At the European Fencing Championship (U23), during the medal ceremony where the Israeli team won gold, the Swiss silver medalists turned their backs to the Israeli flag. This action sparked significant controversy, with Israeli officials calling it “disrespectful” and emphasizing that sports should unite rather than divide.

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, called the act “shameful behavior by the Swiss team.” Following diplomatic intervention by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss team issued an apology.

What are your thoughts on this incident? Should sports and politics stay separate, or does this reflect larger issues in international sportsmanship?

by magicmorz

15 comments

  2. Good move lol, as they should. Nothing going against the israeli team’s members directly (idk their beliefs after all) but their government is out here committing a genocide. Their action makes total sense. 🙂

  3. as long as they treated the isreali players well and only turned their backs on the flag, it is fine.

  5. > What are your thoughts on this incident? Should sports and politics stay separate, or does this reflect larger issues in international sportsmanship?

    You post a lot in /r/IDF, so I think you’re just here trying to stir up shit. Go away.

  6. They can swear, lie, shout, but they can’t hide Fact that without US support they would be shredded to the pieces by their neighbors. I can speak for myself, but responding with genocide to terrorist attack, while oppressing 2 millions of people in Gaza for years without any respond, any mercy, shooting to children out of boredom, rejecting Food transports or currently bombarding medical transports is not an equal answer. As I said – I speak for myself, I don’t want to discuss that any further.

  7. I really don’t care. Those guys are free to look in whatever direction they want

  8. I don’t think Israel is in a position to tell other countries what is shameful and what isn’t.

    I believe that to a certain extent we can should seperate politics and sports however the members of the swiss team should be entitled to their opinions and liberty of speech/actions as long as it doesn’t harm anyone which here it clearly doesn’t.
    I think it would be disrespecful to expect the individuals within the teams to have to show “respect” to a flag which they do have negative feelings about. Speak up and stand up to the things in which you believe. Good on them.

    On a side note, Why is Israel at the european championship?

  9. These Swiss fencers have forgotten about where their Nazi gold came from, eh?

    Look, countries do shitty things in their own national interests… Especially Israel-Middle East conflict where the chicken and egg problem is very real

    there is no need to make inconsequential gesture like this, only to upset your fellow fencers… Bibi just doesn’t care

  10. Yes, the Swiss team should unite with the Israelis and encourage them to shit on human rights even more. Maybe they could have abused some Palestinian kids as a sign of solidarity. Israel isn’t even in Europe. Why do they take part in the European championship?

  11. The biggest issue is the team feeling pressured to issue an apology for this. Israel is not a holy cow and it should be fine to express opinions about it.

  12. Well seperating sports and politics is pointless. After all many athletes compete under their country‘s flag. And a country is a political entity.

    As for this action, great I would have done the same and not apologized.

  13. Turned their backs on a genocidal state’s representation through their flag. I have respect for these athletes. Do not stay silent and have class

  14. >Should sports and politics stay separate

    Regardless of our thoughts about this particular incident, this is not true. Sports and politics have always been closely intertwined. Most big international sport events now take place in autocratic countries as advertisement. Remember the Olympia boycotts? Remember ping-pong diplomacy? Nationalists love to use sports to compete and prove their superiority. Remember Hitler’s games in ’36? Remember how Jesse Owens embarassed Hitler? Remember the many times black athletes used their platform in sports to ask for civil rights? Many fan clubs and sports clubs have political leanings. Some have changed world history, such as the boxer revolution in China.

    So, again, regardless of whether you like this gesture or not, it’s not breaking a taboo or otherwise special that political topics show up in sports like this.

  15. like they turned their backs on jewish refugees in WW2

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