Algeria Olympic Director Blames Jews For Backlash Against Imane Khelif, Bashes Trump

Algerian Olympic and Sports Committees director Yassine Arab blamed the “Zionist lobby” for the backlash against the country’s Olympic boxer Imane Khelif, who was booted from the 2023 female World Championships for reportedly having XY chromosomes.

Khelif on Tuesday advanced to the women’s gold medal match after dominating female opponent Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand 5:0 in the semifinals. Thus far in the Paris Games, Khelif has won every round on every judge’s card.

“The Zionist lobby, they want to break the mind of Imane,” Arab told The Sydney Morning Herald. “But now Imane is very strong.”

“They don’t want that a Muslim girl or Arabic girl goes higher in the level of the rank of female boxing,” he continued. Algeria is a predominantly Muslim country.

“We are all here for Imane,” Arab said. “You can see all the support of everybody from [around] the world. All the international press associations, they support Imane.”

Arab also took aim at former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee. “He wants to talk about Imane? He has many problems,” the director said. “First of all, I say to this guy, go to see the doctor. Go to see the psychologist. You are really in a very bad mood.”

Trump last week posted a message online declaring his promise to keep males out of female sports if he is to again be elected president.

Khelif and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan, another Olympic boxer in the women’s division, failed gender tests in 2019 and 2023, per the International Boxing Association (IBA).

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A blood test in 2019 showed that the fighters had “inconsistent” results, suggesting that the bloodwork was inconsistent with that of a female, IBA CEO Chris Roberts said during a press conference on Monday. In 2023, another test revealed that the fighters “demonstrated the chromosomes we refer to in competition rules that make both boxers ineligible,” he added.

International Olympics Committee (IOC) spokesperson Mark Adams, however, has claimed that the IBA gender tests are “not credible” because the IBA is not credible and the reasoning for the tests is not credible, ESPN reported.

“There was no consideration of whether they were correct or not correct because they had no bearing for the eligibility of boxing here,” he said.

Related: Boxer Who Failed Gender Tests Advances To Gold Medal Match After Dominating Another Female Opponent