Is Israeli a race, I don't know but this statement is obviously WAY more inflammatory than what the girl did. he called the request for a moment of silence for murdered athletes racist. Whether his statement itself is technically racist or not, it is targeted at a specific group of people, who are competing in the olympics. And it wasn't made by an athlete but a member of the Olympic Committee lol. Surely u see the hypocrisy here? These are games and should be treated as such. Athletes aren't ambassadors for their respective countries. Just admit she shouldn't have been kicked out. EDIT: Jewish is technically a race http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews
I agree, and besides, she says this now, then what will she be saying later. Anything that might be perceived as being racial should definitely be looked at. She should have never went there with her comments anyway. She should have found a better way to express herself.
I think a better way to handle that situation was have Greece call her home. The Greeks should manage their own people. If an outcry was made, and Greece did not recall her.......I just don't think the Olympic committee needed to get involved with that. Much better would be a public shunning from the village by the athletes themselves.
Greeks are becoming increasingly anti-immigrant and many of the immigrants coming to Greece are from Africa. Her statement doesn't strike me personally as racist but it is clearly anti-immigrant and reflects the views of some of the far right elements of Greek politics. I think her country has a right to decide if someone representing them should be saying something like that and it is certainly a stupid thing for someone with such visibility to tweet.
So then should Palestine or even Israel be banned from the games? I mean Israel wants a moment of silence for the members of their team that were murdered at the Munich games. Palestine is offended by this because the murderers are hometown heroes to their people and called this request racist. I know it's complicated, racism needs to be punished, even if it is just perceived. Once someone gets offended all bets are off, anyone making a statement that even hints at racism should be banned from the games. /sarcasm lol please.. u guys need to grow up and understand that not everyone feels the same way you do. There is a difference between assaulting/murdering someone for the color of their skin and making a racist joke. Free people have a right to say what they want, freedom of belief freedom of speech etc.. at least in America. I'd like to add while America is a 'melting pot' by design, Greece is not. It is their land and hypothetically if they all were 'racist' and didn't want immigrants living there, then that is their business as a sovereign nation. It would be great humor if they backed her statement and they got banned from the games.. the people who invented the Olympics getting banned Ohms, I agree that the country should be able to make the decision to ban her. I just don't think she should be banned, the reason was certainly to appease crybabies everywhere.
She should have observed a moment of silence, at the moment she was about to hit 'Enter'. The way adults do, when they think something during a conversation, but they don't say it out loud.
What about the palestinian olympic committee chair, should he have thought about what he was doing before he said that? Should Palestine be banned from the games as a result? Should he lose his job? Or how about Israel, what if they mentioned the nationality of the murderers of their team.. that would be totally racist because it would offend the people who see them as heroes right?
After actually reading the story, the decision was appropriate. The Greeks themselves did ban her. That is their prerogative. Apparently, Greece does not want to be seen in a certain light.