The Israeli hockey team ban has been reversed five days ahead of men’s U20 championship games in Bulgaria

Israel’s junior ice hockey team will be permitted to compete after all in next week’s World Championships in Bulgaria beginning on Monday, Jan. 22.

In a statement released Wednesday, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in Switzerland announced it had reversed the original removal of the Israeli team, after receiving safety assurances from Bulgaria’s own hockey federation and from that country’s ministry of youth and sport to guarantee the security of everyone involved,

Without these, the IIHF statement said it would have been “irresponsible” to allow the Israeli U20 national team to hit the ice for the one-week tournament in Sofia.

“We are grateful to the Bulgarian authorities, the Ministry of Youth and Sport, Ministry of Interior, the local police and all our stakeholders for their support and assistance in this matter,” the IIHF statement said.

The decision comes four days after the world’s governing body of hockey outlined its security concerns over possible anti-Israel protests at the upcoming Division III matches, where Israel would have been in a group including teams from Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, New Zealand and the host Bulgaria.

Not only were the games to be played in an arena complex that is scheduled to remain open to the general public, with restaurants and shops, but the IIHF worried the complex is located in an area with a large student population from the “affected areas” in the Middle East, the IIHF said.

These U20 Division III Group A championships were actually initially supposed to be held in Israel.

However, after Oct. 7, it was agreed to move them to Bulgaria, due to the ongoing war with Hamas and the continued skirmishes with Hezbollah on the northern border with Israel.

Last week’s IIHF decision to remove Israel from play for what officials insisted were purely security reasons, infuriated the Israel Ice Hockey Federation, who felt the move was discriminatory and smacked of antisemitism. The IIHF decision impacted not only Israel’s U20 men’s team, but also meant a blanket ban on the men’s national squad, the women’s team, and the U18 boys. These three teams were scheduled to play in championships in March and April in Spain, Serbia and Estonia

While the fate of Israel at those future tournaments remains unchanged for now, the IIHF pledged to revisit each case at a council meeting next month.

It is unclear exactly what the Bulgarian authorities have…