The Israel Tennis Association has decided not to take disciplinary action against Amos Mansdorf, a top-seeded Israeli professional who was accused of telling reporters in Auckland, New Zealand, on Monday that he would have played in Nazi Germany had he been around at the time.
Mansdorf was condemned by the Israeli Embassy in New Zealand for the alleged remark.
But the ITA said it was satisfied with an account of the incident submitted by the Association of Tennis Professionals in Auckland.
The Israeli sportsman’s reference to Nazi Germany reportedly was made at a news conference following a match at which Mansdorf was constantly heckled by anti-apartheid demonstrators for having played in South Africa.
Lauren Goldenberg, the ATP’s press liaison officer in Auckland, described the circumstances in a letter to the ITP.
“The post-match press conference began with questions related to the demonstration,” the letter said. “Amos answered them eloquently.
“He was discussing the fact that, in his mind, politics and sports don’t mix.”
A correspondent for Reuters news agency asked if he would have played in Nazi Germany.
“Amos, in relation to the context of the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. brought up Jesse Owens as an example of someone who had not given in to the Nazi propaganda by participating in the games and emerging victorious.”
The four gold medals won by Owens, a black track star, were a blow to Nazi racial myths.
According to Goldenberg, Mansdorf used that event “as a positive rather than a negative statement, trying to show that athletics and politics do not mix.”
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