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. 

Statement ahead of today's FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 Qualifier. <a href="https://t.co/iz6s88febf">pic.twitter.com/iz6s88febf</a>

This is not the first time athletes are speaking up about a political issue. Nor will it be the last. 

The backdrop of all this is four months of incessant and ruthless military bombardment on Gaza by Israel that began after the horrific Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Since then, its reported more than 1,100 Israelis and 28,000 Palestinians have been killed and 67,700 injured. As of Feb. 12, there are 101 Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas. 

There's no way to exclude or omit this from the lives of athletes from that region living the chaos and madness, or others feeling the weight of this in their lives. 

Most recently, the Palestinian men's soccer team competed with "anguished joy" in Qatar for the Asian Cup. Some of the players have lost family