“Egypt will cry [if you play]”, said a TV host on an Islamist-leaning network.
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To anyone who wants to believe Olympic sports can heal divisions, even for just a day or a few minutes, we present Islam El Shehaby.
An Egyptian Olympic judo athlete refused to shake his Israeli competitor’s hand on Friday after losing the competition.
Or Sasson has won a Israel’s second bronze medal of the Rio Olympics.
His actions caused loud boos from the crowd and the referee to call him back to bow, when he gave a quick nod of his head to Sasson.
The Egyptian had been encouraged to withdraw rather than compete against an Israeli. El Shehaby, 34, stood stony-faced and backed away from the 25-year-old Sasson.
His opponent Sasson won his following match and has now progressed to the semi-finals.
Egypt’s Al-Ahram paper reported that the nation’s Olympic committee said El Shehaby should have upheld sportsmanship values. “Egypt will be sad and you will be seen as a traitor and a normaliser in the eyes of your people”.
These Olympians who have been chosen to represent their countries are faced with the hard decision to either remain neutral and risk appearing traitorous to their fans at home, or take the route that El Shehaby has and risk their reputation for seeming unsportsmanlike.
Sasson told Army Radio that Israeli athletes are often met with cold responses from Muslim opponents in worldwide competitions so the actions of his Egyptian counterpart did not surprise him.
He wrote that El Shehaby’s move backfired, and the Israeli athlete ended up with more sympathy.
“Nevertheless, after the Games the situation will be studied and analysed to see if further action must be taken”, spokesman Nicolas Messner told Reuters.
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“Since we accepted to play under the Olympics (terms), we must accept the competition with everyone regardless of anything”, Abdel Aziz said before the match.
