A YouTube video showing an Iranian weightlifter refusing to shake hands with an Israeli gold medalist on the medal platform of an international competition last month has gone viral.

The video posted late last month, had close to 190,000 hits as of yesterday.

Hossein Khodadadi, the silver medalist, snubbed winner Sergio Britva from the podium before Israel's national anthem, "Hatikvah," was played at the medal ceremony of the World Masters Weightlifting Championship in Poland in early October.

Even though Khodadadi ran off the platform, continuing to avoid Britva, immediately after the medal ceremony, he was the target of withering criticism from his own government authorities following the ceremony for those in the 105-kilogram category for ages 35 to 39.

Upon returning to Iran, he and the Iranian weightlifting delegation head were banned from all athletic activity for life for even competing against the Israeli.

The Iranian Student's News Agency reported that it was the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that an Iranian representative appeared beside an Israeli at an official competition.

Khodadadi told the Iranian agency that he was told that if he did not attend the ceremony, his delegation would have had to return the medals it won during the competition (all of the Iranian delegates won medals ) and would be barred from future competitions.

The ban was announced by Jalal Yahya-Zadeh, head of the Physical Education for Youth Committee.

"The fact that an Iranian weightlifting veteran has competed against an Israeli during the worldwide competitions and has stood beside him during the distribution of medals is unjustifiable," Yahya-Zadeh told Iranian media.

"Unfortunately, those who supposedly had the primary responsibility in this regard did not see any problem in this matter, however, and did not see it fit to be distributed within the public, which itself is an obvious mistake on their end," he said.

The delegation head, Mir Rasool Raisi, allegedly said in prior remarks that all photos and CDs of the event had been destroyed by the Iranian expeditionary team in an apparent bid to prevent news of the incident from leaking, Israeli media outlet Arutz Sheva reported.