Israeli paralympian hopefuls not welcomed in Malaysia: Maccabi speaks out

January 27, 2019 by J-Wire Newsdesk
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Maccabi Australia has called for the Australian government to object to Malaysia’s decision to bar Israeli swimmers in competing in a Paralympic qualifying event.

Jeff Sher

Federal Labor MP Michael Danby has requested prime minister Scott Morrison to suggest relocating the event from MalaysiaAustralialiua.

Maccabi Australia’s president Jeff Sherr has written to the Federal Minister for Regional Services, Sport, Local Government and Decentralisation Bridget McKenzie urging her to get the government to object to Israel’s exclusion.

He wrote to her stating that Maccabi involves 25,000 Australians including athletes, members, administrators and volunteers and have a 93-year history of providing sport, cultural and wellbeing activities to the community. and that it is a member of Maccabi World Union which has some 450,000 members worldwide.

He added:  “Amongst a vast array of services, we provide our community, one of the most important is our All Abilities program which provides the opportunity to any member with a disability – we believe that no person should be discriminated against and we make every effort to provide access to anyone wanting to be involved in sport and active recreation.

We have proudly supported many of our All Ability members to participate in and compete on the local and world stages and actively promote inclusion. Indeed, we boast a Paralympian world record holder swimmer amongst our members.

We note with sadness and concern that the Malaysian Government has decided to deny Israeli Para athletes the right to participate in the forthcoming swimming Championships simply because they are Israeli.

Mixing sport with politics is an affront to Human rights. A pre-condition of any country being awarded the right to conduct an Internationally sanctioned sporting event is that athletes from any country should be able to compete without exception irrespective of their country of origin or the religious position they hold.

Maccabi Australia urges the Australian Government to object to Israel`s exclusion and to opposeMalaysia’s decision to bar Israeli athletes from a key Paralympics qualifier. This level of outward antisemitism cannot and should not be tolerated.”

Comments

2 Responses to “Israeli paralympian hopefuls not welcomed in Malaysia: Maccabi speaks out”
  1. Phil Filler says:

    Kol ha’kevod Jeff

  2. Steve Feldman says:

    Good onya Jeff
    Feldy

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