The date was Feb. 17, 1977. The place was the sports stadium in the small town of Virton, Belgium. Israel's champion basketball team Maccabee Tel Aviv had just defeated the Soviet super-team CSKA Moscow in the European Cup. During an interview with Channel 1, which broadcast the game live, Maccabee's star Tal Brody coined a new expression. Speaking in the halting Hebrew of a new immigrant from the United States, he said, "We’re on the map, and we’re staying on the map, not only in sports, but in everything!"
Since then, Brody's comment has become nothing less than a national slogan, placing sports as an important front in Israel's struggle for international recognition. Politicians have been more than happy to enter the arena hoping to reap political benefits, even if the heads of the various leagues would prefer they didn't.
The game against CSKA took place in Belgium because teams from the Communist states refused to come to Tel Aviv to play or to host the Israelis in their countries. As a result, Maccabee won a series of technical victories in its home games against those teams, while others were played in a neutral stadium in Belgium. The Communist sports boycott helped the Israeli team advance and even win the European Cup that season.
The collapse of the Soviet bloc didn't stop the boycotts. Dozens of Arab athletes have faked and continue to fake injuries so that they won't have to compete against Israelis. For example, Iranian judo champion Javad Mahjoub claimed to be ill to avoid competing against Israeli Arik Ze'evi in the 2012 London Olympics.
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