Despite all the calls from the left to “free Palestine” — calls that have grown louder amid Israel’s war on Hamas following the group’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack — there never has been a country with that name.
It appears that the International Olympic Committee never got that memo, however.
Palestinians will compete against athletes representing actual nations around the world in the Paris Olympics in July.
Not only that, but IOC President Thomas Bach said Palestinian athletes will be invited to the Summer Games even if they fail to qualify, according to The Telegraph.
Bach said he expected that six to eight of them will compete in Paris, the U.K. outlet reported Saturday.
“We have made the clear commitment that even if no [Palestinian] athlete would qualify on the field of play … then the National Olympic Committee of Palestine would benefit from invitations, like other national Olympic Committees who do not have a qualified athlete,” he said.
Moreover, Bach said he and the rest of his progressive friends at the IOC have “supported in many different ways the athletes to allow them to take part in qualifications and to continue their training” from the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, according to Agence France-Presse.
Of course, that conflict was started when Hamas terrorists launched a brutal terrorist attack on Israel in which 1,200 people — most of them civilians — were killed and many others were raped and kidnapped.
According to France 24, Palestinians were first admitted into the Olympics for the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.
Should Palestinians be allowed to compete under their flag?
But this time, they will be competing to “represent a country, a history, a cause,” Nader Jayousi, technical director of the Palestine Olympic Committee, told the outlet.
“We have massive support from countries around the world who believe in the Palestinians’ aspirations to succeed in sports,” Jayousi said.
Indeed, that support is reflected by the IOC.
The organization’s website features an entry for the nonexistent country of “Palestine” along with its flag, president and secretary general, and a recognition year of 1993 (referring to the Oslo Accords).
Bach met with that president, Jibril Rajoub, on April 17, and pledged that the IOC “will continue to assist the [National Olympic Committee of Palestine] and its athletes as much as possible in their preparation and qualification for the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” according to an IOC news release.
“In addition, President Rajoub presented the Palestinian ‘Palestinian Sports Revival Plan’ and asked the IOC for support,” the release said. “President Bach agreed that the IOC would coordinate an international effort to mobilise funding from various international contributors for this plan, which is aimed at rebuilding the destroyed sporting facilities on the territory of the Palestinian NOC.
“The plan sends a strong message of hope to the entire Olympic community in Palestine, from grassroots to elite.”
All of this raises a question: Will other loosely affiliated ethnic groups get such favorable treatment from the IOC, or is this a special privilege for those that have become a hot-button issue for the left?
