{"id":76317,"date":"2023-08-31T14:41:40","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T19:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=76317"},"modified":"2023-09-01T14:46:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T19:46:41","slug":"iran-banned-a-weightlifter-for-life-after-he-took-a-photo-with-an-israeli-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/iran-banned-a-weightlifter-for-life-after-he-took-a-photo-with-an-israeli-opponent\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran banned a weightlifter for life after he took a photo with an Israeli opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JACOB GURVIS<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Iran\u2019s weightlifting federation banned one of its athletes for life after he shook hands and posed for a photo with an Israeli athlete at an international competition in Poland.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_76318\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-scaled.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-76318\" class=\"wp-image-76318 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-76318\" class=\"wp-image-76318 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1368725754-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-76318\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Iran&#8217;s athlete delegation at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. (Lu Lin\/CHINASPORTS\/VCG via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mostafa Rajaei finished second in his category at the 2023 World Master Weightlifting Championships on Saturday. Rajaei, standing on the podium wrapped in an Iranian flag, shook hands and took a picture with Israeli Maksim Svirsky, who finished third.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe weightlifting federation bans athlete Mostafa Rajaei for life from entering all sports facilities in the country and dismisses the head of the delegation for the competition, Hamid Salehinia,\u201d Iran\u2019s weightlifting federation said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse.<\/p>\n<p>Iran, whose leaders regularly call for violence against Israel, forbids its athletes from competing against Israelis, including at the Olympics. Iranian athletes have previously forfeited or cited medical complications in efforts to avoid facing against Israeli athletes.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Iranian weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei has been banned for life by the mullah terror entity \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf7. Why? Because he shook hands with Israeli \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf1 weightlifter Maksim Svirsky at sports competition in Poland. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mQmFRbunrg\">pic.twitter.com\/mQmFRbunrg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Avi Kaner \u0627\u0628\u0631\u0627\u0647\u064a\u0645 \u05d0\u05d1\u05d9 (@AviKaner) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AviKaner\/status\/1696854477238644990?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 30, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn addition to apologising to the leader of the revolution, the families of martyrs and all the people of Iran, I promise we will certainly never witness incidents like this in the weightlifting family,\u201d federation head Sajad Anoushiravani said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, the International Judo Federation banned Iran from all international competitions in the sport over its policy toward Israeli athletes. But after an appeal, the ban was reduced to four years and is set to expire next month.<\/p>\n<p>The punishment stemmed from the treatment of Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei, who said he was ordered to throw matches to avoid facing Israeli Sagi Muki at the World Judo Championships in 2019. Muki ultimately won the tournament, and Mollaei stopped competing for Iran. (Mollaei visited Israel in 2021 for a judo competition, where he competed under the Mongolian flag.)<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, the head of Iran\u2019s wrestling federation resigned over the country\u2019s policy of forcing its athletes to forfeit matches against Israeli opponents. In 2010, the head of foreign relations for the Iran\u2019s soccer federation resigned after his office accidentally included Israel in its New Year\u2019s greeting cards.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Iran%20banned%20a%20weightlifter%20for%20life%20after%20he%20took%20a%20photo%20with%20an%20Israeli%20opponent\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":76318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[184,8781,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76319,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76317\/revisions\/76319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}