According to a report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Thursday, “officials from Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Azerbaijan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries” (presumably Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) have asked World Aquatics to relocate the 2024 World Championships away from the Qatari capital of Doha because of the country’s ties to Hamas.
The report did not clarify who the “officials” were or what their roles are or with which organizations.
For the past decade, Qatar has provided asylum for Hamas leadership in Doha while also supporting the Palestinian group financially. That partnership is under the microscope again after a surprise attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,300 Israelis dead, at least 32 U.S. citizens deceased, and about 200 people taken as hostages. Israel responded by declaring a war that has killed more than 3,700 Palestinians, including more than 1,500 children, and displaced more than a million Gaza residents over the past two weeks.
Qatar, a wealthy nation with less than half a million citizens, is in a unique position as an ally of both Hamas and the U.S. military, which operates a command base not far from the swanky Doha hotels and villas hosting Hamas leaders. Last year, the U.S. declared Qatar a “Major Non-NATO Ally.”
Qatar was reportedly the lead negotiator in Friday’s release of two American hostages taken Oct. 7 and earned thanks from President Joe Biden. According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 10 other Americans remain unaccounted for in the conflict.
Last week, World Aquatics moved the final stop of the Open Water World Cup Series from Eilat, Israel to Funchal, Portugal amid the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine. World Aquatics did not make a broader statement on the ongoing war, referring to the war as “recent occurrences in Israel.”
World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam is a native of Kuwait, where the government has no diplomatic relations with Israel and has blamed the Israelis for the war and sided with Palestine in the decades-long conflict. Al-Musallam is not a government official and the statements of the Kuwaiti government do not seem to have impacted World Aquatics’ stance on Israel in the past, awarding the country several high-profile events, including the recent World Junior Swimming Championships.
The 2024 World Championships next February are set to be the first edition ever held in the Middle East, but Doha has hosted the Short Course World Championships in 2014 as well as nine legs of the World Cup series between 2012 and 2021.
Related: Abdelrahman Elaraby Dealing with Death Threats for Supporting Palestine
Qatar cannot guarantee the safety of the Israeli swimmers, and certainly can’t guarantee that they’ll be able to focus their attention on competing.
The world champs cannot be held in Qatar.
Let them pressure. World Aquatics is good at ignoring that. Nothing will happen. WCs will still be in Doha.
Most sporting fedetations don’t have any issues or morality. They just sell off their World Championships/events to whoever offers them the most cash.
Exactly. People like Zhou Jihong have so much money their appalling ethics is ignored
That Jihong is an absolute shocker
Al Mussalum’s dirty deals coming back to haunt him!
Our petroleum addiction funding deranged despots who funnel their money to terrorist organizations explicitly wanting to bring down our civilization? Nope, we’ve never done that, that’s never come back to bite us, nothing to see here carry on
A step in a positive direction. No one with ties to a terrorist organization should be rewarded. This will be downvoted. I remember a time when such things would not be “downvoted,” so to speak.
We’re ok with what’s essentially slave labor in Qatar and their ties to Saudi Arabia, but ties to Hamas is a step too far
Bad, bad take there friend.
Forget the essentially, its slave labour.The number of domestic workers who are unpaid and/or sexually abused is huge.Everybody knows it.Nobody does anything about it…….after all they have oil.
would it be too late or no
I’m sure Budapest could whip up a World Championships in no time.
Then again, I’m not putting Orbán in the same category as actual terrorists but is he really that much better?
The only question is would WAQ be willing to pay cancellation fees to Qatar and contractors?