At the quarterfinals of the 2011 judo Grand Slam in Moscow, Egyptian Ramadan Darwish refused to shake hands with Israeli Arik Zeevi. We don’t want to think what will happen if you lost to an Israeli. When Sassoon extended his hand, the Egyptian backed away, shaking his head. “But for personal reasons, you can’t ask me to shake the hand of anyone from this State, especially in front of the whole world”.
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Egypt’s Al-Ahram paper reported that the nation’s Olympic committee said El Shehaby should have upheld sportsmanship values.
“Things happen in the heat of the moment that are not acceptable”, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said. “We believe that the Olympic movement needs to build bridges and not build walls, so I will look into the matter”.
Meanwhile the sportsman himself said he was not in breach of Olympic protocol as he “had no obligation to shake hands” with his opponent.
In a statement issued to explain the situation, the Committee said that El-Shehabi was “alerted before the match to abide by all the rules and to have a sporting spirit during his match with the Israeli athlete”.
Meanwhile the International Judo Federation stated that judokas are not obligated to shake hands – only to bow. “This is already a big improvement that Arabic countries accept to (fight) Israel”, spokesman Nicolas Messner said in an email.
Small gestures like handshakes won’t change people who are intent on destroying sworn enemies, but an Egyptian and an Israeli bonding for a few seconds over sports couldn’t have been easily dismissed, either.
“My son, watch out”.
El Shehaby, 32, had been reportedly pressured by fans on social media not to show up for the match with his Israeli opponent because it would shame Islam. “It happens between friends and he’s not my friend”, L’Esprit du Judo quoted El Shehaby as saying.
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He wrote that El Shehaby’s move backfired, and the Israeli athlete ended up with more sympathy.
