KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman today said that Israel’s criticism of Malaysia politicising sports is an attempt to play the victim card and described them as hypocrites.

"Has hypocrite Israel forgotten the ban they placed on Gaza’s Ittihad Al-Shejaiya football team from crossing into the West Bank to play the final match of the Palestine Football Cup? Is that not politicising sports?” Syed Saddiq said in a statement.

He cited several other instances of purported Israeli hypocrisy, including how Israel appointed itself as Palestine’s sporting guardians by deciding who was eligible to play against Palestinian athletes in their own country, or how they pressured the US National Basketball Association to exclude Palestine from its list last year.

"Where was the self-righteous, victim-playing, Hypocrite Israel then? As the Malaysian youth and sports minister, I stand firm with our decision.

"Malaysia should not be a complicit to a brutal and inhumane regime. Our Palestinian brothers and sisters have been murdered in cold blood and those who live, imprisoned for life in the open-air prison (of Gaza) tightly controlled by the Israeli regime,” Syed Saddiq said.

The Malaysian government has said it will not allow Israeli athletes to compete at the World Para Swimming Championships slated for Sarawak in July this year.

Israel condemned Malaysia’s ban on Israeli participation in international sporting events it hosts and said the decision was inspired by Dr Mahathir’s "rabid anti-Semitism”.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said that there is "no place for Israeli athletes in Malaysia,” refusing to issue entry visas for the Israeli swimming team.

Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah had earlier said the decision to ban the Israeli athletes was made by Cabinet last week on humanitarian grounds, and is related to "fighting on behalf of the oppressed”.