The worldwide anger over Israel’s atrocities and violence against the Palestinians is also visible in the Olympics. Two players have withdrawn from the Olympics in a week protesting Israel.
According to the report of Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, Mohammad Abdulrasool of Sudan has refused to face his Israeli opponent Butbul.
Olympic officials say Abdulrasool did not show up despite weighing in for the clash earlier.
The International Judo Foundation (IJF) did not provide further details as to why the Sudanese judoka did not compete, and the governing body didn’t respond to requests for comment. Sudanese Olympic officials also didn’t immediately comment.
Earlier, against the same player, Algerian player Fathi Noreen had also refused to face him in the 73 kg division. Although he and his coach were suspended by the Olympic Committee, he said in one of his interviews that I had worked very hard to qualify for the Olympics, but the issue of Palestine is the biggest of these and I believe that Allah is seeing all this.
Fathi Noreen said that she is supporting Palestine against Israeli tyranny, and that is why he withdrew.
It is worth noting that even before this, Fathi Noreen was to compete with Butbul in the 2019 World Championship, but at that time also Naurin had withdrawn himself from this match.
He told Al-Bilad channel that “my position is consistent on the Palestinian issue a
nd I reject normalisation, and if it costs me that absence from the Olympic Games, God will compensate us.”
Noreen is one of the most famous wrestlers in Algeria and Africa, having previously won a number of championships, most notably the African Championship in the weight category of 73 kilograms in 2018.
