Israel’s national roundnet team can now compete under the Jewish state’s flag at the 2026 Roundnet World Championships in Paris, after the International Roundnet Federation backed down from its decision requiring the team to play under a neutral banner.
Still, the federation warned that it would pursue legal action if it continued to be accused of Jew-hatred.
According to the National Jewish Advocacy Center, the federation informed the Israeli Roundnet Association that the Israeli athletes would be required to perform under a “neutral name and banner” and be barred from displaying Israeli symbols or flags at the championships scheduled for Sept. 2 to 6 at Parc du Tremblay in Paris.
The National Jewish Advocacy Center and Seiden Law sent the federation a legal warning letter on May 1, arguing that the policy violated the federation’s bylaws, federal civil rights law and anti-discrimination statutes in Illinois and Chicago.
The two also alleged that the federation’s policy could be considered Jew-hatred under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition.
The attorneys argued that singling out Israeli athletes to compete without their national identity was an unlawful “double standard” designed to appease anticipated protests.
In a response letter, Sally Wagenmaker, counsel for the federation, said that the organization would allow the Israeli team to compete “under its own national name, flag and uniforms,” but that “the IRF’s prior decision requiring the IRA to participate under a neutral name and banner was in no way illegal, otherwise contrary to applicable law or amounting to antisemitism.”
Wagenmaker attributed the initial decision to maintaining safety at the event and avoiding “disruptions, protests and related tensions.”
The response letter also noted that the Israeli team’s membership in the federation is “actually only probationary member status,” adding that “should the IRA or any other of your clients persist in accusations of antisemitism, unlawful actions by the IRF or any other similarly defamatory and egregious statements, we are fully prepared to protect the IRF and its leaders’ rights through legal action and other remedial measures.”
Mark Goldfeder, CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, said that “sports should be inclusive.”
“No athlete should be forced to hide who they are, where they come from or the country they represent as the price of competition,” he said.
