The IOC needs to prepare itself for inevitable impact of Israel-Palestine conflict on Paris Olympics
In a European women's basketball qualifier last week, Ireland's national team refused to shake hands or engage in the usual pre-game courtesies with their Israeli opponents.
The reason stated by Ireland's basketball federation was that Israeli player Dor Saar, in an interview leading up to the game, had said the Irish players "are quite antisemitic." Saar's comments upset the Irish team, which reported the remarks to FIBA Europe and said they were inaccurate and inflammatory.
As a result, Ireland did not want to shake hands with their opponents. Unfounded accusations of antisemitism cannot be considered sportsmanlike conduct and the players were within their rights to object.
According to reports, if the Irish team had simply pulled out of the game the federation would have been fined more than $250,000 Cdn, a crippling amount for their program.