Algerian athlete withdraws from competition with Israeli opponent

The International Judo Federation issued a brief statement on Sunday, declaring Israeli judoka Tohar Butbul the winner by walkover.

Algerian judoka Messaoud Redouane Dris was officially disqualified for missing weight on the day before he was scheduled to take on Butbul.

The match was scheduled to be the first in the men’s 73-kilogram division on Monday.

This is the second straight Olympics in which an Algerian judoka drops out of the games right before he is to face Butbul. In Tokyo Games in 2021, Algeria’s Fethi Nourine withdrew to avoid a potential second-round matchup with Butbul.

Nourine explicitly cited his support for Palestine in announcing his decision after which he and his coach, Amar Benikhlef, were suspended for 10 years by the International Judo Federation in September 2021.

Algeria does not officially recognize Israel as a country.

Israel’s presence at the Paris Games has stirred protests at various points over the regime’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip. However, defying the global outcry against Israel’s participation in the Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee and the French government have firmly backed the regime.

Before the games began, a US-based rights advocacy group said Israel should be barred from the Olympic Games Paris 2024 over a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about the occupying regime’s barbaric crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli Olympians arrived in Paris amid mounting international outrage over the high Palestinian civilian casualties and the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the besieged and bombarded Palestinian territory.

Israel’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has claimed the lives of 39,324 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children, while leaving 90,830 others injured.