Boycotts of Israel in sports

Boycotts of Israel in sports refer to various disqualifications and denial of Israeli athletes. As part of a more or less systematic boycott of Israel, Israeli athletes and teams have been barred from some competitions. In many international competitions, where Israel does take part, such as the Olympic Games, some Arab and Muslim competitors avoid competing against Israelis.^[1] Some countries, most notably Iran, even compel their athletes not to compete against Israelis or in Israel.^[2][3]

Contemporary examples

The Israel Football Association was a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) group of FIFA between 1954 and 1974. Because of the Arab League boycott of Israel, several Arab and Muslim states refused to compete against Israel. The political situation culminated in Israel winning the 1958 World Cup qualifying stage for Asia and Africa without playing a single game, forcing FIFA to schedule a playoff between Israel and Wales to ensure the Israeli team did not qualify without playing at least one game (which Wales won). In 1974, Israel was expelled from the AFC group by a resolution initiated by Kuwait, which was adopted by AFC by a vote of 17 to 13 with 6 abstentions.^[4] To get around the ban, Israel was admitted as an associated member of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in 1992, and was admitted as a full member of the UEFA group in 1994. Supporters of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement have advocated for Israel to be expelled or suspended from FIFA, without success.^[5] On 24 August 2018, the President of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) Jibril Rajoub was fined CHF 20,000 (US$20,333) and banned from FIFA matches for a year for inciting hatred and violence against an Argentinian team proposing to play a friendly match in Israel.^[6]

The 1976 Chess Olympiad was held in the Israeli city of Haifa, which generated controversy, since several countries, such as the Soviet Union and the Arab nations, did not recognize the state of Israel. As FIDE refused to change the venue, the Soviet team boycotted the tournament in protest, as did all Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe and FIDE member Arab nations, which held an alternative Chess Olympiad in the Libyan city of Tripoli.^[7][8]

In 2007, Mushir Salem Jawher, a Kenyan-born marathoner, lost his Bahraini citizenship after competing in the Tiberias Marathon in Israel, but later that year reacquired Bahraini citizenship and competed again in the Tiberias Marathon in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

In 2009, there was an increased number of boycotts and boycott campaigns against Israeli athletes over Operation Cast Lead. Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer was denied a visa to participate in a tournament in Dubai, leading to comments from stars like Serena Williams and Andy Roddick that were critical of the Dubai authorities' decision, with Roddick later pulling out of a tournament in Dubai. After a response that included a cable network cancelling its coverage of the event and a large fine for the Dubai Tennis Authorities, the United Arab Emirates did issue a visa for Israeli tennis player Andy Ram to compete that year. Campaigners in New Zealand asked Peer to heed the BDS call and not participate in local NZ tournaments, but Peer publicly dismissed them and the officials welcomed Peer's participation.

Tennis authorities in Malmö, Sweden wanted to cancel a Davis Cup match between Israel and Sweden because of anti-Israel riots and because the city council did not want the Israeli team competing in the city. The tennis authorities were unwilling to accept a Swedish forfeit, which would have eliminated Sweden from the competition, and decided to bar spectators from the match instead (Israel ended up knocking Sweden out of the 2009 tournament with a 3–2 series victory). As a punishment, the city was banned from hosting Davis Cup matches for five years and fined thousands of dollars.^[9]

Supporters of the BDS movement also tried and failed to have Israeli teams barred from the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Egypt's Islam El Shehaby provoked outrage after refusing to shake hands with Israeli judoka, Or Sasson.^[10]

Despite the country's international political issues, a growing^[vague] number of Arab athletes are joining domestic Israeli sports teams and the international teams, including the Israel national football team. These include Rifaat Turk, Najwan Ghrayib, Walid Badir, Salim Toama, Abbas Suan, amongst others. Another Arab-Israeli, Johar Abu Lashin, born in Nazareth, was an IBO Welterweight champion.

In October 2017, when an Israeli Tal Flicker won gold in an international judo championship in the United Arab Emirates, officials refused to fly the Israeli flag and play the Israeli national anthem, instead playing the official music of the International Judo Federation (IJF) and flying the IJF's logo.^[10] The UAE also banned Israeli athletes from wearing their country's symbols on uniforms,^[10] having to wear IJF uniforms. Other contestants such as Gili Cohen received similar treatment. In December 2017, seven Israelis were denied visas by Saudi Arabia to compete in an international chess tournament.^[11] In October 2018, the UAE reversed its position allowing the Israeli flag be displayed and anthem played when an Israeli judoka Sagi Muki won a gold medal.^[12]

On 24 May 2018, a team of international jurists, including Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, announced a plan to petition the international Court of Arbitration for Sport against the exclusion of Israel's flag and anthem at sporting events in Arab countries.^[13] In July 2018, the International Judo Federation cancelled two grand slam judo events, in Tunis and Abu Dhabi, because Israeli flags were not allowed to be raised.^[14] Also in July 2018, the World Chess Federation said it will ban Tunisia from hosting the international chess competition in 2019 if it does not grant a visa to Israeli contestants, including a seven-year-old Israeli girl champion.^[15]

In June 2018, Argentina cancelled a planned football friendly against Israel. The game was originally due to be played in Haifa, but was moved to the Israeli capital city Jerusalem. Palestinians saw this as politicizing the match, as the stadium it was due to be played in sits on the site of a former Palestinian village. Israeli Minister of Culture Miri Regev denied that the game was being politicised by the move, but was being moved to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Israel. International pressure grew on Argentina to call off the game, led by the BDS campaign and the Palestinian Football Association. Threats were also made against Argentine players. The match was called off, with Argentina giving the reason as security concerns. The BDS campaign and Palestinian FA claimed a victory, with campaign group Avaaz thanking Argentina for their "brave ethical decision". Argentine Striker Gonzalo Higuain said they had "finally done the right thing", while Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said he believed his country's footballers "were not willing to play the game", but also compared the threats his country's players received as "exceeding of (those of) ISIS." Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded to the cancellation of the match by calling the BDS campaign "a pack of anti-Semitic terrorist supporters" and claimed that the Argentines couldn't "withstand the pressure of the Israeli-hating inciters". Culture Minister Regev blamed threats on Lionel Messi for the cancellation of the friendly match.^[16][17]

On 18 January 2019, Israel called upon the International Paralympic Committee to move the World Para Swimming Championships scheduled for Malaysia in July 2019 because it has refused to let Israelis participate.^[18][19] 10 days later, the IPC confirmed that due to Malaysia's actions regarding Israeli visas, the championships would be stripped from Malaysia and moved to another location. The IPC board said Malaysia “failed to provide the necessary guarantees that Israeli Para swimmers could participate, free from discrimination, and safely in the Championships”, including full compliance with the IPC protocols related to anthems and flags.^[20]

In March 2019, the Israeli national anthem was played in Qatar after Israeli gymnast Alexander Shatilov won the gold medal for the floor exercise during the 2019 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series.^[21] The anthem had previously been played in Abu Dhabi in October 2018, after Israeli judoka Sagi Muki won the gold medal in the Judo Grand Competition.^[22]

In August 2019, Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei refused to withdraw from a match at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo which would have required, had he won, to compete against an Israeli judoka Sagi Muki in the final. Though he lost, and so did not need to compete against the Israeli, Mollaei feared returning to his country and sought political asylum in Germany.^[2] Following the episode, the International Judo Federation (IJF) suspended Iran from competing in any future judo competition.^[23] Later on, Egyptian judoka Mohamed Abdelaal refused to shake hands with Israeli Sagi Moki in the same championship.^[24] In October 2019, two Iranian teenagers also refused to play Israelis in a chess tournament.^[23] On 17 November 2019, the Israeli national anthem was played and Israeli flag flown in Abu Dhabi when 17-year-old Alon Leviev took gold in the junior category at the Ju-jitsu World Championship.^[25] In December 2019, Alireza Firouzja, the world's second-highest rated junior chess player, applied to renounce his Iranian citizenship over pressures on Iranian athletes to forego matches with Israeli competitor, the second Iranian sports figure in recent months to do so.^[26]

In early November 2019, the BDS movement sought the cancellation of a soccer match between the national teams of Argentina and Uruguay scheduled to be held in Tel Aviv, Israel.^[27] The match took place on 19 November.

In November 2020, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) warned the Iranian Chess Federation (ICF) that it could be facing an imminent international ban for its continued refusal to allow Iranian chess players to compete against their Israeli equivalents.^[28]

In July 2021, Algerian judo athlete Fethi Nourine withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics rather than face an Israeli competitor. The International Judo Federation (IJF) temporarily suspending Nourine and his coach.^[29]

Individual sporting boycott

Since the 21st century, Israeli athletes competing in tournaments have faced boycotts by athletes from Muslim countries (primarily Iran), speculated to be the result of political interferences.

Iran

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Date	Retired athlete's name	Israeli athlete's name	Sport type	Event	Official reason for retiring	Ref
17 February 2001	Hamed Malekmohammadi	Yoel Razvozov	judo	2001 World Judo Championships		^[30]
15 August 2004	Arash Miresmaeili	Ehud Vaks	judo	2004 Summer Olympics		^[31]
22 June 2003	Iran national five-a-side soccer team	Israel national five-a-side soccer team	soccer	2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games		^[32]
4 August 2005	Iran U-21 men national basketball team	Israel U-21 men national basketball team	basketball	FIBA Under-21 World Championship	Visa issues	^[33]
28 January 2007	Ahmad Ksanfandi (referee)	Gal Yekutiel	judo	2007 Tbilisi judo Open		^[34]
18 September 2007	Mehdi Mohammadi	Ilia Shafran	amateur wrestling	2007 World Wrestling Championships		^[35]
10 August 2008	Mohammad Alirezaei	Tom Be'eri	swimming	2008 Summer Olympics	Indigestion	^[36]
28 July 2009	Mohammad Alirezaei	Michael Malul	swimming	2009 World Aquatics Championships		^[37]
30 September 2009	Mohammad Hossein Ebrahimi	Tomer Or	fencing	2009 World Fencing Championships		^[38]
1 October 2009	Ali Fadja	Slava Zingerman	fencing	2009 World Fencing Championships	Retired from entire competition	^[38]^[39]
1 October 2009	Mohammad Mohazzabnia	Tomer Hodorov	tennis	2009 Kenya Futures F1		^[40]
4 April 2010	Iran youth national volleyball team	Israel youth national volleyball team	volleyball	2010 International Volleyball Tournament Pordenone		^[41]
10 April 2010	Meisam Bagheri	Moty Lugassi	taekwondo	A-Class Belgian Open 2010		^[42]^[failed verification]
28 April 2010	Iran men's national table tennis team	Israel men's national table tennis team	table tennis	2011 Luxembourg Table Tennis championship		^[43]
21 May 2010	Ali Shahhosseini	Misha Zilberman	badminton	2010 Spanish Open		^[44]
15 August 2010	Mohammad Soleimani	Gili Haimovitz	taekwondo	2010 Summer Youth Olympics		^[45]
4 November 2010	Hamed Sayyad Ghanbari	Maor Hatoel	fencing	2010 World Fencing Championships		^[46]
4 November 2010	Mohammad Hossein Ebrahimi	Kobi Hatoel	fencing	2010 World Fencing Championships		^[46]
5 November 2010	Hamed Sedaghati	Ido Herpe	fencing	2010 World Fencing Championships		^[47]
5 November 2010	Sadegh Abedi	Grigori Beskin	fencing	2010 World Fencing Championships		^[47]
24 July 2011	Mohammad Alirezaei	Gal Nevo	swimming	2011 World Aquatics Championships	Tiredness	^[48]
20 August 2011	Iran men's national volleyball team	Israel men's national volleyball team	volleyball	2011 Summer Universiade		^[49]
11 September 2011	Ghasem Rezaei	Robert Avanesyan	amateur wrestling	2011 World Wrestling Championships		^[50]
18 September 2011	Javad Mahjoub	Or Sasson	judo	World Cup Tashkent 2011		^[51]
10 October 2011	Shervin Tolouei	Oren Bassal	fencing	2011 World Fencing Championships		^[52]
5 November 2011	Kaveh Mehrabi	Misha Zilberman	badminton	2011 Puerto Rico International Challenge		^[53]
21 July 2015	Saber Hoshmand/Abbas Pourasgari	Sean Faiga/Ariel Hilman	beach volleyball	2015 FIVB Grand Slam Yokohama	injury	^[54]
27 January 2017	Majid Hassaninia	Jonathan Giller	karate	21st Open de Paris – Karate Premier League	"what is of paramount importance to every Iranian athlete is his/her beliefs plus support for the defenseless Palestinian nation"	^[citation needed]
25 November 2017	Alireza Karimi	Uri Kalashnikov	wrestling	2017 World U23 Wrestling Championship	Lost prior match at instruction of coach.	^[55]
2 October 2018	Hossein Vafaei	Eden Sharav	snooker	2018 European Masters		^[56]
10 December 2018	Hossein Vafaei	Eden Sharav	snooker	2018 Scottish Open		^[56]
19 April 2019	Alireza Firouzja	Or Bronstein	chess	GRENKE Chess Open		^[57]
22 March 2022	Team Iran		Ice Hockey	2022 IIHF Women's World Championship Division III
15 September 2022	Amir Yazdani	Josh Finesilver	Wrestling	2022 World Wrestling Championships	Required by coaches to miss weight, as to not wrestle the Israeli athlete in the first round of competition
26 December 2022	Bardiya Daneshvar and Pouya Idani	Boris Gelfand	chess	World Rapid Chess Championship 2022		^[58]

Elsewhere

Date	Country origin	Retired athlete's name	Israeli athlete's name	Sport type	Event	Official reason for retiring	Ref
26 July 2001	Tunisia	Sadok Khalki	Arik Zeevi	judo	2001 World Judo Championships		^[59]
6 July 2006	Indonesia	Indonesia Fed Cup team	Israel Fed Cup team	tennis	2006 Fed Cup		^[60]
19 July 2007	Kuwait	Mohammed al Ghareeb	Amir Weintraub	tennis	2007 Togliatti challenger	Stomach problems	^[61]
15 August 2008	Syria	Bayan Jumah	Anya Gostomelsky	swimming	2008 Summer Olympics		^[62]
7 February 2010	Kuwait	Kuwait men's national pool team	Israel men's national pool team	pool	2010 Hanover world team A championship	Food poisoning of 4 players	^[63]
5 May 2011	Algeria	Zakaria Chenouf	Adam Sagir	taekwondo	2011 World Taekwondo Championships		^[64]
1 October 2011	Algeria	Meriem Moussa	Shahar Levi	judo	World Cup Women Rome 2011		^[65]
1 October 2011	Algeria	Rahou Abdelmalek	Artem Masliy	boxing	2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships		^[65]
18 October 2013	Tunisia	Malek Jaziri	Amir Weintraub	tennis	2013 Tashkent Challenger		^[66]
7 August 2016	Saudi Arabia	Joud Fahmy	Christianne Legentil/Gili Cohen	judo	2016 Summer Olympics	Sustained injuries to her arm and leg during training; ostensibly dropped out of match with Christianne Legentil of Mauritius to avoid match with Gili Cohen in next round	^[67]
28 January 2019	Kuwait	Abdullah al-Anjari	Eitan Seri-Levi^[68]	jiu-jitsu	2019 Los Angeles International Jiu-jitsu Open		^[69]
February 2019	Lebanon	Nacif Elias	Li Kochman	judo	Paris Grand Slam 2019		^[70]
February 2019	Lebanon	Ezzeddine Faraj		taekwondo	2019 European Junior Championships		^[70]
March 2019	Lebanon	Bassam Safadieh		table tennis	2019 Table Tennis Mediterranean Championships U-15		^[70]
25 September 2019	Lebanon	Domenic Abounader	Uri Kalashnikov^[70]	amateur wrestling	2019 World Wrestling Championships		^[71]
November 2019	Jordan	Mohammed Eid	Amir Assad	kickboxing	2019 International Turkish Open Kickboxing European Cup		^[72]
3 June 2021	Jordan	Osama Abu Jame	Shmuel Ben Asor	table tennis	2021 World Para Table Tennis Championships		^[73]
July 2021	Algeria	Fethi Nourine	Tohar Butbul	judo	Judo at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 73 kg	He withdrew from the previous round to avoid competing against an Israeli, as he had done before in the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo against Butbul as well	^[74]^[75]
	Sudan	Mohamed Abdalarasool				He weighed in but didn't show up to the match	^[76]
April 2022	Kuwait	Mohamed al-Fadli		Fencing	World Fencing Championships		^[77]
May 2022	Kuwait	Bader Al-Hajiri		Chess	Sunway Chess Tournament		^[78]
20 July 2022	Oman	Oman national university futsal team		Futsal	FISU World University Championship Futsal		^[79]
11 August 2022	Iraq	Nasser Mahdi Mohammad Al-Mahdi	Adam Berdichevsky Sergei Lysov	Wheelchair tennis	Open Wheelchair Tennis Tournament		^[80]
18 August 2022	Lebanon	Charbel Abou Daher	Yonatan Mak	Mixed martial arts	Youth IMMAF World Championships		^[81]

See also

• Academic boycott of Israel
• Antisemitism in the Olympic Games
• Jewish Olympics
• Muscular Judaism
• Sport policies of the Arab League
• Peace and Sport
• United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace
• International Day of Sport for Development and Peace

References

1. "Druze-Israeli advances as Iraqi foe refuses to fight". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
2. "Iranian judoka seeks asylum after pressure to avoid facing Israeli". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
3. Ben Morse, for (2 September 2019). "Iranian judoka fears for safety after refusing to quit World Championships". CNN.
4. "Aust-Asian bid fails". The Sydney Morning Herald. 16 September 1974. p. 11. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
5. "Palestinians disappointed but determined after FIFA betrayal". 29 May 2015.
6. "FOOTBALL CHIEF BANNED BY FIFA FOR INCITING HATRED".
7. "22nd Chess Olympiad: Haifa 1976". Olimpbase. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
8. ""The Against Chess Olympiad": Tripoli 1976". Olimpbase. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
9. agencies, Telegraph staff and (2 April 2009). "Sweden punished for Israel Davis Cup lockout" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
10. Young, Henry. "Israeli wins gold in UAE; officials refuse to play anthem". CNN.
11. "Storm brews over Saudi chess tournament". BBC News. 26 December 2017.
12. "Hatikvah plays for first time in UAE as Israeli judoka wins gold". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
13. "Dershowitz to sue against Israeli flag ban at sports events in Arab state". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
14. "Regev gets Israeli flag-less Tunis, Abu Dhabi judo events cancelled". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
15. "Tunisia could lose chance to host World Chess meet after banning Israelis". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
16. "Argentina scraps Israel World Cup friendly after campaign". BBC. 6 June 2018.
17. "Argentine soccer team cancels match in Israel amid death threats against Messi". Washington Post. 6 June 2018.
18. "Israel slams Malaysian decision to bar Paralympic athletes". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
19. "Malaysian Prime Minister will not allow Israelis to enter the country". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
20. Narunsky, Gareth. "Disqualified!". www.australianjewishnews.com.
21. "Shatilov: I had a double celebration". Gymnovosti. 26 March 2019.
22. "Israeli national anthem plays in Qatar- watch". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
23. "Iranian teen players refuse to face Israelis at World Chess Championships". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
24. "Egyptian judoka refuses to shake hands with Israeli judoka: Israeli Foreign Ministry". Egypt Independent. 29 August 2019.
25. "'Hatikvah' played in Abu Dhabi as Israeli takes gold in ju-jitsu tournament". The Times of Israel. 17 November 2019.
26. "Chess player 'won't play for Iran' due to ban on Israeli players". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
27. "Argentina vs. Uruguay soccer match scheduled for Tel Aviv under BDS attack". The Jerusalem Post. 11 November 2019.
28. "Iranian chess team faces ban for refusal to compete against Israelis". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com.
29. David Close, Taylor Barnes and Aqeel Najim. "Algerian Olympian withdraws from Games due to potential matchup with Israeli competitor". CNN.
30. אורי טלשיר 26 July 2011 13:00 עודכן ב: 14:42 הוסף תגובה (26 July 2011). "חוקי החרם: מסורת של החרמות ישראלים בתחרויות בינלאומית – ספורט – הארץ". הארץ (in Hebrew). Retrieved 10 November 2011.
31. הג'ודוקא האיראני: 'פרשתי כהזדהות עם הסבל הפלסטיני' [Iranian judoka: 'I retired in solidarity with suffering Palestinians']. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. 14 August 2004. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
32. "Sport / Special Olympics". Irishtimes.com. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
33. Livnat, Arie (4 August 2005). "Basketball / Iran pulls out of U21 tourney to avoid match-up against Israel". Haaretz. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
34. Maddy, Bruce (29 January 2007). "Iranian official refuses to referee Yekutiel's ..." Jpost.com. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
35. Haas, Sa'ar (18 September 2007). היאבקות: האיראני לא עלה לקרב, לשפרן זה לא עזר [Wrestling: Iran did not fight, ...]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
36. "Mohammad Alirezaei | InTheMoment". Momentmagazine. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
37. Haas, Sa'ar (28 July 2009). "Iranian swimmer refuses to race Israeli contender at worlds". Ynetnews. Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
38. Hipsh, Rami (2 October 2009). "Fencing / Iran keeps up Israel boycott, forfeits again". Haaretz. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
39. "ספורט – ענפים נוספים nrg – ...סייף: עוד איראני בחר לא". Nrg.co.il. 3 October 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
40. "ספורט – טניס nrg – ...פוליטיקה גם בטניס: האיראני לא הופיע". Nrg.co.il. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
41. כדורעף: איראן סירבה לשחק נגד נבחרת הנוער [Volleyball: Iran refused to play against the national youth]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. 4 April 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
42. "בת-אל גטרר ומוטי לוגסי זכו בארד באליפות גרמניה". One.co.il. 13 March 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
43. "ספורט – ענפים נוספים nrg – ...טנ"ש: שוב איראן פרשה, ישראל". Nrg.co.il. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
44. Aharoni, Oren (20 May 2010). בדמינטון: האיראני החרים את הקרב מול הישראלי [Badminton: Iran boycotted the Israeli competition]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
45. "Political victims at Youth Olympics; more Olympic notes – Brian Cazeneuve". Sportsillustrated.cnn.com. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
46. Aharoni, Oren (11 April 2010). חרם איראני כפול באליפות העולם בסיף [Iranian boycott fencing world championship double]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
47. Aharoni, Oren (11 May 2010). סייף: האיראנים בשלהם, חטואל וזמלין בשלב הבא. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
48. Associated, The (26 July 2011). "Swimming World Championships / Iran's team dives into Israel boycott". Haaretz. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
49. "איראן לא הופיעה למשחק מול ישראל והושעתה". One.co.il. 21 August 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
50. "Iranians disqualified for refusing to wrestle Israelis". Iranian.com. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
51. "כסף לפלצ'וק באל' אירופה, חרם איראני בטשקנט". One.co.il. 18 September 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
52. Aharoni, Oren (10 October 2011). "סיף: איראנים לא הופיעו לקרבות מול ישראלים" [Sabre: Iranians did not appear to compete with Israelis]. Ynet. Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
53. Aharoni, Oren (11 May 2011). פרק נוסף בחרם האיראני: הפעם - בדמינטון [Another chapter in Iranian boycott this time – Badminton]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
54. "Results/Schedule". FIVB. 11 May 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
55. "My beliefs precede quest for medal: Iranian karateka". 28 January 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
56. "Hossein Vafaei vs Eden Sharav". snooker.org. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
57. "Keymer vs. Carlsen in GRENKE Classic Round 1". 20 April 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
58. Chess24 [@chess24com] (26 December 2022). "Boris Gelfand will now have 2 forfeit wins in a row, after the Iranian Chess Federation/state continues to put pressure on its players to boycott Israeli opponents" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
59. ג'ודו: זאבי ניצח באיפון יריב טוניסאי בסיבוב הראשון באליפות העולם. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. 26 July 2001. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
60. . CBSSports.com. 15 November 2006. Archived from the original on 12 August 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
61. "טניסאי כוויתי סירב לשחק מול אמיר חדד". One.co.il. 20 February 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
62. Schuman, Benjamin (15 August 2008). "More Politics in the Olympic Pool | InTheMoment". Momentmagazine. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
63. Aharoni, Oren (2 July 2010). פוליטיקה בפול: נבחרת כווית פרשה מאל' העולם. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
64. "Algerian judoka boycotts Israeli in World Championship". Echorouk Online. Retrieved 10 November 2011.^{[permanent dead link]}
65. Aharoni, Oren (10 January 2011). אחרי איראן, ספורטאים אלג'יראים החרימו ישראלים [After Iran, Israel boycotted by Algerian athletes]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
66. "ATP investigating Tunisian player's withdrawal". 4 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
67. "Saudi judoka forfeits Rio match, apparently to avoid Israeli". The Times of Israel. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
68. "Kuwaiti athlete withdraws from competition to avoid playing against Israeli athlete: "I will never carry out normalization with the [Zionist] entity"". Palestinian Media Watch. 30 January 2019.
69. "Kuwaiti grappler taps out of tournament rather than face Israeli competitor". alaraby.co.uk. 28 January 2019.
70. "Ces sportifs libanais qui ont refusé d'affronter des Israéliens depuis le début de l'année 2019". lorientlejour.com. 23 September 2019.
71. "Un lutteur libanais qui devait affronter un Israélien se retire des championnats du monde". lorientlejour.com. 21 September 2019.
72. "Jordanian kickboxer refuses to compete against Israeli rival". Middle East Monitor. 28 November 2019.
73. "A Jordanian player withdraws from an Israeli match in the International Table Tennis Championships for the Handicapped – news agency and comprehensive newspaper". amman.today. 4 June 2021.
74. "Algerian Judoka quits Olympics for having to compete against Israeli". 22 July 2021.
75. "Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine suspended and sent home for withdrawing to avoid Israeli". Japan Times. 24 July 2021.
76. "Olympics Latest: Japan upsets China in table tennis". ABC News. 26 July 2021.
77. "Kuwaitis 'proud of' chess champion for refusing to face Israeli player". Qods News Agency.
78. "Kuwaiti chess champion withdraws from confrontation with opponent". 6 May 2022.
79. "Oman concludes participation in FISU World University Championship". 20 July 2022.
80. "The two Iraqi stars withdraw from Romanian tennis championship, refusing to face Israeli opponent".
81. "اللبناني شربل أبو ضاهر ينسحب من مواجهة لاعب إسرائيلي". الأخبار.