Talk About Palestine Too, Not Just Ukraine; Ali Farag calls out western media double standards

Ali Farag, World no 1 squash player has called out western media’s double standards on mixing politics with sports.

• Farag said that Palestinian conflict does not feature prominently in the news as it “doesn’t fit the narrative of the media of the West”

Egypt’s professional squash player on Sunday used his victory speech at the Optasia Championship to register his disagreement with Western media coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“One more thing that I know is going to get me in trouble, but you know we’ve all seen what’s going on in the world at the moment with Ukraine and nobody is happy about what’s happening,” Ali said.

“Nobody should ever accept any killings in the world, and oppression. But we’ve never been allowed to speak about politics in sports, but all of a sudden now it’s allowed. So, that we’re allowed, I hope that people also look at the oppression everywhere in the world.

“We’ve never been allowed to speak about politics and sports, but all of a sudden now it is allowed. So that we are allowed, I hope that people also look at the oppression everywhere in the world.”

“I mean the Palestinians have been going through that for the past 74 years,” he added referring to conflict with Israel.

However, Ali’s speech was excluded from the official highlights video on the PSA YouTube channel and as well from the PSA article covering the Optasia championship final.