{"id":102414,"date":"2023-02-25T17:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=102414"},"modified":"2023-02-25T11:22:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T09:22:10","slug":"03-00-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=102414","title":{"rendered":"In Latest Challenge Israeli Rugby Coach Calls for Formal Inquiry Into \u2018Discriminatory\u2019 Actions by South African Rugby Union"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>In Latest Challenge Israeli Rugby Coach Calls for Formal Inquiry Into \u2018Discriminatory\u2019 Actions by South African Rugby Union<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Athletes from South Africa and the US competing in the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Photo: David Roberts via Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

An Israeli rugby coach submitted a formal complaint this week against the South African Rugby Union (SARU) in response to its decision to\u00a0exclude the Tel Aviv Heat rugby team<\/a>\u00a0from a competition taking place next month in South Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

The complaint is\u00a0the latest<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0a series of mounting legal challenges<\/a>\u00a0to the South African sporting body after the group withdrew its invitation to the Israeli team to participate in the Mzansi Challenge beginning on March 24.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRugby is a game divorced from politics,\u201d wrote Joshua Schewitz, head coach of the Rishon LeZion Owls men\u2019s rugby club. \u201cThe players, coaches, and supporters love the game due to the nature of the game, which is to play the game hard and then shake hands when it\u2019s finished. Bringing politics into the game is contrary to rugby ethos.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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SARU declined\u00a0The Algemeiner<\/em>\u2018s request for comment about receiving Joshua Schewitz\u2019s notification of offenses.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

SARU\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0on Feb. 3 that \u201cwe have listened to the opinions of important stakeholder groups and have taken this decision to avoid the likelihood of the competition becoming a source of division, notwithstanding the fact that Israel is a full member of World Rugby and the IOC.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The move was announced by a slew of Israeli and South African Jewish advocacy organizations after SARU faced ample amount of pressure to disinvite the Israeli team from the competition from supporters of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schewitz, who previously lived in South Africa and played rugby at the University of the Witwatersrand and with the Pirates Rugby Club in Johannesburg, wrote in his formal notification that \u201cit appears that the decision to exclude the Tel Aviv Heat team was taken on political grounds, pandering to the bigotry of unidentified \u2018stakeholder groups.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He is asking SARU to launch a formal enquiry into the actions taken against Tel Aviv Heat or to refer it to a judicial officer or committee for adjudication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schewitz further noted that SARU\u2019s actions breach the regulations of the World Rugby governing body, which also apply to SARU. \u201cThe cancellation of the invitation to Tel Aviv Heat was plainly discriminatory by reason of national or ethnic origin\u201d and should therefore be classified as \u201cmisconduct,\u201d he argued.<\/span><\/p>\n

The coach also pointed out that \u201cone of the adverse consequences of inserting illegitimate political considerations\u201d into the sport of rugby \u201chas been to harm the careers of several young South African players, who are developing their talents at Tel Aviv Heat and will be denied the opportunity of playing in this competition if the cancellation decision is not rapidly revoked.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Schewitz received assistance in preparing the notification from the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) and UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).\u00a0SAFI\u00a0recently submitted<\/a>\u00a0to SARU paperwork asking for information about the meetings with stakeholders who the rugby club said they consulted before the decision to axe Tel Aviv Heat was announced. UKLFI separately wrote to SARU\u2019s president and World Rugby about the move against Tel Aviv Heat, arguing that the decision violates SARU\u2019s constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSports bodies have rules preventing discrimination and political interference,\u201d said UKLFI\u2019s Chief Executive Jonathan Turner in a released statement. \u201cIt is in the interest of all engaged in sport that these rules are complied with. We welcome the public-spirited intervention of Mr Schewitz seeking to enforce them and hope that this will be achieved in time for Tel Aviv Heat to play in this competition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier in February a New Zealand-based lawyer filed\u00a0a legal complaint<\/a>\u00a0with the World Rugby Council also in regards to SARU\u2019s decision against Tel Aviv Heat.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In Latest Challenge Israeli Rugby Coach Calls for Formal Inquiry Into \u2018Discriminatory\u2019 Actions by South African Rugby Union Shiryn Ghermezian Athletes from South Africa and the US competing in the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Photo: David Roberts via Wikimedia Commons. An Israeli rugby coach submitted a formal complaint this week against the South African Rugby […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102414"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102438,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102414\/revisions\/102438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}