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GENEVA: A major cycling race in Spain was disrupted by protests against an Israeli team. A basketball game in Poland was preceded by fans booing the Israeli national anthem. And several European countries are threatening to boycott a signature entertainment event if Israel takes part.
The global backlash against Israel over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza has spread into the arenas of sports and culture. Israel’s critics say it should be sidelined from international events just like Russia has been since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Unlike Russia, which faced widespread condemnation and Western sanctions, Israel has not been shut out by global sports institutions like the International Olympic Committee or world soccer body FIFA. Besides the small international Muay Thai federation, there’s been little will in international sports to prevent Israeli athletes from competing under their national flag.
But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez raised the temperature earlier this week by siding with pro-Palestinian protesters who disrupted the Spanish Vuelta cycling race, saying it’s time to boycott Israel from international sports events until the “barbarity” in Gaza ends. A day later, Spain’s public broadcaster joined three other European countries threatening to withdraw from and not carry next year’s Eurovision Song Contest – a hugely popular event in Israel and across Europe – if Israel is allowed to compete.
Earlier this month, some Hollywood filmmakers, actors and other industry figures signed a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions — including festivals, broadcasters and production companies.
Why, Sánchez asked, shouldn’t Israel be expelled from sports just like Russia?
“This is different,” the IOC’s executive director for Olympic Games, Christophe Dubi, said this week in Milan when asked to compare the two.
Both the IOC and FIFA have said the legal reasons for acting against Russia have not been reached in Israel’s case but haven’t given detailed explanations. The IOC has said Israel hasn’t breached the Olympic charter like Russia, when it annexed territories in eastern Ukraine. Also, European soccer federations and clubs are not refusing to play Israeli opponents.
FIFA declined a request for comment on its Israel policy and the delayed work of two panels reviewing formal complaints by the Palestinian soccer federation, which has long tried to bar Israel from competition over its treatment of Palestinians.
Israel reacts strongly to Spanish prime minister’s comments
Israel reacted strongly to Sánchez’ call for a sports boycott. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the Spanish leader an “antisemite and a liar.” Israel has dug in its heels in the face of international isolation and criticism of its military campaign, which came in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants.
The most notable exclusion from international sports was imposed on Apartheid-era South Africa. It did not compete at any Olympics after 1960 until the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games, two years after Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
Russia was swiftly blacklisted by most sports federations after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Its athletes competed under a neutral flag at the Paris Olympics.
Currently there is no momentum for Israel to face the same fate. Still, some analysts said the move by Spain is significant, not least because it is a major soccer power set to co-host the 2030 World Cup. It also will host an NFL game next month and the opening stage of next year’s Tour de France bike rice.
“Until now we haven’t seen this type of outrage against Israeli action in Gaza,” said Antoine Duval of the Asser Institute, a Netherlands-based think tank. “I think this tide is turning now.”
Sports federations have complained about playing Israeli teams
How impactful Spain’s move will be remains to be seen. No world leader has so far followed Sánchez’ call for excluding Israel from international sports.
On Thursday, a British lawmaker in Birmingham called on European soccer body UEFA to “urgently cancel” soccer team Aston Villa’s Nov. 6 Europa League match against Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv “to ensure public safety and community harmony.” UEFA has not shown any indication it will do so.
Israel’s culture and sports ministry didn’t return messages seeking comment.
In Europe, several sports federations have groused about having to play Israeli teams, while noting they have no choice since Israel isn’t banned from international competitions.
“Facing Israel in these circumstances is not a scenario we would wish,” Basketball Ireland chief executive John Feehan said last month about being drawn to play Israel in a Women’s Eurobasket qualifying game in November. “But there has been no change in Israel’s status within sport.”
Feehan said Ireland’s basketball federation could face sanctions “should we elect not to play, which would be hugely damaging to the sport here.”
In men’s soccer, Italy and Norway will host Israel next month in a World Cup qualifying matches and both federations spoke this week of their dissatisfaction with the situation.
Italian soccer leader Gabriele Gravina said he was “well aware of the sensitivity of Italian public opinion” about the Oct. 14 game in Udine. But refusing to play would result in a 3-0 loss by forfeit, according to FIFA’s rules.
“Not playing also means clearly saying we’re not going to the World Cup, we have to be aware of that,” Gravina said, adding that a boycott would instead help Israel advance closer to the finals tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Norway, which will play Israel on Oct. 11, said it would donate profits from ticket sales to Doctors Without Borders for its humanitarian work in Gaza.
Fans voice their protests against Israeli teams
When the Israel men’s national team played in Poland at Eurobasket last month, there were protests outside the arena in Katowice. Inside, the Israeli anthem was loudly booed by fans.
Last year, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were involved in violent clashes with residents in Amsterdam while attending a soccer game there.
Protests inside stadiums are regularly seen in European soccer, even at the Champions League final in May. A “Stop Genocide In Gaza” banner in French was displayed during the game by Paris Saint-Germain fans congregated behind one goal in Munich.
UEFA did not open a disciplinary case, despite having rules prohibiting political messaging. It fueled the debate at its own Super Cup game in August: Before kickoff in Udine, banners saying “Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians” were laid on the field in front of the PSG and Tottenham players.
In tennis, Canada hosted Israel in the Davis Cup last weekend behind closed doors in Halifax, Nova Scotia, due to “escalating safety concerns.” The move came after hundreds of Canadian athletes and academics urged Tennis Canada to cancel the matches over Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
In 2023, Indonesia lost hosting rights for the men’s Under-20 World Cup for FIFA rather than accept Israel playing on its turf. But its stance appears to have changed.
Israeli media reported in July that the country’s gymnastics federation was invited by Indonesia to send a team to the world championships in Jakarta later this year. Indonesia is currently in talks with the IOC to be considered as a host for the 2036 Summer Games.

At first, Clemson University took a stand for free speech. It condemned employees’ remarks that made light of Charlie Kirk’s death on social media, but the school said it was committed to protecting the Constitution. Three days later, under pressure from conservatives in the Statehouse, it fired one of the employees. As an outcry grew and the White House took interest, it fired two more.
The swift developments at the public university in South Carolina reflect the intense pressure on college leaders nationwide to police insensitive comments about the conservative activist’s assassination, which leaves them with no easy choices.
Colleges can defy the Republican backlash and defend their employees’ speech rights, risking the kind of federal attention that has prompted billions of dollars in cuts at Harvard and other universities. Or they can bow to the pressure and risk what some scholars see as a historic erosion of campus speech rights.
A campaign among the right to punish those disparaging Kirk has cut across industries, with some conservatives calling for the firing of private sector employees, journalists and others they judge as promoting violence. But the stakes are especially high for colleges, which are already under intense scrutiny from an administration that has sought to reshape campuses it describes as “woke” and overrun by leftist thinking.
The White House coordinated a call with federal agencies Monday to discuss “funding options” at Clemson and other universities, according to a person with knowledge of the call who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. The White House did not provide details.
The federal government’s increasing appetite to dictate what can and can’t be said on campuses — from protests over the Israel-Hamas war to commentary on Kirk’s death — violates the First Amendment, said Lara Schwartz, an American University scholar on constitutional law and campus speech. Distasteful as they may be, she said, many comments provoking outrage are clearly protected speech.
“This could very much signal the end of free expression in the United States,” Schwartz said. “People should be reading this not as like a little social media battle, but as a full-on constitutional crisis.”
Conservatives across government targeted Clemson
Over the weekend, Clemson became the epicenter in a battle between those who revered and those who reviled Kirk. Republicans at all levels rushed to support a campus GOP club that shared social media posts from campus employees mocking Kirk’s death. State lawmakers showed up on campus with signs demanding the employees’ firing.
One screenshot circulated by college Republicans showed a professor of audio technology reposted a message on X the day of the killing that said: “According to Kirk, empathy is a made-up new-age term, so keep the jokes coming. It’s what he would have wanted.”
In Congress, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee responded to Clemson’s statement defending free speech with a two-word social media post: “Defund Clemson.” State lawmakers threatened to cut funding, including one whose post was circulated by President Donald Trump.
South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who’s running for governor, sent a letter to the Education Department on Monday urging it to pull all federal funding from schools and universities that fail to swiftly terminate employees “who would celebrate or justify political violence.”
Ahead of an emergency meeting by Clemson’s governing board Monday, the state’s Republican attorney general sent a letter assuring leaders the firings would be permitted under state law. Alan Wilson said fired employees can challenge the dismissals in civil cases, but Clemson or other universities would not be prosecuted under a state law that forbids firings based on political opinions.
“Fear of criminal prosecution should not deter the President of a state university, such as Clemson, from taking the appropriate corrective action against university employees for such vile and incendiary comments on a public platform,” Wilson wrote.
One employee was fired prior to the meeting, and Clemson announced Tuesday it had dismissed two others, both faculty members.
Several colleges have fired staff over Kirk comments
Conservatives calling for the firings have said glorifying and celebrating violence also incites it, crossing into speech not protected by the Constitution. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed to go after those whose speech threatens violence in the wake of Kirk’s killing.
“For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations and cheer on political violence,” she said. “That era is over.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Wednesday encouraged schools and colleges to crack down on anyone celebrating the killing. In a video statement, she said such comments are the product of universities and schools that breed “divisive ideologies.”
“I commend the institutions and leaders who have acted swiftly to condemn and hold accountable those who have crossed this ethical line,” she said.
Several colleges have fired or suspended employees over comments on Kirk, including the University of Miami, the University of Tennessee, Auburn University and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Others have warned they are investigating social media posts. Iowa’s Board of Regents, for one, empowered the state’s public universities to take immediate action, including termination. President Sherry Bates said posts made last week were “offensive, inappropriate, and above all, unacceptable.”
“We expect more from those who work at our institutions,” she said.
Some university leaders have sought find a balance, condemning callous comments while pledging commitment to First Amendment principles. In Georgia, Columbus State University’s president, Stuart Rayfield, said a professor’s post that received attention online was regrettable but faculty and students are “entitled to their own personal views under the First Amendment.”
University of Missouri leaders on Wednesday said they respect the rights of employees to speak as citizens, but they encouraged staff “to use those freedoms responsibly, especially when engaging on social media.”