Belgium is known for its chocolates. But an Israeli delegation including teenage frisbee players who had been preparing for three years to play in a tournament they thought would be sweet, got the bitter pill that they were barred from playing in the European Youth Ultimate Frisbee Championship in Ghent.
After an unknown person spray-painted graffiti that said “Boycott Israhell Now!” police recommended Israel not play due to security concerns; the recommendation was accepted by the governing body.
The Israeli delegation of 33 players comprised two teams, one of mostly boys and one that includes boys and girls, ages 13-17. There were also nine adults. Chen Bankirer, president of the Israeli Flying Disc Association, told The Jewish Press that they had previously agreed to not attend the opening ceremony and to play their game at an alternative field out of an abundance of caution and were stunned to hear that someone else vandalizing a wall could put their status in jeopardy. He said first there was an unofficial ruling, followed by an official ruling.
“The police made a recommendation that we shouldn’t play,” Bankirer said by phone from Ramat Gan. “They say, ‘What would happen to the poor 17-year-old kids who had to face a demonstration about boycotting Israel?’ And they were not talking about the Israeli kids. It’s crazy. They gave into vandalism, not even terrorism. We were totally surprised and were expecting to play last Tuesday.”
Bankirer said he’d been working on a documentary film about the team and he believed the team had a good chance to win the tournament.
He said he learned Tuesday morning (August 6) the team would not be able to play and told the team at about 7:30 a.m.
“It wasn’t fun,” he said. “You know you’re going to break their hearts. They were scheduled to go to the field an hour later. You have to tell them they’re not going to play in the tournament. They were crying. They were shocked. We had to tell them this is the world we live in. This is not the last time they will face this reality. We didn’t hide anything. We told the kids the truth as it is. It was difficult.”
He said he learned there was a warrant and police officers came to the field to make sure no Israeli stepped on it.
“Instead of protecting the Israeli team, the police were on the other side, I believe,” he said. “If I was a player on an adult team, I would have gone to the field and risked getting arrested, but you can’t do that with kids,” he said. “Imagine if someone spray painted ‘Screw BLM!’ [Black Lives Matter]; would that be an excuse to tell every Black person not to participate?”
He said some Belgian coaches were supportive, but it didn’t matter because the decision-makers ruled.
“The police and the European Flying Disc Association chose the path of least resistance,” he said. “Unfortunately, that path was paved over pour kids.”
Assistant coach Daniel Ben-David, speaking by phone from Tel Aviv, said they asked to see camera footage of those who spray-painted the graffiti but were not allowed. Police officials brought only female coaches in a room to speak with them and one told him the police official said, “This is your war, not mine.” In a video shared with The Jewish Press, a female Israeli coach makes reference to this, and the police official nods, says pro-Palestinian protestors caused a scene at the local university and “there will be a war” if Israel was allowed to play.
He said supposedly the graffiti was done at 5:30 a.m. and somehow there was already an article on a Belgian website by 8:00 a.m.
“It doesn’t seem right, and we can’t prove it but it seems like this could have all been planned,” he said.
He said breaking the news to the kids was tough.
“At that moment I was broken, but I knew I had to stay strong for the kids,” he said. “I’m the coach and I have to be there for them. We gathered everyone and sat them down and it was one of the most challenging things to see their faces, They were broken and crying. They didn’t understand. They’re kids. They’re not involved in politics or anything. It was very challenging.”
Just having passed the ten-month period since the Hamas attacks of October 7, sports can offer a way to escape from the hardships and maintain a semblance of normality, even if is temporary, he said.
“But even without the war, things might have been the same,” Ben-David said. “We spoke to some Jewish businessmen in Belgium who said there is a lot of antisemitism. It feels like they don’t like Israelis or Jews in Ghent.”
He said he was aware of a writer named Herman Brusselmans who wrote in a column for the Belgian Magazine “Humo” that the humanitarian suffering in Gaza made him want to “ram a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I meet.” The columnist also described the Israeli Prime Minister as a “short, fat, bald Jew” who “for whatever reason wants to ensure that the entire Arab world is wiped out” according to media reports.
Nonetheless, he said, there was no specific threat of any attack against the Jewish delegation, and they wanted to play.
How did an anti-Israel protestor find out the location of the alternative field?
“We think someone leaked it,” he said. “Maybe it was the organizers or someone from Ghent.”
He said this is a dangerous precedent which can be copied to cancel any Israeli sports team or entertainer as well as one from any country in which there is conflict or controversy in the future.
“This is why we are taking legal action,” he said. “We cannot allow this to be an example for others to follow. Maybe one day there will be a conflict with India and another country, and they will try to do this to India. Once you find a way to bar Israel, you can find a way to bar anyone. This is not acceptable. It’s kids. Leave politics out of it and let them do what they love.”
He added that there was no apology or offer to pay the costs of their airfare and lodging.
Itamar Ron Kaplun, a captain of the team who is 16, was born in Summit, N.J., and made aliyah with his family in 2021. He plays the position of cutter.
“We used the situation of war as motivation to try to win because we knew a lot of people were sacrificing for us,” he told The Jewish Press. “We would have easily won the gold medal. We saw the finals in the hotel. I was angry because I could tell we would have won. Germany won, ironically.”
He said he worked very hard and had a lonely feeling when he found out they would not be allowed to play.
“I practiced two times every day for three years,” he said. “You have to be in extremely good shape and be able to jump horizontally and lay out and it’s the size of a soccer field, so you need a lot of stamina.”
He said he has a necklace that says, “You can fall down but you have to get up” and he then told the team it was okay to cry.
“It’s heartbreaking but at the end of the day, it will build us up as people,” he said. “I wasn’t as angry as I was disappointed. As a Jew and an Israeli to know people will hate you just because of your ethnicity and where you come from, being an American Jew and Israeli Jew, I’ve learned to grow up with this reality. But I didn’t think it would happen in sports with 15 and 16-year-olds. We’re not soldiers fighting. We’re not politicians. We’re just kids who want to play sports. As a player I can say they thought it was dangerous for the players and wanted it to be a fair tournament. As a kid who is not dumb, has his own eyes and can see, it’s antisemitism. We saw the fields were fine. Paint doesn’t ruin fields. It was still safe to play. But as the captain, I can’t make assumptions.”
An e-mail to the city of Ghent went unanswered.
