Olympics Spat as Lebanese Stop Israelis Joining Them on Bus
The Israeli and Lebanese Olympics teams became involved in a heated argument about access to a bus to the opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Both sides acknowledged Saturday that Israeli athletes were blocked from boarding a bus packed with the Lebanon team on Friday but they are at odds over the reasons for the actions of the head of the Lebanese delegation.
Israel portrayed it as a hostile act, maintaining that organizers had told them to use the bus to reach the Maracana Stadium.
"The organizing committee saw the blunt behavior of the head of the Lebanese delegation and immediately arranged a different bus for us," Gili Lusting, head of the Israeli delegation, said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The behavior of the head of the Lebanese delegation contradicts the Olympic Charter," he added.
Sailing coach Udi Gal said Lebanon chef de mission Salim Haj Nicola "physically blocked the entrance and wouldn't let us on" after the driver opened the door.
"We wanted to stand up for ourselves but you can't cause trouble," Gal, a former Olympic sailor, told Israel's Channel 2 television.
Haj Nicola insisted that he had the right to prevent another team's athletes from joining them on the transport reserved for them.
"I asked the bus driver to close the door but the guide with the Israeli team prevented him from doing so," Haj Nicola told An Nahar newspaper. "I then stood at the door of the bus to prevent the Israel team from entering and some of them tried to go in and pick up a fight."
Haj Nicola told the AP that it was "only a small problem."
"This problem is finished," he said by telephone. "We are here only for sports."
It is a decade since Israel was embroiled in a month-long war with Hizbullah fighters in Lebanon. The 2006 conflict killed about 1,200 Lebanese, including hundreds of civilians, and about 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. The border between the two countries has been largely quiet since then.
almost 9 years
Israel portrayed it as a hostile act. Cry some more yeah?
We are still officially at war with Israel, so they expect the Lebanese people to embrace them with open arms and tears?
almost 9 years
All nations at war still competes in international sport meetings. This doesn't contradict the fact Lebanon and Israel are at war. Sadly, this just depicts to the world Lebanese as unable to be fair play and to put aside sectarian and nationalist hatred. The very purpose of Olympic Games is here, to put war aside. This doesn't mean to do peace, but just to raise the human to its higher nature.
almost 9 years
Israel apart from being an apartheid country, they Israelis are also trouble makers even their athletes, the world would be better off without them and without their friends in behaviors, the wahhabi terrorists of Daesh.
btw, great stance of the Lebanese delegation.
almost 9 years
What makes Israel an aparteid country in your eyes? Is it the Jewish character - if so how about KSA, Egypt, Iran, Oman, Qatar, Indonesia and other countries that have Islam as their official religion?
almost 9 years
Such an apartheid country = please check the Physio of the Israeli delegation is an Israeli Arab.
almost 9 years
lol first it's called "truce" not "truth" and second when israel prevented palestinian competitors from getting to rio i didnt hear you complain about it.
almost 9 years
Exactly which Palestinian competitors were prevented from going to Rio.
As usual with you .mowaten, why should the truth bother you.
almost 9 years
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/israel-blocks-olympics-bound-palestinian-travel-160802202751580.html
almost 9 years
Olympic values and sport fair play should not be polluted by politics. It says a lot about why for instance problems in Lebanon can't be solved because people are unable to forget even for a second their sectarian mentality.
That's the reason Lebanon still doesn't have a President, and will never have one if there is no change.
almost 9 years
go tell this to the palestinian football players
"Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, and Adam Abd al-Raouf Halabiya, 17, were shot by Israeli soldiers as they were walking home from a training session in the Faisal al-Husseini Stadium in al-Ram in the central West Bank on Jan. 31.
Israeli forces opened fire in their direction without warning as they were walking near a checkpoint.
Police dogs were subsequently unleashed on them before Israeli soldiers dragged them across the ground and beat them.
The pair was subsequently were taken to an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem, where they underwent a number of operations to remove the bullets.
Medical reports said that Jawhar was shot with 11 bullets, seven in his left foot, three in his right, and one in his left hand. Halabiya was shot once in each foot."
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=673479
almost 9 years
I am talking about what happens during the Olympic Games, at the Olympic Games.
almost 9 years
Southern, it's not you who decide who participate the Olympics.
And of course, when someone doesn't agree with you, he is a "Zionist". Don't forget to label me takfiri as well.
almost 9 years
Do you think that each delegration went to where they wanted. The organisers directed each delegation exactly where to go, so in actual fact the Israeli couldn't go to somewhere else, until the stupid action of the head of the Lebanese delegation, for which he has been reprimanded by the IOC, and the whole of theLebanese delgation warned that similar action in future will not be accepted.
almost 9 years
.mowaten. Again you're at it.
Maan News wouldn't know the truth if it hit them in the face.
Oh, and by the way, where is the apartheid?
"The pair was subsequently were taken to an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem"
almost 9 years
and if you have an issue with the source, know that it was widely reported in dozens of medias worldwide. here's another
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/palestinian-teenagers-shot-feet-by-israeli-soldiers-after-playing-football-calls-fifa-israel-ban-1439183
almost 9 years
stop trying to deny all your crimes, you can't fool the world forever.
almost 9 years
I encourage Ebola to send more and more warriors (by thousands) to Syria and Yemen and Iraq and Bahrain and Bulgaria and Germany....better to empty Lebanon ....
A splendid way to empty Lebanon...
almost 9 years
100%
Now this is Lebanon, the real Resistance country.
Yes and the people of Lebanon have the Resistant spirit.