The seven Israeli chess players who were set to compete in the Basque Country chess championship all withdrew from their matches after organizers attempted to remove the national flag under which they were competing, according to international reports on Friday.
Held in the town of Sestao, the 40th Basque Country Open opened on Friday and was supposed to host 235 players from 33 countries.
Organizers confirmed that all seven Israeli players, including international masters Guy Levin and Yotam Shohat, withdrew from the competition.
The Sestao chess club said the request to remove Israel’s national flag was “a sign of rejection of Israel’s systematic violation of human rights” as they wished to “express their strongest condemnation of the genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza,” according to The New York Times.
The organizers added that “we want to raise our voices to reject the crimes committed against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip and the indiscriminate attacks by the Israeli army.”
Discriminating against Israeli players
FIDE, the International Chess Federation, rejected the move as a form of discrimination and said it had not been consulted on the matter.
Erez Kupervaser, whose sister Shani was killed in October by Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival, was one of the players who refused to abide by the organizers’ demands.
“I think about how my sister was murdered just for being Israeli. And how the world treats us now, after so much suffering. I immediately thought of Shani. It was a harsh and painful feeling. I was deeply saddened and angry at the organizers,” Kupervaser told the media last week.
Yoav Etiel contributed to this report.