Relations between Turkey and Israel are becoming increasingly chilly, putting an end to the Israeli wrestling team's dreams of competing in this summer's Paris Olympics.
The Israeli Security Agency has told athletes they are not allowed to fly to Istanbul for the May 9-13 Olympic qualifying event, which will be the last chance to qualify for the Olympics in the French capital. I gave notice.
Five Israeli athletes who were scheduled to take part in the tournament received the news on Friday.
“It's disappointing, but we knew this was going to be the decision,” said wrestler Ilana Kartish, who represented Israel at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“We hope that the Israeli association and the Olympic committee will request the world association to consider us and give us free tickets to the Olympics. Athletes should not be harmed by this situation.” she added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken extreme anti-Israel positions and openly supports terrorist organizations since the October 7 Hamas-led massacre and the ensuing Gaza war.
Last month, Israel's National Security Council issued a travel warning for Turkey, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt as destinations “to be avoided at this time.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz last week accused Erdogan of acting like a “dictator” by blocking Israel's import and export ports as part of a trade war.
“This is the behavior of a dictator who ignores the interests of Turkish people and businessmen and ignores international trade agreements,” Katz tweeted.
Israel's foreign minister said he had instructed his prime minister to devise alternative trade routes that bypass Turkey, with a focus on increasing domestic production and imports from other international partners.
Last week, President Erdoğan, whose ruling Justice and Development Party won a landslide victory in local elections on March 31st, spoke out against the pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas protests currently being held on American university campuses in the name of opposing the actions of Jerusalem at the time. He criticized the response to the protests. war with Hamas.
Erdogan claimed that “conscientious students and academics, including anti-Zionist Jews” were being subjected to “violence, brutality, suffering and even torture” by the authorities for opposing Israeli actions. He claimed that some people have “fired him and lynched him” for supporting the Palestinians.
“The limits of Western democracy are determined by Israeli interests,” the Turkish leader added, accusing Western countries of labeling any criticism of Israel “anti-democratic” and “anti-Semitic.” .
At the end of April, Katz harshly criticized the Turkish government's invitation to Hamas's political director, Ismail Haniyeh, to stay in the country.