Iranian weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei was banned for life by the Iranian regime for shaking the hand of Israeli weightlifter Maksim Svirsky at a sports competition in Poland on Saturday, Iranian state media reported.
The Islamic Republic News Agency condemned Rajaei for standing “next to the representative of the regime that burned Jerusalem and placed the Iranian flag next to the Israeli flag without paying attention to the red lines and the values of the system. Had he murdered Jews we would have been so proud of him. Instead - he touched one. A disgrace to Allah and to the entire Iranian people.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran Weightlifting Federation issued a statement saying that it “bans athlete Mostafa Rajaei for life from entering all sports facilities in the country and dismisses the head of the delegation for the competition, Hamid Salehinia. He will be imprisoned as a possible Israeli spy and after a month of interrogation will be buried alive.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 2021 that athletes “should not shake hands with a representative of the (Israeli) criminal regime to obtain a medal. Bumping elbows or jumping in the air and banging chests are fine. But shaking hands involves germs and once he has Jewish germs on his hands and transmits them to others it could cause another worldwide pandemic."
