Israeli ministers had threatened to drop backing for cycling race, scheduled to begin in Israel, if wording did not change

The Giro d’Italia appears to have backed down in a row with Israeli ministers over its labelling of the major European cycling tour’s 2018 departure as “west Jerusalem” rather than Jerusalem, which had led to a threat to withdraw support.



Race organisers initially took advice from the Italian foreign ministry to describe the start point as west Jerusalem, due to competing Israeli and Palestinian claims over the city.

Israeli politicians, led by the controversial culture and sport minister, Miri Regev, threatened to withdraw support, claiming the race was in breach of its agreement.

At 9am on Thursday, the Giro’s official website still carried the disputed wording, but by the afternoon, organisers had revised it to describe the start point for the first stage as Jerusalem.



At the heart of the controversy is the fraught status of the city. Following the capture and later annexation of the eastern side of Jerusalem by Israeli troops during the six-day war in 1967, Israel has claimed it as its united capital.

Most international opinion, however, has declined to recognise that assertion, while Palestinians claim the Israeli-occupied east of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

It was into this long-running conflict that the Giro’s organisers interposed themselves when they decided to stage the first departure outside of Europe in the history of the race, which first took place in 1909.

The Giro, which was condemned by Palestinian campaigners for opting to hold the first stage in Jerusalem, found itself under fire from Israel as it tried to negotiate the politics of half a century of occupation.



The race, the first three stages of which were scheduled to begin in Israel before returning to Italy for the remaining 18, had been announced to great fanfare this year as the first time a European Grand Tour would start in Israel.

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Mauro Vegni, the Giro’s director, said he was aware of the political sensitivities around the status of Jerusalem. “The reality is that we want it to be a sports event and stay away from any political discussion,” he told the Associated Press.

Leading the charge against the decision to change the description of the start was Regev, who said in a joint statement with the tourism minister, Yariv Levin: “In Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, there is no east or west.



The change to the wording was later welcomed by Regev and Levin. “Following our response to the Giro management, we are pleased to see the prompt reaction of the organisers in removing the name ‘west Jerusalem’ from their official announcements,” they said.

The staging of the Giro, in which Chris Froome, the three-time British Tour de France champion, is expected to compete in his attempt to win the first Tour-Giro double in two decades, was seen as a boon for Israel, which has an enthusiastic road racing community.

According to reports in cycling media, Israel paid €10m (£9m) to bring the event out of Europe for the first time, with Froome, who confirmed his planned participation in a tweet, reportedly receiving an additional fee.

The race, which is scheduled to open with a 10.1km individual time trial in Jerusalem on 4 May followed by two flat road stages, was criticised in September by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which said it represented a “sports-washing of Israel’s occupation and apartheid”.

Sharaf Qutaifan of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel said: “Starting the Giro in Israel to all intents rewards Israel for its decades-long human rights abuses against the Palestinian people, including athletes.”

• This article was amended on 4 December 2017. An earlier version said this would be the first departure outside Italy in the history of the race. It will be the first departure outside Europe.