Why Did the Head of the Olympic Committee Meet with an October 7 Supporter?
Palestinian Football Association head Jibril Rajoub, and chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, speaks during a press conference regarding the cancellation of the soccer match between Argentina and Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, June 6, 2018. Photo: Flash90.
Jibril Rajoub, the chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, is a very vocal supporter of Hamas’ October 7 massacre and atrocities.
Just six weeks after those events — in which Gazans tortured, raped, and brutally murdered over 1,100 Israelis while wounding over 5,000 and abducting approximately 251 people into the Gaza Strip — Rajoub said: “What happened on October 7 was an earthquake … full of epics and acts of heroism” [Al-Anba, Kuwaiti news website, Nov. 26, 2023].
That statement alone should have been enough to disqualify him from meetings with any Western leader.
Nevertheless, earlier this month, Rajoub was greeted warmly at a meeting in Geneva with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, and Rajoub thanked Bach for his cooperation:
Rajoub thanked Mr. Bach for the cooperation of the International Olympic Committee with the Palestine Olympic Committee by implementing joint plans to promote Palestinian athletes … Rajoub also met with several senior employees at the International Olympic Committee. He briefed them on the Israeli violations against Palestinian sport and their consequences on sport in Palestine.
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 6, 2025]
During the same trip to Switzerland, at an international press conference, Rajoub compared Israeli policy to Nazi atrocities, saying in English that Israel was doing to Palestinians what the Nazis had done to the Jews:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “We are recognized by 149 [states] all over the world from the international community as a state, except Israel, America, and those who are suffering from the inferiority complex of what happened somewhere last century. We should not be a scapegoat for the Holocaust. I don’t think that it’s fair for the grandchildren of the victims of the Holocaust to practice, to exercise, the same against the Palestinians.”
[Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, March 7, 2025]
This is overt antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. Yet, the International Olympic Committee did not issue a condemnation of Rajoub’s libel, nor did it condemn his support of October 7.
This is also not the first time this year that Rajoub made such antisemitic statements. In January, he said similarly in Arabic:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “The Israelis built their lie based on the Holocaust. What is happening in the Gaza Strip? That’s a holocaust … Same formula and same means …The grandchildren of the victims of the Holocaust are the ones who are perpetrating a holocaust in Gaza.”
[Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Jan. 31, 2025]
In February, Rajoub also insulted President Donald Trump as being “biased in favor of the fascist neo-Nazis who rule Israel” and he equated Netanyahu to Joseph Goebbels:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “Today it’s clear that Trump and his policy has been exposed, and he is 100% biased in favor of the fascist neo-Nazis who rule Israel … [Trump] announced what he announced alongside Netanyahu, who is a [Nazi propaganda minister] Goebbels and the last shout in the world of fascism of the 21st century.”
[Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Feb. 5, 2025]
The libel of Israel as being like the Nazis or worse is not exclusive to Rajoub. Rather, it has become a leading component of Palestinian antisemitism. It is echoed by many senior PA officials, such as this one on official PA TV this month, who said that Israel was “committing things uglier and more violent than what was committed in the Holocaust”:
Palestinian MP and National Library President Issa Karake: “This occupation [i.e., Israel] has been claiming for a long time that it is the victim of the Holocaust. It is committing things uglier and more violent than what was committed in the Holocaust.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, March 12, 2025]
All of this odious Palestinian hate speech should be categorically condemned rather than meriting indifference at best and acceptance at worst by major international figures, such as the president of the IOC.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is the Founder and Director of PMW, where a version of this article first appeared.
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