A young Lebanese chess player has drawn applause from local media – and terrorist outfit Hezbollah – for refusing to play Israeli opponents.

Chess prodigy Mark Abou Deeb appeared on OTV (Lebanon) to explain he had refused to compete against an Israeli player during a chess championship in Spain because “Israel is an enemy.”

He was also urged to thank Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah for liberating Lebanon from Israel, according to footage released by MEMRI.

“Many Lebanese people consider you to be a hero, right?” host Rosanna Rammal asked him during the December 25 interview, asking him why he had refused to compete against Israelis.

After he answered, “Because Israel is an enemy,” the two hosts repeatedly asked him to speak louder. Eventually they replied, “Bravo.”

Lebanese Chess Prodigy Mark Abou Deeb on Refusing to Play against Israeli Opponents: Israel Is the Enemy pic.twitter.com/TViNO5B3OY — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 1, 2019

Abou Deeb competed in November in the World Cadet Chess Championships in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain in the under-8 open category.

The Times of Israel reports Lebanese media at the time said that Abou Deeb had declared he wouldn’t play Israelis since that would constitute “normalization” with the Jewish state.