Israeli Reporters Claim Jordanian's Gold Medal Win as Their Own
BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer
After Ahmad Abughaush from Jordan won the gold medal in taekwondo at the Rio Olympics last week, many Israeli news sources claimed the victory as their own. While Jordan was celebrating the Olympic win, so was the Palestinian village of Abu Ghosh, where Ahmed’s family and name originates.
The village, which rests just outside of Jerusalem, was absorbed into Israel when the state was created, causing many Palestinians to be forcibly evicted from their homes.
This history was washed out by Israeli sources that claimed the Palestinian athlete had “Israeli roots” from an “Arab majority town” in Israel.
The Jewish Telegraph Agency and Forward wrote, “Palestinian with Israeli roots wins Jordan’s first Olympic medal”
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz claimed a similar headline, writing, “Israeli Town Rejoices as ‘Local Boy’ Claims Jordan’s First Ever Olympic History.”
The Times of Israel wrote, “Israeli town celebrates as golden son grabs Jordan’s first-ever medal.”
The Jewish Press had possibly the worst headline of them all, writing, “Israeli Arab Immigrant Wins Gold Medal for Jordan.”
The Israeli sources went so far as to say that Abughaush was actually born in the “Israeli city” of Abu Ghosh, but his family decided to “relocate” to Jordan.
But this information is false and misleading because Abughaush is not Israeli, nor did his family decide to move to Jordan.
Abughaush was born in al-Nasser, a Palestinian refugee camp outside of Amman, Jordan. It is likely that Abughaush’s grandparents were part of the massive expulsion process that took place in Abu Ghosh by Israeli settlers. In 1948, mass evictions from Abu Ghosh and other villages surrounding Jerusalem were given these notices when the state was created.
Furthermore, the village of Abu Ghosh existed long before the state of Israel ever did. Palestinians are indigenous to those lands, making it impossible for any of them to have “Israeli roots.”
To make a boy a refugee, and then congratulate him as a “local boy” demonstrates sheer blindness to history and facts. Israeli media appropriated this accomplishment as their own in another attempt to steal from Palestinians and whitewash history.