BRUSSELS—The Tunisian Chess Federation has agreed to allow 7-year-old Israeli girl Liel Levitan, the European school champion in her age group, to participate in an international tournament in Tunisia, following pressure from the World Chess Federation.
Tunisian authorities backtracked on their refusal to grant a visa to Liel Levitan for the World School Individual Championships next year in Sousse.
“Players from all countries are welcome, without exception,” the Tunisian Chess Federation said in a statement.
The initial decision of the Tunisian government, which cut limited diplomatic ties with Israel in October 2000, to deny visas to the Israeli team, was reversed after the World Chess Federation (FIDE) threatened to change the location of the tournament.
Many Arab countries place limitations on Israelis’ representation in sports and cultural events, prompting protests by Israel and professional associations that view it as political interference contrary to international standards on sportsmanship.
FIDE was pressured by the pro-Israel advocacy organization StandWithUs that launched a campaign last month to fight for Liel’s right to participate in the chess tournament.
“We asked people to send emails to FIDE’S offices asking to demand from Tunisia chess federation to host Israeli players,“ StandWithUs Public Affairs Director Gilad Kabilo said. “Within a few days FIDE received almost a thousand emails. This was the first time that a civil action caused an overturn of state policy.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has led a campaign against visa refusals for participants in international sports events on grounds of religious, ethnic, gender, nationality or other forms of discrimination.
FIDE’s Vice-President Israel Gelfer, confirmed recently to the Centre’s Director for International Relations, Shimon Samuels, that in view of the Centre’s intervention, “FIDE has advised Tunisia that, if any player is excluded from the World School Championship of 21-26 April 2019 in Sousse, the event will be moved to Turkey”, bearing in mind that Israelis have no visa problems in that country.
Pro-Israel advocacy organization StandWithUs had also launched an online campaign asking to ensure participation for Levitan, who won the Girls U7 category in the European School Individual Chess Championship in July.
This is not the first time Israeli athletes have faced obstruction when tournaments are hosted in Arab countries.
A few months ago, Saudi Arabia denied Israeli chess players the chance to participate in an international competition in the country. Earlier in 2018, the Israeli Taekwondo team was not allowed to fly to the world junior championship held in Tunisia. In October 2017, at an international judo competition in the United Arab Emirates, Israel’s national anthem “Hatikvah” and Israel’s flag were banned for Israeli Tal Flicker who took the gold medal in the under-66 kilogram category.
However, Israel has seen some success in blocking Arab countries from preventing its athletes from participating in international tournaments.
Last month, the International Judo Federation suspended the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam and the Tunis Grand Prix from its competition calendar, after they refuses to display the Israeli flag or to play Israeli national anthem.