The International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF is now allowing the Israeli U-20 national team to take part in the world championship tournament of the sixth-class Division III A, which is scheduled to begin next week in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia. Last week, the IIHF Council decided to exclude Israeli teams from international events until further notice because their safety could not be guaranteed.
After another meeting of the association executive on Tuesday, the association announced that there was now a security guarantee from the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Sofia for the tournament in Bulgaria. We wish the Israeli team and the other five participating teams success. As for other Israeli teams, the IIHF aims to obtain the “necessary conditions and support” to enable their participation in events. Further decisions were announced for February.
Apparently it wasn’t just Bulgarian politics that was involved in the backwards role. As the International Olympic Committee said in response to a query from FAZ, it had discussed the situation “over the past few weeks with the IIHF and the National Olympic Committee of Israel and made its own position very clear.” Non-discrimination of any kind is a fundamental principle of the Olympic Charter.
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The now revised exclusion of the Israeli U-20 team last week and the announcement that it would decide on the participation of Israeli teams in international tournaments on a case-by-case basis had caused criticism. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) called for the exclusion to be completely withdrawn. Faeser told “Bild am Sonntag” that the exclusion of the Israeli team, against which threats are directed, would mean capitulation to hatred and would be a “devastating sign.” The world association must create transparency as to how this wrong decision could come about.
The German Ice Hockey Association, whose former president Franz Reindl is a member of the IIHF Council, had announced that the DEB was “dismayed” by the decision and was committed to ensuring that “this situation remains a one-off exception”.
