About The File

This book narrates the previously untold history of a Palestine Olympic Committee recognized before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. It sheds light on some of the darkest events in sport history, exposing secretive relationships behind the doors of the Jerusalem YMCA, Nazi agitation, arrests, internments, and other intrigue in the complicated history of Israeli and Palestinian sport.

The File breaks new ground at the intersection of sport and politics—illuminating the hope, tension, and horror of the 20s, 30s, and 40s, the creation of the State of Israel and the Palestinian refugees, and the resulting guerrilla attack at the Olympics in Munich in 1972—and reveals a handful of heroes whose impact on athletes and international sport competitions is still felt today.

“I am by tradition and personal belief an ardent advocate for the inherent right of free speech and the ‘open platform.’ However, such rights have been and will always be abused. It seems to me that it is important for the Committee (which is not a government guaranteeing human rights, but the personification of an ideal) to stand in opposition to…beliefs and practices born in hatred and fostered by prejudice and ill will…It seems obvious that…[these]…aspirations and practices…are seriously in conflict with…[the ideal]…and do not deserve, and should not have, from the Committee the recognition quite peremptorily demanded.”

– James, F. Oates, 11 April 1934, member of the International Committee of YMCAs responding to Nazi agitation at the Jerusalem International YMCA
Y.USA.9–2-2, International Work in Palestine/Israel, Box 5/1, Kautz Family YMCA Archives (Minneapolis, MN, 1934).