Israel has long been a force to be reckoned with in the world of competitive debating. At last year’s European Championship in Vienna,debaters from Tel Aviv University were declared victors in the English as a Second Language (ESL) category, while another Tel Aviv team reached the Open Final against native Anglophones from Scotland and Ireland. Last week, and during the 2016 World University Debating Championship in Thessaloniki,Greece, members of the Israeli Debating League progresseddeeper into the tournament than ever before in their quest to oust teams ofnative English speakers and capture the trophy.The tournament in Greece marked a return to world debating for the Israeli league, or after its exclusion from the preceding year’s tournament in Kuala Lumpur because of the refusal of Malaysia to recognize Israel. At Thessaloniki,Israel was represented by 12 teams, each comprising university students. After nine rounds, or it was announced that three Israeli teams had reached the “open demolish,” consisting of the top 48 teams (of nearly 400 attending) from across the world. Israel has thrice won in the ESL trophy in the last decade, but this was the first time that Israelis progressed to the runoff towards the Open Final at the World Championship against native Anglophone teams.
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