Israeli Olympic Athletes Receive ‘Psychological Terror’ Threats While Competing in Paris, Says Delegation Head
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Paris 2024 Olympics – Sailing – Men’s Windsurfing Final – Marseille Marina, Marseille, France – August 03, 2024. Tom Reuveni of Israel celebrates after winning gold. Photo: Reuters/Andrew Boyers
Israeli National Olympic Committee President Yael Arad said this week that some athletes competing on behalf of Israel in the 2024 Olympics have received threats as a result of ongoing tensions over the current Israel-Hamas war that is raging in the Middle East.
Arad told The Associated Press on Tuesday that members of Israel’s Olympic delegation have received “centralized” threats aimed at stirring “psychological terror” among the athletes, but did not elaborate further.
“It’s not easy to be an Israeli athlete in the international arena these days,” she further told the AP. The Olympics is “a bridge between people, between countries, between religions. And we are here to compete.”
Israeli athlete Tom Reuveny — who won a gold medal in windsurfing on Saturday — talked about receiving “quite a few” threats while speaking to the AP during a memorial ceremony on Tuesday to commemorate the deadly terrorist attack against the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.
“I don’t think any politics should be involved in sport, especially in the Olympic Games,” said Reuveny, 24. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of politics involved — not in the Games — of the people who don’t want us to compete and don’t want us to be here. I’ve gotten quite a few messages and threats.”
The Israeli Olympic delegation has had round-the-clock security in place since their arrival in Paris, provided by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and local French police. The delegation’s security was increased following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and the killing of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon..
Prosecutors in Paris began an investigation last week into emailed death threats sent to Israeli athletes competing in the Olympics. They also launched an inquiry into possible antisemitic hate crimes and the incitement of racial hatred during an Israel-Paraguay soccer match that took place in late July as part of the Olympics. During the soccer match, fans in the stands chanted and held signs about the war in Gaza, held a banner that read “Genocide Olympics,” and “made gestures of an antisemitic nature,” prosecutors said.
France’s cybercrime unit additionally took action to remove personal information of some of the Israeli athletes that hackers published on social media. Israel’s National Cyber Directorate concluded that Iranian hackers were behind the leak.
The Palestinian Olympic Committee attempted to get Israel banned from competing in the Olympics by claiming that the Jewish state has violated the Olympic charter with its military actions in Gaza during the country’s war targeting Hamas terrorists who carried out the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
