"In fact, they dealt a strong slap in the face of the normalizers of the ties," Atwan wrote in an article in Ray al-Youm in an apparent reference to the normalization of ties with the Israeli regime by rulers of some Arab states such as UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
The Arab analyst said that the Algerian and Sudanese judokas Fethi Nourine and Mohamed Abdel Rasoul withdrew from the Olympics games to avoid playing against Israeli opponents to deal a severe blow to the occupying regime.
Atwan also pointed to further cases of Arab athletes in the past who refused to play against Israel opponents such as Salam al-Shahabi from Egypt in 2016 and said, "All of this is happening at a time when the Zionist regime has just signed agreements to normalize relations with Arab countries. Therefore, the action of the Arab athletes in avoiding playing the representative of this regime is somehow a response to their governments."
The Arab commentator further said that the Arab athletes wanted to say that the normalization of ties with the Zionist regime does not enjoy popular support, adding that the nations of Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco, the UAE, etc., have shown well that they have stepped in a different path from their own rulers against the regime.
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