Russia Is Banned, But Israel Isn’t. The Double Standards of Sports

Sports and Politics: Why Are Boycotts So Selective?

Once upon a time, there was a rich, peaceful country flowing with milk and honey called the Republic of South Africa. It bore no resemblance to the present-day state, which is a hotbed of brutal crime, infectious diseases, and terrifying poverty, and one of the most dangerous places in Africa. The difference is that back in the good old days, South Africa was ruled by white, conservative Boers, whereas it is now governed by Black communists and socialists.

Despite its wealth and excellent management, during its economic heyday, South Africa faced universal ostracism due to its system of apartheid. Apartheid was a system in which three separate communities—white (including Asians like Japanese and Chinese), mixed-race, and Black—lived in one country. The idea was that each group would function separately to avoid interfering with one another and to prevent racial conflicts.

This idea was so widely disliked that South Africa was subjected to a near-universal boycott, including a sports boycott. This meant that the South African national team was barred from competing in any international competitions, whether world championships or the Olympic Games.

Racial Segregation or Political Murders—Which Is Worse?

Was the decision of international sports organizations justified? Undoubtedly, yes, as the authorities in South Africa arbitrarily excluded Black athletes, which clashed with the idea of Olympism and fair sporting competition. But at the same time, no one considered excluding athletes from communist countries. And the regime there was much worse than South Africa’s apartheid.

In the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, Albania, and later in Vietnam and Cambodia, thousands or even millions of people were murdered, and millions more were imprisoned. This was not because of their skin color, but because of their political views or religious beliefs. It’s clear that in these countries, an athlete who declared opposition to the government would not only be barred from any competition but would also be murdered or imprisoned.

So it was easy for international sports organizations to exclude South Africa, but it was impossible to exclude communist countries, where the prevailing terror surpassed anything that the citizens of South Africa (even the Black ones) could have imagined.

(Un)sporting Hypocrisy

Defending the apartheid system was as unwelcome 50 years ago as it is today. However, people who condemn this system usually have only a superficial understanding of it and don’t even try to compare it to genuine totalitarian regimes. It’s as if segregating people based on their skin color is worse than segregating and eliminating them based on their political views or religious beliefs.

Not to mention that far fewer Black people were killed by whites in South Africa than white people are currently being killed by Black people. Of course, I want to be clear: a system of segregation in sports is unacceptable. If an athlete is judged not on their performance but on their skin color, sociopolitical views, or religion, then such a state rightly faces ostracism and boycott.

Sports and Politics: Russia Is Banned, Others Play On

The issue of a sports boycott against a state that does not uphold civilized standards returned with full force immediately after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. In many disciplines, Russian teams were excluded from competitions, and while Russian athletes can still compete in some events, they must do so under a neutral flag and are not allowed to play the Russian anthem. As someone who has always sincerely disliked Russia, whether communist or Putin’s, I am very pleased with this expression of condemnation for Russian aggression, especially since it is aggression combined with genocide and crimes against humanity.

But here, we must ask the question again: have international sports organizations reacted this way to all wars? We already know they didn’t care about the suffering of millions of people during the communist terror. To this day, they don’t care about the extermination of its own people engineered by the Kim regime in North Korea.

And what about wars? Well, no one cared about those either. Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, China, and Cuba, to name just the states that come to mind first, not only maintained bloody regimes but also attacked their neighbors and committed ethnic cleansing combined with genocide. They faced no sports sanctions for this.

Of course, Russia deserved to be excluded from the group of civilized nations. The thing is, there have been at least several dozen more or less “deserving” regimes throughout the world, and no one ever gave them a problem.

Israel, Palestine, and the Convenient Alibi of Sports Organizations

One can feel sympathy or compassion for the citizens of Israel, who live under the constant threat of Arab terrorist attacks. One can condemn the states and organizations that support this terrorism, but that does not change the fact that Israel is currently committing crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, murdering not only soldiers or terrorists serving their enemies, but entire families, including women and children, as well as volunteers providing humanitarian aid. The Prime Minister of Israel is a criminal wanted by the International Tribunal in The Hague. Do any sports organizations care about this? Is the state of Israel threatened with a boycott in any competitions? Unfortunately, no.

In this case, sports organizations find their usual excuses: that sport is not concerned with politics, that sport is meant to unite and not divide, that a boycott will only make things worse because it will close off the boycotted state to the world…

And so on and so forth, similar nonsense is spouted endlessly, as if the fact that the murderous dictatorship of North Korea is present at sporting events somehow mitigates the regime’s brutality.

Sports Above Division? Only When It Pays for Sponsors

Countries that do not adhere to democratic rules and practice discrimination based on race, religion, or political views should be automatically excluded from all sporting events. Note that this would then apply to many Islamic countries where changing one’s faith from Islam to another is punishable by death, and where women or religious and ethnic minorities are discriminated against.

Of course, I have no doubt that this will never happen. There will always be equals and “more equals.” Money and political influence have helped and will continue to help organizations take a lenient view of oppressive dictatorships.

Sports and Politics: What the World Didn’t Want to See

The Olympic Games in Russia’s Sochi, in China’s Beijing, major boxing tournaments in Saudi Arabia, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar (in this case, referring to the slave labor of thousands of workers)—all of this showed us clearly that in reality, no values matter, only the interests of the organizers, sponsors, and advertisers.

They are reminded of ethics and morality extremely rarely and only when they are unconditionally forced to do so. It is a pity that the world is this way. It is a pity that representatives of the civilized world have to compete in the same arenas as representatives of bloody tyrannies.

Jacek Piekara’s Postscriptum

Because I suspect that many people might have been outraged by my lenient view of South Africa under apartheid, here is a word of clarification: South Africa was certainly not an ideal state. Its system, based on racial segregation, favored whites and devalued Blacks (although it’s worth noting that it wasn’t necessarily a severe hardship, since Blacks from all over Africa fled to South Africa, where they could work for astronomical wages compared to those paid in other African countries).

For white citizens, South Africa was a paradise that Black citizens viewed with envy. However, as observers, we must also recognize the consequences of changing that system. And the consequence of apartheid’s fall was that South Africa turned into a hell on earth for everyone, both white and Black.

Read the original article: Rosję wyrzucono, Izrael nie. Jacek Piekara o podwójnych standardach