Reuters says [1]:
“ATHENS (Reuters) – Iran’s world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili refused to compete against an Israeli Sunday, triggering a fresh crisis at the Olympic Games where race, creed or color are barred from interfering in sport.
The International Judo Federation (IJF) failed to agree how to deal with the politically explosive issue at an emergency meeting and said it would hold further talks Monday.
The burning issue was whether any penalty would hit Miresmaeili alone or the entire Iranian team, as the intrusion of the Middle East’s bitter politics threatened to fly in the face of the Olympic ideal.‘There has been no decision and we are considering this situation very carefully,’ said IJF spokesman Michel Brousse.”
But in Tehran, the Iranian National Olympic Committee said in a statement: “This is a general policy of our country to refrain from competing against athletes of the Zionist regime and Arash Miresmaeili has observed this policy.”
Here’s how you deal with this; You expel anyone pulling this kind of stunt from the games. No questions, no “discussion”. You’re out, see ya. Any other means of dealing with it, is effective only in reinforcing this nonsense, and thereby causes other problems on the world stage.
Expel Iran from the games. NOW.