A mob of anti-Israel activists, urged on by South Africa’s main ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), harassed Israeli runners along the course of South Africa’s famous ultramarathon, the Comrades, on Sunday.
The activists shouted at the Israeli competitors to “go home,” while also chanting “Free Palestine,” implying that Israel was not, in fact, their home. They also chased the runners while waving Palestinian flags.
The Comrades is a roughly 55-mile race that is run every June, alternately “uphill” from the coastal city of Durban to the interior town of Pietermaritzburg, or “downhill” in the opposite direction (as in 2025). The race can take all day to complete, and is considered one of the world’s premier endurance events.
The youth wing of the ANC published a statement prior to the race indicating its opposition to the participation of Israeli runners, and then published the alleged identities and race numbers of Israeli participants, encouraging the public to harass them.
Large groups of anti-Israel activists did exactly that, waiting along the course and harassing the bewildered runners. Police were seen attempting to intervene, ineffectively.
The International Olympic Committee has strict rules against harassing athletes by nationality, and can include sanctions against countries that allow harassment to occur.
The ANC is the largest party within the “Government of National Unity.” South Africa’s sports minister, Gayton McKenzie, who is not from the ANC, is seen as pro-Israel but had yet to react to the harassment by Monday afternoon.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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