrance. The organizers wanted to avoid an international and physical incident and sent us away to a different bus.”.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/lebanese-olympic-team-demands-israelis-be-removed-from-shared-bus/

[OriZ 3,157]

Lebanese Olympians ‘refuse to ride in bus with Israelis’

Members of the Lebanese delegation to the 2016 Olympic Games refused to travel on the same bus as their Israeli counterparts to the opening ceremony in Rio on Friday, with some attempting to block athletes from entering the vehicle, according to a report by an Israeli trainer who claimed to have witnessed the scene

“The bus driver opened the door, but this time the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the aisle and entrance. The organizers wanted to avoid an international and physical incident and sent us away to a different bus.”.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/lebanese-olympic-team-demands-israelis-be-removed-from-shared-bus/

Nothing new there. The olympics have long not been what they were meant to be - now they are just one big hypocrisy show, with everyone pretending to "come together" but same old politics are still in play. We've had other instances not related to the olympics where either sports people or scientists, journalists you name it had something to do with a lebanese, or an egyptian, or whatever...it is always the other hate filled side that doesn't want to "normalize".

[EM_Vandaveer 2,417]

Shameful. Definitely not sportsmanlike at all.

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Nothing new there. The olympics have long not been what they were meant to be - now they are just one big hypocrisy show, with everyone pretending to "come together" but same old politics are still in play. We've had other instances not related to the olympics where either sports people or scientists, journalists you name it had something to do with a lebanese, or an egyptian, or whatever...it is always the other hate filled side that doesn't want to "normalize".

Well at least we don't have PLO Muslims massacaring Jews now

[Merrytooth 5,748]

Maybe the Lebaneses are afraid of bus bombing if they share the bus wth the Israelis

[Póg mo 1,749]

Lebanese Olympians ‘refuse to ride in bus with Israelis’

Members of the Lebanese delegation to the 2016 Olympic Games refused to travel on the same bus as their Israeli counterparts to the opening ceremony in Rio on Friday, with some attempting to block athletes from entering the vehicle, according to a report by an Israeli trainer who claimed to have witnessed the scene

“The bus driver opened the door, but this time the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the aisle and entrance. The organizers wanted to avoid an international and physical incident and sent us away to a different bus.”.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/lebanese-olympic-team-demands-israelis-be-removed-from-shared-bus/

What possible reason could the Lebanese have for disliking the Israelis? Oh that's right, the invasions, the bombings, the massacres, the probably future bombings, the murder of innocent civilians.

[OriZ 3,157]

What possible reason could the Lebanese have for disliking the Israelis? Oh that's right, the invasions, the bombings, the massacres, the probably future bombings, the murder of innocent civilians.

All of which, even if were not completely detached from reality(and they are), are still not a valid reason for sportsmen to not show sportsmenship at the olympics. I mean it is the olympics for crying out loud but like I said, there's nothing really left of the original idea behind the olympics anymore, they might as well not even bother. And what reason would Egyptians have? And what reason would Quataris have? And what reason would Jordanians have? Cause I can give you examples with those and others all day long. The only reason is simple - being bred hate since birth and not being willing to recognize the other country's and people's existence. Another epic fail with more flawed logic on the hate filled side, trying to justify such hatred in sports which should have nothing to do with politics.

Edited August 7, 2016 by OriZ

[OriZ 3,157]

Here's a few more recent exmaples, and there's more but I cannot find all of them, but we hear about it all the time;

"A lot of Swedes know Tel Aviv and know that the people there are very pro-LGBT," Adner said. "It felt like I was tempting fate if we had written 'Israel' on the signs, so I wrote 'Tel Aviv.' Overall, a lot of people approached us to congratulate us, but there were a lot of Arabs who yelled 'f**k Israel' at us. That wasn't so pleasant. But we weren't afraid and continued to wave the flag."

The group also handed out little Israeli flags, which they received from the Israeli embassy, to bystanders. At one point during the march a confrontation with Palestinian girls transpired. Nevertheless, the march ended peacefully mainly due to the fact that Swedish police officers were escorting participants.

The Swedish Police have promised to do more to protect Jews and Israelis from violence, yet no tangible effects have been felt on the ground.

"Identifying yourelf as an Israeli in Malmo can end in violence," Adner said. "It usually starts with derogatory name-calling, yelling, and threats, but can quickly spiral into violence. We're worried someone might attack us. Although this didn't happen, you can still feel the tension in the air."

She addd that "waving the Israeli flag isn't something normal to do in Malmo, and this is the first time it's happened at a gay pride march. I insisted that we wave Israeli flags because we are sick of being afraid in this city. I felt that enough was enough. We're not ready to keep being afraid without doing anything. So we decided to wave the Israeli flag."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4838305,00.html

Egyptians have already begun to refer to Faraj as the "new legislator for normalization," a title which he inherited from former talk show host and parliamentarian Tawfik Okasha, who was ejected from the Egyptian parliament for

"I am against normalization with Israel," he said, referring to the tweet he said was made by someone else in his name.

It seems that 37 years after signing a peace treaty with Israel, "normalization" is still considered a dirty word in Egypt and in the Egyptian parliament.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4783484,00.html

The Egyptian Journalists’ Syndicate said Sunday it has renewed a ban on all forms of professional, personal and trade union normalization of relations with Israel, Turkey’s Anadolu news agencyreported.

“The Press Syndicate adheres to the General Assembly’s successive resolutions prohibiting all forms of professional, personal, and trade union normalisation of relations with the Israeli enemy,” it said in a statement.

The statement added: “The syndicate will immediately forward any complaint over potential violation of its resolution to the trade union investigation committee to take disciplinary action against those found guilty of practicing any form of normalization with Israel.”

The statement was issued after Avichai Adraee, the Israeli military spokesman, welcomed last week a visit by a group of Egyptian journalists to Israel, describing it as a “great initiative”.

The Egyptian Parliament on Sunday referred controversial TV host and MP Tawfik Okasha to a special commission of inquiry after he had dinner on Wednesday with the Israeli ambassador in Egypt Haim Koren.

Egypt maintains political and economic ties with Israel, but relations are generally rejected at the grassroots level.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160229-egypts-press-syndicate-reiterates-rejection-of-normalization-with-israel/

A selfie taken by a group of Miss Universe contestants isn’t normally something that makes international news, but a recent photo showing has bucked the trend.

The innocent image was taken by Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, who posted it on to her Instagram account. Social media users soon noticed that Lebanon’s Saly Greige was standing next to her, which led to some angry Lebanese folk calling for their country’s contestant to be stripped of her title for ‘consorting with the enemy’.

According to Lebanon’s , the hashtag ‘two words for Miss Lebanon’ was trending on Twitter this weekend, as thousands of Lebanese people fumed against Greige for blatantly fraternising with Matalon.

Greige has since put out a disappointing explanation of the photo on, saying: “The truth behind the photo: Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me).

“I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself; suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media… this is what happened and I hope to have your full support in the Miss Universe contest.”

In contrast, Matalon has re-posted the image on her with the message: “It doesn't surprise me, but it still makes me sad. Too bad you can not put the hostility out of the game, only for three weeks of an experience of a lifetime that we can meet girls from around the world and also from the neighbouring country.”

Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war, though the border has been relatively quiet since 2006. But while Miss Israel has not faced any obvious criticism from Israelis about the selfie, Miss Lebanon has people calling for her to be stripped of her title – something that did actually happen back in 1993 when the then Miss Lebanon Huda al-Turk posed with the then Miss Israel.

On social media, users are suggesting that the anger from some Lebanese people goes against the idea of a beauty contest promoting ‘world peace’, and this latest spat is “as ridiculous as the pageants themselves”.

Greige’s justification that she was ‘photobombed’ by Matalon has also been critiqued for being “rude” and “unnecessary”. Of course, it might be true, but that’s not the point – it seems incredibly sad that she has to try and explain why she’s smiling in an image with a fellow contestant. The fact that the two women hail from countries in conflict with each other shouldn’t really matter.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11355022/Miss-Universe-Israel-v-Lebanon-The-dark-truth-behind-a-selfie.html

As I have told Marv about prejudice, peace starts from the people not from politicians, if you are in the olympics and are unwilling to make a move towards helping with that - it's on you. Israelis are usually not the ones to refuse trying to get closer to the other side. But some of them genuinely don't want to, and some of them are afraid of the backlash at home so they still refuse to have anything to do with Israelis. As far as the "probably future bombings" goes...as long as Hezbollah doesn't do anything stupid, the countries can live in peace for eternity. If they decide to pull a 2006 all over again they will pay. Never did, and never will, start on the Israeli side.

Edited August 7, 2016 by OriZ

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

They should have made them walk. Bad sportsmanship indeed.

[OriZ 3,157]

They should have made them walk. Bad sportsmanship indeed.

I agree, but I was 100% sure pog mo was going to show up here and try and justify that ugly behaviour. So predictable. It would be like justifying if an American or French team refused to share the bus with teams that are Muslim because some Muslims bomb people around the world. No, actually that one was even worse because unlike said Muslims, Israel doesn't intentionally target civilians. Funny how they would be all over it if it was that way, but this seems like a justification to them."Don't be afraid of all black people". "Don't accuse all Muslims". "Oh? An Israeli sports team? Well of course they shouldn't sit with them!"

What the powers that be should have done is forced the Lebanese to either accept the Israelis, or be banned from participating in the games. But the folks running the show are and have been for a long time now part of the problem, not the solution. I personally haven't been watching the games for like the last 16 years because for one I find most of them to be incredibly boring and for two the hypocrisy. The people there should have nothing to do with politics, they are dealing with sports, and you have some defending it. God, it's so much fun to expose their hypocrisy every single time.