Mmm maybe but it's inevitable.

I'll not argue the rights and wrongs of this particular case but surely there must come a time when a regimes behaviour is so bad that a boycott is completely the right thing to do.

I'm thinking back to the SA boycott.

 

 1. The Israeli team had to compete on an anonymous basis. 
2. The team had to compete as an ISAF team and not representing Israel. 
3. They could only take indirect flights via Singapore to Langkawi (these were believed to have been booked, by the Israelis.) 
4. The Israeli team were not permitted to display any names, flags, logos, theme, colors that would indicate that they were representing Israel and had to portray themselves as representing the ISAF/World Sailing. 

And once there?  Well some sort of action might be welcome.

The Malaysian attitude to Israel is revolting (they also aim institutionalised racism at Malaysian-born people of Chinese descent) but since the entire Commonwealth practised the same sort of exclusion for years (with much better cause I'd say) then we seem like hypocrites when we tell our kids to withdraw.

These youngsters only get one bite at a Youth Worlds and to deny them a place is something that they may carry for the rest of their lives.  To suggest that they could compete but deny their national flag is wrong given that the flag ceremony is often an important part of a World Championship event ... It is like saying you competent but you must deny your nationhood.

If I was a Muslim or from the Middle East, I may think that a boycott aimed at removing Israel from Palestine was a good thing.  There were plenty of people who thought that the Gleneagles agreement was wrong too, since it was in aid of people who included "terrorists" and communists, or simply because they believed that sporting boycotts were wrong.  I don't agree that the Gleneagles agreement was wrong, but that's a personal political/ethical decision and who is to say that World Sailing has to agree with my political decision?  

It therefore appears that ISAF is supposed to say "this boycott is good and must be supported by ISAF, that boycott is bad and must not be supported by ISAF".  Is that really the job of an international sporting body?  ISAF can't even following the UN to get guidance - there are many UN resolutions against Israel.  

Let me underline once again the fact that I am no friend of Malaysia's racist official policies, or any other racist policies for that matter.  Nor am I saying Israel should not exist.  All I'm saying is that the whole question of whether ISAF should only go to countries that allow free access to all is very murky, and if it had been applied in the past the UK, Australia, Canada, Malaysia etc would not have been allowed to hold world titles for many years.   

Anyway, ISAF should have seen this coming, they did not do their due diligence, and should have sought assurances from the Malaysian government before signing up ... I am sure that there would have been other countries that could have hosted a true World Championship.

The Arab League has had an "internationally agreed boycott against Israel."  I can't find out if that includes sports but it would appear to be likely.  

To say that only agreements between nations count would seem to be discriminating against unaligned countries.  Greece did not allow South African athletes to play in the country as a protest against apartheid. Was that wrong?  So it was OK for the UK or Australia to ban South African athletes, but not OK for Greece to ban South African athletes?  

 

Ok, so you agree than that (say) Greece should not have been allowed to hold ISAF world titles while they barred South African teams.  Effectively you are saying that they should not have been allowed to put pressure on South Africa to end apartheid.

Is the UK now going to be banned from holding ISAF world titles because it has recently denied a visa to a sports official because of his political connections?

 

What would happen if individual countries started to take action against the sports that compete against a country that is subject to a boycott like the Gleneagles Agreement?  What about if there was a situation as there was in the early '80s, where sailors from the UK were banned from sailing in world championships against South Africans?  We ended up in exactly the same situation where some athletes were excluded.

 

Is it really easier for ISAF to sit back and cop the abuse, than it would be for them to have cancelled the worlds?  Which is the less spineless route?

 

It seems that there is no easy solution to this issue, unless we think it's 100% tickety boo to be in a situation where we may have to applaud while the national flag of a country that chose to murder many of its own citizens was raised in honour of a team that was chosen on a discriminatory basis.  If there was a South African team there that was only chosen from white athletes, while outstanding black sailors were banned from travelling and forced to sail separate regattas from sub-standard venues (which is the way it used to be) would you feel happy if kids were sailing against them? 

Let's just step back in time.  The Commonwealth nations have agreed on Gleneagles.  We as sailors cannot fight that decision.  Would you have been OK if the UK could not hold a single world title for all those years?  I don't think we would have been in Oz.  The Kiwis seemed pretty proud of the fact that they held world titles.  Why is it OK for us (the UK, Oz and NZ) to ban nations but not Malaysia?

Sure - but since it's subjective why do so many people speak as if ISAF was objectively wrong?

And why do so many who condemn ISAF either go along with similar action taken by their own nation, or fail to start a movement to apologise for those actions?

There does seem to be a lot of "WE were right to stand up for our beliefs, THEY cannot stand up for their beliefs" about this.

That's the same world table tennis body that once barred South Africa.  If it was right then why is it wrong now? If it was wrong then, where is the apology to South Africans?

Very true, tragically (although if my wife's great uncle John X Merriman had been successful at the Union Conference, most of them would have;  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Qualified_Franchise ).  And a lot of the best athletes were not allowed to go overseas, but apparently ISAF should have welcomed teams selected on racial grounds rather than ban them.

Further the Malaysians and ISAF issued a Notice of Race on December 8, 2014 - over a year from the start of the regatta, saying that it was open to all countries in good standing with ISAF. Israel is in good standing with the ISAF/World Sailing.

Then they started playing the political games. It is not acceptable, and the ISAF should not and will not be allocating world championships to countries that want to do this sort of thing.

Good point.  What about Lichtenstien? Do they have a lake?

Oh dear, it looks like the entire European Community is out; they banned Nigerian teams in 1995.  And why should the nations that are part of the EC be allowed to escape the consequences of banning nationals teams, when members of organisations of Muslim nations cannot?

The Malaysian attitude, to their own nationals of Chinese origin and to the Israelis, is deplorable.  However, history is pretty simple - if ISAF can't hold world titles in nations that do that sort of thing, there can no longer any world titles in the European Community; any of the Arab League; any of the Commonwealth; China; or the USA.

So where do we go now for ISAF world titles?  What about Russia or North Korea?   

I don't agree with the Malaysian stand (although I wonder whether the compromise was a reasonable one in the real world of politics) but this does appear to be a very vexed, multi-sided and complex issue rather than a simple case of ISAF being whackers.

Maybe ISAF and the Commonwealth should also issue an official apology to the apartheid regime of South Africa for banning their sailors? After all, if it was wrong to do so isn't it immoral not to apologise for the past sins?  And at least if the sport apologises to the apartheid regime ISAF will get lots and lots of press coverage.

Switzerland? Sweden? 

Sweden?  Nope - they had an anti-apartheid boycott as early as 1968.

Or do you think it is about time to put a circuit breaker across this sort of nonsense and may stop passing this behaviour on our kids and their kids etc etc?

Or have we learned something from the last 80 years - Apartheid in South Africa, Olympic boycott of Afghanistan, 1936 Olympics etc.

And decide that we don't really have to infect Youth Sailing with these attitudes or allow them to be the tools of politicians who are quite happy to ban Israeli kids from a sport, but will turn a blind eye to serious trade with Israel to provide components for the Malaysian IT industry.

And don't forget of course that just over a year before the Youth Worlds the world body as a co-organiser put out a Notice of Race inviting all countries in good standing with the ISAF to send teams to the Youth Worlds. Then the same body sits by or is caught napping when a situation they saw coming in November 2011 eventuates. Wouldn't it have been a little more honest to say all countries except Israel are allowed to compete when they sent out their Notice of Race?

RG

Sorry to hear that elsewhere there are people who are keen to keep repeating history in the hope of a different outcome. 

It is not about a sports body over-ruling the NZ Govt or any other government. If the MAS and ISAF say a year out from the event that it is open at all member nations in good standing, then that is what it has to be. If host countries are going to use sport to ban athletes from Israel or anywhere else for political reasons, then at least have the guts to say so, and then see if they get allocated the event by the world body.

RG

Here's an interesting twist - the USA currently restricts athletes and sporting personnel from one country. Until recently it restricted those from two. Soon it may stop ALL Muslim sailors from entering.  So where is the campaign to stop ISAF from holding world titles in the USA?

Most countries are smart enough to have individual exemption clauses and apply them - Malaysia does and did not.

But the sailors have to want to enter  as provided by the Notice of Race - not just have someone nit pick a domestic immigration policy. The Israelis entered, filed their papers the same time as other countries and were visas weren't issued.

I'm more than comfortable with not reporting on events which discriminate - or the alternative is to inject a very prominent paragraph into each race report pointing out that two world champions were barred from competing in the Youth Worlds, which is the tack we took on Sail-World. If we say nothing and run no reports - then the even takes place and no-one is any the wiser as to why two current world champions are not featuring in the results. 

In the case of the last youth worlds, Malaysia copped more negative publicity about their discrimination, and continues to cop it - than they did positive stories about the regatta they hosted.

RG

Australia effectively does it too.  The Immigration Department has a list of countries, ranked in terms of the chances that visitors will overstay their visa.  Athletes from countries with a high proportion of overstayers may be denied entry when similar athletes from other countries are allowed in.

See

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/australia-denies-visa-to-indian-lawn-bowls-team/article453483.ece

PS - good on you for publicising the odious actions of the Malaysian government, but other countries appear to be prepared to do the same thing.

The other thing about the "flight list ranking" (or whatever it was called) is that I think it's calculated according to the number of people from each country and their likelihood of overstaying their visa.  That means that it can change from year to year, even without political fads etc which are of course also vital.

Obviously the question cannot hinge on whether any person from a banned country actually entered, since that means that people must waste time and money entering a regatta they know they can't compete in. Who knows if Zimbabwean sailors lost a chance to represent their country in NZ during that time?