World Bowls Tour bans Israelis from championship event in Norfolk

Three Israeli international bowls players have become the victims of a sustained campaign against their participation in forthcoming bowls championships in Norfolk.

A fourth player, Shalom Ben-Ami, was due to  take part in the World Bowls Tour (WBT) Scottish International Open in West Lothian, Scotland, in November. But, despite the fact that he was unable to attend for technical reasons, an aggressive online boycott campaign was launched by groups such as Action Network, supported by Scottish Sport for Palestine, Red Card Glasgow and Norfolk Palestine Solidarity.

In its campaign, Action Network said: “We call on the World Bowls Tour (WBT) to immediately withdraw its invitation to Israeli players Amnon Amar, Itai Rigbi and Daniel Alonim. These nationals belonging to the apartheid and genocidal state are set to compete against Scottish bowlers at the World Indoor Bowls Championships on 10th and 13th of January 2025 in Potters Resorts, Hopton-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth”.

Invoking the Gleneagles Agreement, and the pronouncements of the International Court of Justice about Israel’s status as “an apartheid state”, the complainants said that Scotland was “obligated by both the spirit and letter of the Agreement to boycott sporting organisations, teams or competing nationals from any country ‘where sports are organised by race, colour or ethnic origin.’”

This week the boycott groups were celebrating their victory after the WBT board withdrew its invitation to the Israeli players to take part in the January World Indoor Bowls Championship.

In a social media post, the WBT board said that the “difficult decision” to withdraw the invitation to the Israeli players had “not been taken lightly”, but claimed that it had been made “in the best interests of the event’s success and integrity. Bowls is, and has always been, a sport that unites people and this choice reflects our commitment to protecting the Championships and ensuring they run smoothly for everyone involved”.

The board said it remained “hopeful” that it would be able to welcome back Israeli players to “the WBT stage in the future”.

Zvika Hadar, president of PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) Israel, told Jewish News that Israel had been among the founders of the WBT and associated with it for more than 30 years. He had only received notification from the WBT board on Sunday, he said, that due to “much pressure” it had been decided to withdraw Israel from the tournaments organised by the WBT “indefinitely.”

Hadar said: “People here are very upset. It’s not just this particular competition: we are concerned that the decision has set a precedent which may affect us in the future”. He said he had written back immediately to WBT and to the venue where the competition is due to be held, telling them that they were “caving in” to pressure and that they “were taking the easy way out” by choosing not to have Israel participate.

He had asked the organisers to change their minds, he said, but did not hold out much hope. Hadar himself had taken part in a WBT competition in 2023, not long after the events of 7 October, and said that he and his colleagues had received “a warm welcome” at the time. But WBT, in its letter on Sunday, had spoken of “threats” which could endanger the safety of players.

In a statement, the Board of Deputies told Jewish News: “We are appalled at the decision of the directors of the World Bowls Tour (WBT) to exclude Israeli participants from the upcoming World Indoor Championships to be held at Potters Resorts, Hopton on Sea, Norfolk in January 2025. There can be no justification for this overt act of discrimination against Israeli participants, who are excluded solely on the basis of their nationality, which may be a breach of applicable equalities legislation.

“It is deeply ironic and paradoxical that the directors should attempt to justify their decision to exclude individuals named in their press release by reference to how ‘Bowls is, and always has been, a sport that unites people and this choice reflects our commitment to protecting the Championships and ensuring they run smoothly for everyone’. We call upon the directors to reverse their decision.”