The Israeli Olympics Committee voted today to send a three man delegation of junior sports officials to Moscow to participate in the international sports federation conferences there although the boycott of the Olympic Games by Israeli athletes remains unchanged.
The vote was 12-4 to sustain the boycott but to send a three-man delegation to the conferences in the Soviet capitol. That decision angered Yitzhak Kaspi, a senior member and honorary secretary of the IOC who argued that the boycott of Moscow should be total or not at all. Kaspi expressed his views after deliberately abstaining from the vote. According to the rules, abstainers are allowed to explain their reasons. Kaspi heads the Israel-Maccabi sports organization.
He had already made his position clear last night when he said he would demand that the boycott decision by the IOC last month be reversed. Although Kaspi had supported the boycott at the time, he said he changed his mind after learning that the U.S. and West Germany would send delegates to the sports conference in Moscow which will be held during the Olympics.
“It’s either a boycott or not. If there is a boycott it is a boycott against Moscow inspective of whether it’s sports on the field or sports in the conference room,” he said. “Had I known that the Americans would participate in the conferences I would not have supported the boycott.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
