The Swiss under-23 fencing team turned its back on its Israeli competitors during the medal ceremony of the European Fencing Championship (U23) in Tallinn, Estonia on Saturday night.
Israel's male under-23 team won the gold medal, with the Swiss team winning silver and the Italian team taking bronze. After the three teams took to the podium to take their awards, the Swiss fencers turned their backs on Israel while Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah, played.
A representative of the Israel Fencing Association said, "Sport should bring people together, not divide them."
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar congratulated his team but criticized the Swiss team for its "disrespectful behavior."
"Shame on the Swiss team for their disrespectful behavior," he wrote on X/Twitter. "You don’t know how to lose and behaved in a manner which is an embarrassment to you and the country you’re supposed to represent."
The Israeli team - Alon Sarid, Fyodor Khaperski, Yonatan Masika, and Itamar Tavor, alongside coach Alexander Ivanov - defeated Switzerland 45–34.
Iraqi team protested in May 2023
This is not the first time a competing team has protested Israel during a fencing competition. In May 2023, Iraq's national fencing team withdrew from the World Fencing Championship in Istanbul after being pitted against the Israeli national team.
"The Iraqi national team withdrew from the individual races in the World Cup fencing championship, which is taking place in Istanbul and qualifies for the Paris Olympics after the lottery pitted it against the team of the 'occupying Israeli entity,'" said the Iraqi Fencing Federation.
"The decision to withdraw came in compliance with the law criminalizing normalization approved by the Iraqi parliament, in rejection of the occupying Israeli entity, and in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”