Kuwaiti Fighter Refuses Handshake, Stands Apart from Israeli Athlete at Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Event
By Sayed Abdullah | May 18, 2026
A medal ceremony at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam jiu-jitsu tournament became the latest flashpoint in the long-running collision between international sport and regional politics on Sunday, when Kuwaiti fighter Jassim Alhatem allegedly refused to shake hands with Israeli bronze medallist Yoav Manor. According to members of the Israeli delegation, Alhatem not only declined the traditional post-match handshake but also refused to stand beside Manor for the customary podium photograph in the under-77 kg division.
Witnesses present at the ceremony said the Kuwaiti athlete directed strong remarks toward Manor, reportedly telling him that he would not have faced him in the final had the two met there. Emirati organisers and hosts tried to calm the situation and encouraged both athletes to participate in the ceremony as normal, but Alhatem chose to leave the podium area. The moment was brief, uncomfortable, and immediately familiar to anyone who has followed international sports since October 2023.
Not an Isolated Incident
Alhatem's refusal fits into a much larger and increasingly visible pattern. Since Israel launched its military assault on Gaza in October 2023, athletes from Arab and Muslim-majority countries have repeatedly declined to face or acknowledge Israeli competitors. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tajikistan's Nurali Emomali refused to shake hands with Israeli judoka Baruch Shmailov after their bout and walked off the mat. Morocco's Abderrahmane Boushita did the same after his own loss to the same Israeli athlete at the same tournament.
Before that, at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby lost to Israel's Or Sasson and refused to bow or shake his extended hand — an act that drew loud boos from the crowd and resulted in his expulsion from the Olympic Village. Algeria's Fathi Nourine and Sudan's Mohamed Abdalrasool both withdrew entirely from Olympic judo events in previous Games to avoid facing Israeli opponents. Iraq's national fencing team pulled out of the World Fencing Championship in Istanbul after learning they would be matched against Israeli fencers. Jordan's basketball team forfeited a FIBA World Cup qualifying fixture against Israel in Lausanne in July 2025.
This is not random. It is a sustained, coordinated form of protest that has intensified sharply as the death toll in Gaza has climbed. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since the assault began, with women, children, and the elderly making up the majority of the dead. Independent research, including a study published in The Lancet, suggests the true toll is significantly higher. When athletes from across the Arab world refuse to stand next to Israeli competitors on a podium, they are not making a narrow political point. They are responding to a catastrophe that their audiences back home are watching in real time, every day, on their phones.
The Pakistani Angle
Pakistan does not recognise Israel, and Pakistani athletes have historically avoided direct competition with Israeli opponents. The country's official stance — rooted in solidarity with Palestine — means that Pakistani sports federations have often withdrawn from events rather than face the dilemma of a handshake or a photograph. The question of whether a Pakistani athlete would have done what Alhatem did is largely academic, because the situation is almost always avoided at the institutional level before it reaches an individual athlete.
But the principle at stake is the same. For many athletes from Muslim-majority countries, the refusal to normalise relations with Israeli competitors is not about personal animosity. It is about refusing to participate in a framework that suggests everything is normal when, in Gaza, it very clearly is not. The handshake, the photograph, the smiling podium — these are images that travel far beyond the sports arena. They become political currency, and athletes know that. Whether they choose to participate or to walk away, they are making a choice with consequences.
The Organisers' Dilemma
The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam is hosted by the United Arab Emirates, which normalised relations with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords. The UAE has since positioned itself as a venue where Israeli athletes can compete without the boycotts that have historically greeted them in other Arab capitals. But the normalisation at the government level has not filtered down to individual athletes from across the region who still feel deeply uncomfortable sharing a podium with an Israeli flag. The organisers' attempt to calm the situation and encourage Alhatem to return to the ceremony reflects the tension between hosting an inclusive international event and respecting the personal convictions of participating athletes.
It is a tension that will not go away. As long as the war in Gaza continues — and as long as the images of destruction, displacement, and mass casualties dominate the news — athletes from the region will face this choice again and again. Some will shake hands. Some, like Jassim Alhatem, will walk away. Both decisions will be read as political statements, whether the athletes intend them to be or not.
My Take
I have always been ambivalent about the demand that sport and politics be kept separate. The demand itself is political — it asks athletes from certain countries to bracket their identities, their histories, and their moral convictions for the sake of a smooth ceremony. When an athlete like Alhatem refuses, he is not disrupting an apolitical space. He is revealing that the space was never apolitical to begin with. The handshake was always going to carry meaning. He simply chose which meaning to give it.
Whether one agrees with his decision or not, it deserves to be understood in context. This was not a spontaneous act of rudeness. It was a deliberate, considered refusal by someone who knew exactly what the consequences would be. That kind of clarity, even when it makes people uncomfortable, is worth paying attention to.
Do you think athletes should separate politics from sport, or is a podium protest a legitimate form of expression? Share your perspective in the comments.
Sayed Abdullah is the founder of Prime Pakistan. Based in Karachi, he provides honest analysis on politics, cricket, and technology for the common Pakistani. He believes in context over clickbait. Read more.
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Sources & External Links
- Reuters — Kuwaiti Fighter Refuses Handshake with Israeli Athlete
- Al Jazeera — History of Arab Athlete Boycotts of Israeli Competitors
- The Lancet — Estimating the True Death Toll in Gaza
- BBC Sport — Egyptian Judoka Refuses Handshake at Rio 2016
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