“Since they refuse to raise Israeli flag or play Israeli anthem at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam judo tournament, I am just going to leave this here:”, wrote Jan Koum, WhatsApp founder on Saturday on his Facebook page, adding a link to a YouTube video of Conan O’Brien’s show filmed in Israel and playing the national anthem “Hatikva”.
Koum protesting the fact that Israeli judokas, Tal Flicker, who won the gold medal in the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2017 judo tournament, stepped up to the podium were prohibited from sporting any of the country’s insignia, hoist the Israeli flag or play the anthem in celebration of the Israeli win. Flicker mouthed the song’s lyrics to the sounds of the International Judo Federation (IJF) anthem.
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This is not the first time for Ukrainian-born Jew Jan Koum to support Israel on his Facebook page. Actually, his page is full of pro-Israel posts.
Koum founded the popular messaging app WhatsApp in 2009. 5 years later the company was sold to Facebook for $19.3 billion.
