{"id":604146,"date":"2021-07-27T17:06:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T21:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=604146"},"modified":"2021-07-27T17:06:29","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T21:06:29","slug":"iranian-defector-dedicates-olympic-judo-medal-to-israel-thanks-country-in-hebrew-in-sharp-rebuke-to-anti-semitic-competitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/iranian-defector-dedicates-olympic-judo-medal-to-israel-thanks-country-in-hebrew-in-sharp-rebuke-to-anti-semitic-competitors\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian Defector Dedicates Olympic Judo Medal To Israel, Thanks Country In Hebrew In Sharp Rebuke To Anti-Semitic Competitors"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Firanian-defector-dedicates-olympic-judo-medal-to-israel-thanks-country-in-hebrew-in-sharp-rebuke-to-anti-semitic-competitors%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=604146&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1330871024.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>An Iranian defender who won an Olympic silver medal in judo bucked the trend on Tuesday, dedicating his medal to Israel and thanking the country in Hebrew for his second-place finish in the men\u2019s 81kg judo final.<\/p>\n<p>Saeid Mollaei \u201cdedicated his first-ever Olympic medal to Israel and thanked the country for the support they have given him after a nail-biting final,\u201d the Daily Mail reported Tuesday afternoon. \u201cThe judo world champion, who trained in Israel with their national judo team in the months before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, thanked the country in Hebrew as he dedicated his first-ever Olympic medal to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Thank you to Israel for the good energy,\u201d Mollaei reportedly told the Israeli Sports Channel after losing the final match to a Japanese athlete. \u201cThis medal is dedicated also to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mollaei now competes for Mongolia after defecting to Germany during the 2019 Judo World Championships. He left the Iranian team, despite being one of the team\u2019s up-and-coming stars after Iran\u2019s minister demanded that he withdraw from a judo match rather than spar with an Israeli athlete \u2014 something at least two competitors have done this Olympics alone.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli competitor he was ordered not to touch, Sag Muki, also competed in Tokyo but was eliminated early on after losing to a competitor from Austria. He had only praise for Mollaei, calling him his \u201cclose friend\u201d and praising him for \u201cachieving his dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/second-judo-competitor-sent-home-from-tokyo-after-refusing-to-spar-with-israeli-athlete\">The Daily Wire reported Monday<\/a>, at least two athletes have withdrawn from judo competitions in Tokyo rather than face an Israeli athlete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlgeria\u2019s Fetih Nourine withdrew from competition on Saturday rather than have to face Israel\u2019s Tohar Butbul, who ended up finishing in 7th place after losing to an athlete from South Korea. Sudan\u2019s Mohamed Abdalarasool did not show up to compete against Butbul during a scheduled match on Monday,\u201d The Daily Wire noted.<\/p>\n<p>Nourine and his coach earned a temporary suspension from international competition for the display, but Nourine claimed \u201cGod will compensate\u201d him for believing the \u201cPalestinian cause is bigger\u201d than an Olympic medal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have worked hard to qualify for the Games, but the Palestinian cause is bigger than all that,\u201d&nbsp;he said.&nbsp;\u201cMy position is consistent on the Palestinian issue, and I reject normalisation, and if it cost me that absence from the Olympic Games, God will compensate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were unlucky with the draw, an Israeli opponent came out and that\u2019s why we had to withdraw, we made the right decision,\u201d Nourine\u2019s coach, Amar Benijlef told an Algerian television network, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/news\/algeria-athlete-suspended-olympics-withdrawal-avoid-israel-opponent-nourine\">per Middle East Eye<\/a>. \u201cWe have worked hard to qualify for the Games, but the Palestinian cause is bigger than all that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mollaei\u2019s presence in international competition has, recently, been enough to cause ire in Iran. After Mollaei represented his new home country of Mongolia at a competition in Israel earlier this year, the \u201cPresident of the Iranian Judo Federation Arash Miresmaeili expressed regret that \u2018a foolish athlete\u2019 and \u2018hollow champion who only thinks of his personal interests has gone to Tel Aviv and is proud of it,&#8217;\u201d according to the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u201cThis is not an honour but a stain of shame on your forehead that will stay with you forever, because you have turned your back on the ideals of the system, on your homeland, and are proud of it,\u201d Miresmaeili said.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.&nbsp;<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Iranian defender who won an Olympic silver medal in judo bucked the trend on Tuesday, dedicating his medal to Israel and thanking the country in Hebrew for his second-place &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}