{"id":134564,"date":"2025-09-10T20:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/134564\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T20:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:28:08","slug":"pro-palestinian-activists-are-applying-a-double-standard-at-one-of-pro-cyclings-premier-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/134564\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Palestinian activists are applying a double standard at one of pro cycling\u2019s premier events"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Protestors wave Palestinian flags as members of the Israel-Premier Tech team ride by during the 11th stage of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a in Bilbao, Spain, last week.Miguel Oses\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Some of the world\u2019s best cyclists are in Quebec this week for two of the most exciting, and excruciating, races the sport has to offer. Les Grands Prix Cyclistes de Montr\u00e9al et Qu\u00e9bec<\/a> will see 161 riders race through the streets of the province\u2019s two biggest cities. Thousands of fans are expected to line the routes.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s race, a 216-kilometre course through Old Quebec City that culminates on the Plains of Abraham, is tough enough. Sunday\u2019s race in Montreal is even tougher. The punishing 209-kilometre course requires riders to climb Mount Royal no fewer than 17 times. With a cumulative ascent of more than 4,500 metres, the Montreal race is comparable to the hardest Tour de France stages through the Alps or Pyrenees.<\/p>\n

The star attraction in Montreal will be Tadej Pogacar, the 26-year-old four-time Tour de France winner<\/a> from Slovenia who rides for UAE-Team Emirates. Mr. Pogacar sat out this month\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a \u2013 the last of pro cycling\u2019s Big Three stage races, after the Giro d\u2019Italia and the Tour de France \u2013 specifically to train for the Montreal Grand Prix, which he won in 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Mr. Pogacar\u2019s reported salary<\/a> of more than \u20ac8.3-million ($13.5-million) is by far the highest in professional cycling. But he is a priceless brand ambassador for the United Arab Emirates, whose initials are splashed across the front of Mr. Pogacar\u2019s jerseys and seen by millions of cycling fans across the world during the marquee three-week-long Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Indeed, perhaps no country has engaged as unabashedly in \u201csportswashing\u201d as the UAE, a Persian Gulf petrostate and haven for Russian oligarchs that\u2019s also known for the over-the-top skyscrapers of Dubai and Abi Dhabi and, oh yes, its human rights abuses<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Spanish Vuelta stage cut short as pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt race<\/a><\/p>\n

The UAE is the main arms supplier<\/a> to Sudan\u2019s Rapid Support Forces, which the U.S. State Department has accused of committing genocide<\/a> in that country\u2019s civil war, a conflict that has left at least 150,000 dead and left millions more facing severe hunger or famine.<\/p>\n

Yet this week, Quebec\u2019s massive public pension-fund manager, Caisse de d\u00e9p\u00f4t et placement du Qu\u00e9bec, announced a joint venture<\/a> with DP World, the Dubai-based, state-owned logistics giant, to run the Port of Montreal\u2019s new container terminal in Contrecoeur, Que. The relationship between the Caisse and DP World, which first announced a $5-billion global partnership<\/a> in 2016, has faced little scrutiny by federal or provincial politicians.<\/p>\n

No one appears to have batted an eye about the participation of UAE-Team Emirates in the Grand Prix Cyclistes, either. Yet, pro-Palestinian activist groups have demanded<\/a> that another team \u2013 Israel-Premier Tech \u2013 be barred from the races over Israel\u2019s relentless war in Gaza. <\/p>\n

This situation underscores the double standard that pro-Palestinian activists have consistently applied in the nearly two years since Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 Israelis and took another 250 hostages in Gaza. If Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza is worthy of condemnation \u2013 and it is \u2013 then so too is the UAE\u2019s role in the Sudanese civil war, in which atrocities are committed daily.<\/p>\n

Pro-Palestinian protesters have disrupted several stages of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. Members of Israel-Premier Tech participating in the Vuelta last week began riding without their team name on their jerseys to avoid being singled out for verbal abuse or violence. As if cycling were not already dangerous enough. <\/p>\n

Organizers of the Grand Prix Cyclistes fear the races in Quebec City and Montreal could be marred by similar protests. Tennis Canada cited \u201cescalating safety concerns\u201d in barring spectators<\/a> from this week\u2019s Canada-versus-Israel Davis World Cup indoor event in Halifax, saying it had been warned by national security agencies of \u201ca risk of significant disruption\u201d by pro-Palestinian activists. But blocking the entire Grand Prix race routes is not possible.<\/p>\n

Nor would it be desirable. There is a debate to be had about whether professional sports teams should be sponsored by non-democratic states seeking to burnish their global images. But that debate should be carried out before the Union cycliste internationale, professional cycling\u2019s governing body, which decides which teams can compete in UCI-sanctioned races, such as the Tour de France and the Grand Prix Cyclistes.<\/p>\n

Israel-Premier Tech is a privately owned team, and not one officially sponsored by the Israeli government. Its owner, Canadian-Israeli real estate heir Sylvan Adams, is, however, an unapologetic defender of the State of Israel. He bought the team a few years back with the stated aim<\/a> of \u201cshowing to a worldwide audience the true face of Israel, which is that of normal, diverse, tolerant and, importantly, safe democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Adams has done wonders for cycling in this country, sponsoring several of Canada\u2019s top riders. But for the sake of cycling and the respect of fans, neither he nor the UAE should be able to get away with sportswashing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Protestors wave Palestinian flags as members of the Israel-Premier Tech team ride by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,635,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-134564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-cycling","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}