Israeli athletes were assaulted and accosted with antisemitic chants during a judo contest in Poland on Saturday, according to the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw.
The incident occurred at an international tournament featuring athletes aged seven to 16 in Bielsko-Biała, a city located approximately 30 miles southwest of Kraków, according to the embassy’s statement on X.
The Israeli judo team was “attacked verbally and physically,” the embassy said. “There is no place for violence or antisemitic slurs of any kind, particularly in sport,” the statement continued.
Israeli witnesses told Channel 14 that the crowd shouted “Free Palestine” and “here come the Jews.” After two Israeli coaches approached the judges’ panel, local men shouted at them and then shoved and hit them in front of the children.
At least one Israeli group was then ejected from the tournament and a four-day training camp, Channel 14 reported, in what the Israelis said was an inverted disciplinary move that punished the victims.
The event was livestreamed, and the altercation was captured in real time and broadcast online to some of the parents of the competing judokas. The footage showed men shoving each other in a sports hall with boys walking around the area, but the fixed camera did not show how the incident began.
In its statement, the Israeli embassy called on Polish authorities to punish the instigators of the incident, but Bielsko-Biała Police spokesman Deputy Commissioner Sławomir Kocur told the Polish TV24 station that officers who’d arrived at the scene on Saturday evening confirmed the tournament organizers’ version that the Israeli coach initiated the physical contact.
“We inquired with the parties […] and informed them about the possibility of filing a complaint. Neither did so. […] The parties calmed down,” he added.
Tomasz Chmielniak, president of the Bielsko-Biała Janosik club, which organizes the judo tournament, told the Polish television station that “young Israeli judo players were certainly not attacked” and that, “If anyone was attacked, it was the referee by an Israeli coach.”
He added that “The Israeli club was excluded from the competition because they behaved aggressively; they did not practice fair play.”
This was the 14th time Bielsko-Biała has hosted the international tournament, titled “We Overcome Boundaries.” This year featured athletes from 15 countries. Israel was represented there for the first time this year.
One of the two clubs from Israel continued to compete in the tournament and won several medals, said Chmielniak.
