PETALING JAYA: Israel’s Paralympics swimming team has been barred from entering the country to participate in the World Para Swimming Championships in July, an event which will impact the formulation of the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, Israeli portal Ynetnews.com reports.
According to the report, the Israel Paralympics Committee has been trying to obtain visas for the team for two months now.
“In principle, everyone says that it will work out, but we have still not received an invitation or visas,” committee chairman Nisim Sasportas told Ynet.
“We are continuing to apply pressure. We have letters of support from the International Paralympics Committee, the European Paralympics Committee and the Olympic Athletes Committee, and hope that they allow the athletes and their security entourage to participate.”
Malaysia has no diplomatic ties with Israel, and this is not the first time Israeli athletes have been barred from entering the country for international events.
In 2015, two Israeli windsurfers were forced to withdraw from the International Sailing Federation world youth championships in Langkawi after failing to obtain visas.
This latest development follows Putrajaya’s criticism of Australia’s move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had raised concerns over the matter with his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison during the Asean summit in Singapore last November.
“We noticed that the words used are very carefully constructed. Nevertheless, in the eyes of many Arab countries, all these are not something that they can accept,” he said.
He added that Jerusalem had always been under Palestine and questioned why the holy city was being divided. - FMT
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