Israeli debate team wins world championships for third time

The winning duo made history as the first Israeli team of women to win the competition, comprised of Hadar Goldberg and Maya Saveliev from the Open University Debate Team.

By TAMAR URIEL-BEERI
Right to Left: Hadar Goldberd, Maya Saveliev (photo credit: MONICA FORMAN)
Right to Left: Hadar Goldberd, Maya Saveliev
(photo credit: MONICA FORMAN)
An Israeli debate team has won the World Universities Debate Championship for the third time. The contest took place in Bangkok, Thailand.
The winning duo, Hadar Goldberg and Maya Saveliev of the Open University Debate Team, made history as the first Israeli team of women to win the competition. They defeated 750 contestants from around the world in the English Second Language (ESL) category.
The competition took place throughout the last week of 2019. It had a varied array of subjects for the nine debate rounds that the team went through, including gender, democracy, ethics, geopolitics and law.
Three Israeli teams reached the final rounds. The other two – Annie Schwartz and Dannie Haran, and Asaf Hanani and Nadav Kornblum – were from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and reached the semifinals in the same category.
The accomplishment of a team comprised of only women is considered a significant step for the advancement of women in the Israeli debate scene.
Goldberg is co-trainer of the Liberty Debate Club together with Monica Forman, who is also the trainer of the Open University Debate Team.
Numerous Israeli debaters, some of whom have won European and world championships, competed this year in the parallel judges’ panel competition and also judged in the final stages of the competition, a privilege only 10% of judges receive. Eight Israelis were judges in the final stages of the competition, not including those judging in the final debates of each category.
Israelis flocked to the judges’ ring, with Il Hayut-Man, the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev debate team’s trainer, being one of the lead judges for the entire competition, allowing him to choose some of the debate subjects. Sela Nevo was on the judges’ panel for the English Primary Language (EPL) category, while Dan Lahav was on the judges’ panel for the final English Foreign Language (EFL) debate. Both are from TAU.
Israel has been on a roll over the past few years in the debate world. Three Israeli teams (out of four teams in each debate round) reached the finals in the European Debate Championship this past year, and Israeli teams won in both the EPL and ESL categories in 2018.
A TAU debate team also won the European Round Robin competition in 2019, an exclusive university-level debate competition in Poland that has limited entry for only the best debate teams.
An Israeli high-school team won the European High School Debate Championship in 2018.
Some drama broke out at the EPL finals at this past world championships. The final motion, or subject for the debate, was about the China-Hong Kong conflict. Immediately, Chinese debaters stepped out of the event hall and contacted their government to notify them. Numerous debaters requested that their names be removed from the debate’s roster. The video was also removed from all social media so that no facial recognition could be applied to recognize the debaters.


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