Israeli athlete granted visa to Indonesia, ending standoff

An Israeli badminton player has been granted a visa by Indonesia to compete in the world championships in Jakarta after a months-long standoff.

Misha Zilberman said he started filing a visa application six months ago and had spent the past couple of weeks practising in Singapore.

Zilberman’s pleas to the Badminton World Federation also fell on deaf ears until recent days when pressure from the Olympic Committee of Israel and Israeli worldwide Olympic Committee member Alex Gilady – who also rallied fellow IOC members – forced the BWF into action, sending Lund to Singapore in order to ensure Zilberman would be able to travel to Indonesia on Monday.

Arab and Muslim countries have repeatedly barred Israeli athletes from attending matches, sometimes as punishment for the barring of Palestinian athletes by Israel from attending worldwide tournaments.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, and the Jewish state do not have formal diplomatic ties and it is hard for Israelis to visit the Southeast Asian nation.

“This decision to bar an Israeli player from an worldwide sporting competition can’t stand, and I urge Indonesia to allow Misha Zilberman to compete in these championships”.

“If athletes are excluded on political grounds, at the very least there should be some soul-searching going on”, he continued.

World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer, who last week criticized the Indonesian government, praised the decision to grant Zilberman a visa, saying: “We believe that it is important that politics and sport are kept separate as much as possible”.

Zilberman, who represented Israel at the London Olympics in 2012, took to Facebook earlier this week to express his frustration with the BWF.