Kuwaiti Gold Medalist Walked Off the Abu Dhabi Podium Rather Than Shake an Israeli Athlete's Hand — He Also Said He'd Have Forfeited the Final

Then he walked off the podium. Jassim Alhatem, a Kuwaiti competitor in the men's blue belt amateur under-77kg division at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour, went undefeated through four bouts on Friday.

He won gold. Then he walked off the podium.

Jassim Alhatem, a Kuwaiti competitor in the men's blue belt amateur under-77kg division at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour, went undefeated through four bouts on Friday. When the medal ceremony arrived, he refused to shake the hand of Israeli bronze medalist Yoav Manor, declined to appear in the winner's photograph, and left the stage.

The Israeli delegation reported that Alhatem told Manor directly: "You Israelis kill children."

Then he said something that should actually worry the AJP: if they had met in the final, he would not have competed against Manor.

A boycott of the podium photo is a political gesture. A forfeit threat is a competitive integrity problem. Those are different things, and the AJP has so far responded to both with silence.

The handshake refusal gets the headlines — Israeli judokas have faced it at the Olympics, and the optics are the same every time. Alhatem's version will generate exactly the coverage it was designed to generate. But the forfeit claim is the part worth sitting with, because it means a registered competitor publicly announced he would have withdrawn from the final based on his opponent's nationality. Most tournament rules have something to say about that.

As of this writing, the AJP has not commented on either.

The location matters more than the coverage is treating it.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam is not a neutral venue. It is a UAE state-backed property, organized by the Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Federation, underwritten by the same government that signed the Abraham Accords in September 2020 — one of the more significant Arab-Israeli normalization agreements in recent decades. The UAE and Israel have had formal diplomatic relations for nearly six years. Israeli athletes compete at AJP events with UAE government money behind the operation.

The organizers reportedly tried to convince Alhatem to stay and finish the ceremony. He left anyway.

So a Kuwaiti competitor traveled to Abu Dhabi, a city whose government has officially normalized with Israel, and used the UAE's own sporting platform to publicly declare that Israelis are not worth a handshake. The UAE hosts intervened. He didn't reconsider.

This is an awkward fact for an organization that markets itself as a global unifier.

Alhatem didn't hide the reasoning afterward. In an Arabic-language video circulating online, he referred to Israel as "the Zionist entity" and said Muslim men "must have a principle." On whether sports and politics can be separated: "No, no. There is no separation."

That's a consistent position. He didn't slip off the podium and claim he felt sick. He explained himself on camera.

The grappling community usually answers moments like this with some version of "leave politics off the mat." That line does real work — it's part of why competitors from countries that actively despise each other show up to the same brackets without incident most of the time. Alhatem just said he rejects that premise, and he said it directly to Yoav Manor's face.

Manor kept extending his hand. Multiple times, according to his coaching staff. Amir Boaron, coach of Israel's national jiu-jitsu team, said Manor "continued trying to shake Alhatem's hand and behave like an athlete." Arik Kaplan, president of Ayelet — Israel's non-Olympic sports federation — praised Manor for "character, restraint and values."

Manor left with his bronze medal. Alhatem left with his statement.

The precedent for what to do next exists in judo. The International Judo Federation has issued sanctions — including country-level bans — when Iranian athletes withdrew from matches rather than face Israeli opponents. Iran was suspended from IJF events in 2019 after a sustained pattern of these refusals. The IJF categorized it as discrimination regardless of the political context behind it.

The AJP is not the IJF. But it is run by a government that has made a diplomatic choice to recognize Israel, and it hosts a circuit that Israeli athletes compete in. When a competitor at that circuit announces he would have forfeited rather than face an Israeli in the final, the organization has to decide what that means for the rules.

Maybe they have a policy. Maybe they're writing one now. Maybe they're hoping the news cycle moves on before they have to answer.

Given that this happened on their flagship stage, in their home city, the silence is already an answer. Just not the kind that holds up for long.

Yoav Manor won three of four matches, stood on the podium, and extended his hand to the man standing above him. That is all the rules asked of him. He did it.

The AJP built the stage. They get to decide what the rules require from everyone else — or they get to keep not deciding, which is also a choice.

This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked below. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.

Kuwaiti Gold Medalist Walked Off the Abu Dhabi Podium Rather Than Shake an Israeli Athlete's Hand — He Also Said He'd Have Forfeited the Final

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