Organizers of a rowing competition for the disabled in Italy apparently didn’t take into consideration the possibility that the Israeli contender, Moran Samuel, would win the competition.

Update: some of the comments to this video mentioned a version of Hatikvah, by Enrico Macias. The first approximately 30 seconds in that version are not part of Israel’s official anthem, Hatikvah.

The official anthem, used by all official Israeli institutions (the President, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs etc.) and in every official ceremony, should have been in the hands of the Italian organizers. Unfortunately, unlike the Olympic games organizers, the Italian organizers didn’t have it. They acknowledged the fact and apologized. Instead of acquiring the official Hatikvah, it is quite possible that they simply downloaded the Enrico Macias version of Hatikvah, since it’s the first result when googling “Israel anthem” (without the quotes).

Click Picture to View

Just a month and a half ago, a much worse incident happened in Kuwait: when an athlete from Kazakhstan won a gold medal, the Kuwaiti organizers played the spoof Kazakhstan anthem from the movie Borat… They had found it online, of course: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/9163577/Borat-spoof-…

The correct Israeli anthem was played in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and in countless international sport events, when Israeli athletes won gold or when an Israeli team played in an official match.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qraOxdBbstQ (the anthem starts at min 2:30)

Here’s the official Hatikva, from the Israeli Foreign Affairs ministry’s website (you can click to hear it at the bottom of the page):
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/State/The+State.htm

You can also hear it on the CIA’s World Factbook.

Best wishes,
The MidEastTruth.com Team

By: The MidEastTruth.com Team
Taken from YouTube