Malaysia has been stripped of the right to host the 2019 World Paralympic Swimming Championships by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), following its ban on Israeli athletes from participating.
In a response to a written parliamentary question by Douglas Ross MP on the issue, Minister for Asia and the Pacific Rt. Hon. Mark Field MP lauded the IPC’s decision and deplored Malaysia’s actions as “fundamentally wrong”.
He said: “I raised our concerns with the Malaysian Minister for Education, Dr Maszlee bin Malik on the 22 January. The British High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur has done likewise with the Malaysian Foreign Minister. We will continue to raise our strong objection with the Malaysian authorities”.
Mr Field emphasised: “We are aware of comments made by the Malaysian Prime Minister on the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The UK fully supports the modern State of Israel as a Jewish homeland and remain committed to the objective of sovereign and prosperous Palestinian state”. Click here to read Mr Field’s full statement.
The IPC’s announcement was welcomed by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt who said: the IPC “are absolutely right. We were proud to host the Israeli team here for London 2012 alongside many other countries that have profound disagreements with Israel – but the ability to bring countries together is part of the magic of the Olympics and Paralympics”.
Foreign Secretary Hunt underlined: “Israeli athletes should not have been, and should never be banned from competing”.
In recent weeks as the global criticism on Malaysia’s decision has mounted, the Malaysian government reaffirmed their ban. Earlier this month Malaysia’s cabinet decided that Israelis will not be allowed to enter the country for any event.
In an October interview with BBC’s Hard Talk Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad described Jews as “hooked-nosed” and disputed that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
IPC President Andrew Parsons explained in a statement: “When a host country excludes athletes from a particular nation, for political reasons, then we have absolutely no alternative but to look for a new Championships host”.
He emphasised: “All World Championships must be open to all eligible athletes and nations to compete safely and free from discrimination”.
Speaking on Radio 4’s today programme, British Paralympian Baroness Grey-Thompson said that: “I think the IPC made the right decision to strip Malaysia, sadly there’s too many people who say sport and politics aren’t linked, actually they are and it’s not up to the organising committee of world championships to decide which athletes should go or shouldn’t go”.
