The European Ultimate Federation banned the Israeli Under-17 team after anti-Israel vandalism and threats led cities to refuse to let them compete.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Belgium caved in to anti-Israel activists Wednesday and kicked Israeli youth teams out of the Ultimate Frisbee European Championships with the agreement of the federation that runs the sport.

The Under-17s of the open and mixed divisions were first supposed to compete in Ghent, but in the late planning stages, the municipality and local police nixed their appearance due to their alleged inability to guarantee the teens’ safety after anti-Israel protests were planned and publicized.

The mayor even threatened to cancel the whole competition if the children took part, although permission had been granted for special Israeli security to come along to ensure the teams’ safety.

Another venue was located, far from the central site, after the Israeli Federation demanded that an alternate be found.

The Israelis also agreed with the Belgian conditions that their youths not participate either in the grand opening ceremony or any social events related to the championship.

Vandals then daubed anti-Israel graffiti at the site Monday night before the first round and threatened demonstrations, leading officials to inform the youth at 6 AM Tuesday that they wouldn’t be playing that day.

All of Tuesday’s games were postponed as Israel’s foreign and sports ministries, its Belgian embassy, and the Ayelet Association that oversees non-Olympic sports leagues in the country all got involved in the discussion of what solution could be found.

Late that night, the mayor’s office sent a message to the Israeli teams prohibiting them from even entering the venue as spectators, let alone compete, because the police were “unable to provide security.”

In parallel, the European Ultimate Federation announced in a statement that it had agreed to ban the Israelis from the tournament.

Calling the situation “sad, disappointing and unfortunate,” it asked “each and every participant, our Ultimate community, and all supporters to respect this decision and to show good spirit both on and off the field to continue to promote youth development within our sport.”

The Israeli Flying Discs Association (IFDA) refused to comply with the request for understanding.

“When Israeli teenagers are prevented from participating in an international competition because of threats, it is a surrender to terrorism and tacit consent to anti-Semitic activity,” said Association CEO Ayelet Ben-Zion.

“The Israeli team accepted security considerations and agreed to compete in a segregated venue – thus their complete exclusion from the games…is a complete disgrace that requires immediate discussion.”

The IFDA as a whole also expressed anger over the ban.

“We are angry because we see this as a political decision and not a security related one. Our security detail repeatedly say that there is no risk in us coming to any of the fields,” it said in a statement.

It also said it was infuriated “because the tournament was so eager to have a role in preventing a team from participating or spectating the tournament, just because of their nationality, which is discrimination by definition.”

Ayelet Association head Arik Kaplan said, “It is inconceivable that while the biggest sporting event in the world is taking place in Paris and the message of unity is on everyone’s lips – in a neighboring country, the State of Israel is being boycotted and teenagers are prevented from participating in the European Championship.”

“We are working with all the means at our disposal to punish the various parties, and are working to cancel the competition if Israel does not participate,” he added. “This is a very slippery and dangerous slope and must be stopped in its tracks.”

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The European sporting body had also refused to allow the Israelis to warm up with shirts displaying photos of those kidnapped by Hamas.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In a gesture of solidarity, the Polish Under-21 soccer team joined their Israeli counterparts Friday in defying a ban on holding a moment of silence for the 240 hostages kidnapped and 1,200 people massacred by Hamas terrorists six weeks ago during their invasion of Israel.

After the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the European governing body of the sport, had denied the Israelis’ request to have this gesture of respect and mourning, the players took matters in to their own hands.

In a pre-coordinated move, when the whistle blew to start the match, none of the young men on the field moved a muscle for a full minute of playing time.

The small crowd in the Lodz stadium went silent as well.

UEFA had previously prohibited the Israeli team Thursday from wearing shirts displaying photos of those kidnapped by Hamas during their final warm-up for the game.

Thousands of fans thanked the Polish players on social media for their gesture.

“Class from the players,” wrote one. “Regardless of your opinion on the overall conflict, a moment of silence for hundreds of civilians murdered in their home or in a music festival shouldn’t be a controversial thing.”

Both the Israeli junior and senior teams are currently playing all their matches abroad, including what are supposed to be their “home” games, due to the war that Israel declared on Hamas following the terrorists’ October 7 slaughter of men, women, children and infants.

For example, Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv will be playing their next “home” matches in November in Serbia, behind closed doors. The seniors are slightly behind schedule as they had postponed all their games during the first month of the war.

The junior Israelis eventually lost 2-1 in the Friday night game, putting them at the bottom of their group D, with no points after two games in the qualifiers for the U-21 Euro 2025 championships.

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The blue-and-whites were assured a place even before their semifinal game in the European Championships on Wednesday.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

For only the third time in its history, Israel will be fielding a soccer team at the Summer Olympics next year, thanks to the extraordinary success of its youth national squad.

In an interview with Israel Hayom, head coach Guy Luzon said with a large smile that the squad was “happy, excited, can’t wait to get there!”

When the interviewer asked for reactions to fact that it had been 47 years since Israel had taken a soccer team to the ultimate quadrennial event, star goalkeeper Daniel Peretz said with a grin, “History was born in order to break it.”

The last time, at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Israel made it to the quarterfinals before bowing to Bulgaria. Eight years earlier, in 1968’s Mexico City Olympic Games, they also lost in the quarters, this time to soccer powerhouse Brazil.

The team reached the Olympics by gaining a semifinal spot against England in the ongoing Under-21 European Championship, after a thrilling win Saturday night over Georgia that was gained in a penalty shootout when 120 minutes of regular play ended in a scoreless tie.

Usually only three of the top four European youth teams automatically qualify for the Olympics, but since England competes there as Great Britain (comprising Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well), it can’t receive a spot as a separate country.

In an interview after the Georgia win but before knowing if England would be the team’s next hurdle on Wednesday, Luzon had said he was “dying, dying, dying to know” whom they would be playing “in order to get to Paris. It’s beyond a fantasy, beyond anything else,” he said, shaking his head. “I dream about going there.”

Many members of the team also played in the Under-20 World Cup last month, when Israel achieved an almost-unbelievable third place finish against the world’s best youth teams.

The Paris Olympics will start July 24, 2024 and run for just over two weeks. In soccer, four teams in four groups will play each other first. The top two teams in each group will then go on to play in a single-game knockout format from the quarterfinals on. The 16-nation roster is not yet set, although it is already known that France, as host, are in, as are the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Spain, which will be playing Ukraine in the other European semifinals.

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