Quote:
Originally posted by Wookie@Sep 15 2004, 02:25 PM
Can someone give me a quick explanation here.
Is this a noble or or not-noble thing?
Did he not fight him becuase of some sort of protest and peace gesture? Or because he doesn't recognize Isreal as a nation and was being a dick?
I know so little about any of this that reading all the posts wasn't really doing much, and well.. yeah.. the article didn't make it clear for a person out to lunch 
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This was no peace gesture. I don not recall any statement coming from the player or the country regarding solidarity with the palestinians or hoping for a more peaceful world, only the usual refusal to deal in any way with the "Zionists". Iran refuses to recognize Israel.
The "official" ruling by the organization that governs world judo competitions was that the Iranian did not make his weight and was disqulified. The Irainian position is that a patriotic Iranian refused to acknoledge his Israeli opponent an is now a national hero.
On a side note, The Iranian is the top ranked player in his class, a gold medal favorite. Everyone assumes he would have won the match. The Israeli player cried after his win was announced acknowledging that he probably would have lost, but all he really wanted was to compete in the Olympic tradition.