‘Shameful’ - Arab commentators outraged at Israel’s Olympic successes while Arab world lags behind

As the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games draw to a close, the Israeli delegation returns home with its head held high, having achieved a record seven medals. The team faced significant challenges, including heightened security measures due to numerous threats amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

At the same time, commentators in Arab media expressed frustration and shame that the tiny Jewish state earned more medals overall than any Arab nation, and that, for much of the Games, Israel had accumulated more medals than the entire Arab world combined.

“The gap between Israel’s achievements in the Paris Olympics and those of the Arab world is shameful,” lamented Muhammad Hamed, a columnist for the Saudi news website Elaph.

In his article titled, “Six Medals for Israel, Two for the [Arab] Nation of Half a Billion,” Hamed wrote: “The population of Israel is about ten million, while the number of Arabs is almost half a billion, or to be precise 474 million. This comparison evokes a sense of embarrassment – at least in the realm of sports – even if the Arab athletes still have time to win more medals.”

During the Games, several Arab nations did go on to win more medals, with the Kingdom of Bahrain and Algeria even surpassing Israel in the medal ranking after winning two gold each.

Nevertheless, Israel won the same number of medals as the combined total of the two countries.

Israel’s neighbor Egypt, with a population of over 110 million, and Tunisia, which has about the same population as Israel, both finished with three medals, one gold, one silver and one bronze each.

Rounding out the Arab success, Morocco won one gold and one bronze medal, Jordan won one silver medal, and Qatar earned a bronze.

“I won’t delve into the conflict between the Arabs and Israel from a political and historic perspective, nor will I discuss the chances of peace or coexistence, given the bleak picture regarding any possibility of [achieving] a hiatus [in the conflict] or any reconciliation,” wrote Hamed.

“But permit me to inform you that Israel’s Olympic delegation in the current Paris Olympics – which comes from an entity [i.e., Israel] that, until recently, we considered weak in sports, and which is surrounded by bodyguards around the clock and is under constant tension – has to date won six medals in surfing, judo, and gymnastics, one of them a gold medal.”

“What has been said [here] about Israeli sports in comparison to the large Arab nation… is also true for scientific research, medicine, engineering and also for agriculture, where Israel's excellence is astounding. For despite its small size and shortage of water, its agricultural productivity is among the best in the world,” Hamed added.

The Israeli male and female athletes raised the nation's overall number of Olympic medals to 20 during the Paris competition by winning one gold medal (sailing-windsurfing), 5 silver medals (gymnastics, sailing and judo) and a bronze (also in judo).