Kuwaiti athlete refuses to face Israeli opponent in Bulgaria contest
Bulgaria (QNN)- Kuwaiti athlete Ahmed Awad announced Monday his withdrawal from the 2023 Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships held in Bulgaria in support of the Palestinian cause after being selected to face an Israeli opponent.
Taking to Twitter, Awad said Monday that he made the decision after he was selected to play against “a player from the occupying Zionist entity, refusing to recognize the occupying Zionist entity and in solidarity with the brotherly state of Palestine.” He added “as Kuwaitis, we are always and forever with the Palestinian cause.”
https://twitter.com/6xii32/status/1642940838522109958?s=46&t=t_-JFgpXqgMIkVsuBfWELw
In April 2022, Kuwaiti fencing player Mohammad Al-Fadli also refused to face an Israeli opponent in the group stage of the World Fencing Championships held in Dubai with activists describing his decision as “complementary to Kuwait’s supporting stance for the Palestinian cause.”
اللاعب الكويتي #محمد_الفضلي ينحسب من مواجهة لاعب الكيان الصههيوني المحتل في بطولة المبارزة المقامة في دبي
فخر يا محمد 🇵🇸🇰🇼👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽#التطبيع_خيانة pic.twitter.com/1gOZPtt0PL
— 🔻Mohammad Al-Ebrahim🔻 (@EbrahimM) April 3, 2022
This is not the first time in which Al-Fadli refuses to face an Israeli opponent.
In September 2019, Al-Fadli also withdrew from an international tournament in the Dutch capital Amsterdam. This came after the lottery had placed him in a group competing with an Israeli settler.
In January 2022, 14-year-old Kuwaiti tennis player, Muhammad Al-Awadi, pulled out from the international tennis tournament held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to avoid facing an Israeli opponent.
Kuwait has long upheld a strict pro-Palestine stance. It has refused to normalize ties with the occupation state.
In a bid to harden the Gulf state’s anti-normalisation stance and its continued support for Palestinian rights, Kuwait’s parliament passed a bill in 2021 prohibiting dealing with ‘Israel’ or any kind of normalization with the occupation state, and stricter penalties for violators and collaborators with it.
The bill stipulates that anyone who violates the provisions of the law be punished with imprisonment for a period of not less than a year and not exceeding three years, and a fine not exceeding five thousand dinars.
Also, any expressions of sympathy with ‘Israel’ are to be outlawed.
The Kuwaiti Public Works Minister, Rana Abdullah Al-Fares, also issued an order in December 2021 banning the entry of commercial vessels carrying goods to and from ‘Israel’ into Kuwaiti territorial waters. The issued order prohibits entry permits being requested for ships carrying goods to or from ‘Israel’. The order applies even if goods being carried from ‘Israel’ are being brought to another country outside of Kuwait.
