The spokesman of the Israeli embassy has claimed an article about Israel using sport to ‘launder… crimes’ was ‘dangerous’

The Israeli Embassy spokesman has launched a blistering attack on claims by a leading journalist that the Jewish state was “sportswashing” its reputation.

In a letter to the Guardian, Ohad Zemet took aim at an article written for the paper by sports writer Jonathan Liew and said it was “high time” that Israel “was treated the same as any other country in the world”.

It followed an article by Mr. Liew in which he claimed the new Israeli pro-cycling team was part of a concerted effort to gloss over Israel’s “crimes”.

Mr. Liew wrote: “When we refer to sportswashing, the attempt by nation-states to sanitise their reputations and launder their crimes, there is a certain kind of country we’re usually thinking of. We have no problem linking the manifold abuses of Qatar or Saudi Arabia or China to their investment in sport. And yet there appears to be a certain squeamishness about referring to Israel in similar terms, even though its aims are even more explicitly stated, its crimes well documented by human rights groups.”

In response, Mr Zemet took issues with the journalist’s claims Israel was using sport as a “tool of repression”.

“I wonder what Bibars Natcho, the Muslim captain of the Israeli football team, would think about this statement, or the Sports in Service of Peace programme which enables Israeli and Palestinian children to play together to promote coexistence, and who participated in the Argentina-Uruguay match,” he wrote.

Mr Zemet went on to accuse the article of suggesting that it is illegitimate for Israelis to engage in any international sport.

He wrote: “So we, Israelis, cannot do anything… Pinkwashing, greenwashing, vaccinewashing – even a peace agreement with Arab countries receives similar accusations. This is particularly dangerous, implying that Israel is not a state like any other, whose contribution to the world can be celebrated.

“This week marks the greatest catastrophe to the Jewish people, and it is 73 years since the UN recognised the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in Israel. Israel can be criticised, even harshly, but it is about time it was treated the same as any other country in the world.”