#ban israel from sport

[jloisse]

[heritageposts]

🇵🇸 From BDS:

More than 300 Palestinian sports teams are calling to ban Israel from the Olympics over its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. [...] In Gaza, Israel has killed Palestinian Olympic Football coach Hani Al Masdar, destroyed the Palestinian Olympic Committee offices, and turned sports facilities into shameful mass detention and torture centers. We can’t sit back as the IOC allows Israel to use the Olympics to sportswash its genocide in Gaza and its apartheid regime against Palestinians everywhere. Support the call from Palestinian teams. Join the campaign to #BanIsrael from the Olympics and peacefully disrupt the road to the Paris 2024 games. 

Global days of action planned for March 15-17:

Ahead of the IOC executive board meeting in Lausanne Switzerland (March 19-21), take the call from Palestinian teams to your National Olympic Committee, International Sports Federations and Recognized Sports Federations. Organize protests, sit-ins, peaceful disruptions, or awareness raising events on Israeli attacks on Palestinian sports.

For more concrete information on how you can participate in the campaign, see the link above. You should also check in with your local BDS-affiliated organization(s) to see if they have anything planned for these dates (if they don't, consider bringing it up to them)

If you're not familiar with any BDS-affiliated organizations in your country (or state/city), then take a look at BDS's "Join a Campaign'"page.

There's also a petition you can sign.

[no-passaran]

[...] The International Olympic Committee, FIFA, UEFA, FIBA, and other sports organisations are complicit as they allow a continuous participation of the occupying apartheid regime in their events. Following a swift response and an instant suspension of Russia, it is now difficult for them to justify turning a blind eye to the Israeli government’s actions.

We must however take heart from history and support the liberation of Palestine as generations before us brought apartheid to an end in South Africa. That struggle took on all possible dimensions, with one of the earliest being suspension of sporting ties – which aided in peacefully isolating the South African regime, demonstrated a global rejection of apartheid and changed domestic perspectives in the country.

This act must now be extended to Israel – not only due to its practice of settler-colonialism, military occupation, ethnic cleansing, genocide, apartheid and illegal exploitation of natural resources on occupied territories – but also due to its brutal assault on cultural, academic and sporting life of the Palestinian society.

We thus urgently demand:

An immediate suspension of Israel from participation in all international sports until it fully complies with international law and sports regulations

For global and European sports governing bodies to immediately uphold their statutory obligations – especially their own rules on human rights and non-discrimination given Russian, South African and other precedents. This would include, inter alia, a ban on Israel competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, UEFA’s European Championship and FIFA’s World Cup.

For a deeper analysis on the rationale to suspend Israel from international sports, please review this paper (also available in Spanish) that will be sent to sports organisations.

[palestinegenocide]

More than 300 Palestinian sports teams are calling to ban Israel from the Olympics over its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israeli offensive on Gaza has claimed the lives of 26,706 civilians, including 11,422 infants and children. Ninety percent of Palestinians are internally displaced and living in inhumane conditions with “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel.” No functional hospitals. No mosques. No churches. No libraries. No schools. No universities. No bakeries. At this rate, the brutal Israeli regime will soon destroy every aspect of life in Gaza, including its sports.

Join the global campaign to peacefully disrupt the road to Paris 2024 calling on the IOC to #BanIsrael until it ends its crimes against Palestinians and recognizes our UN-stipulated rights.

Register your group to join the campaign

We thus urgently demand:

An immediate suspension of Israel from participation in all international sports until it fully complies with international law and sports regulations

For global and European sports governing bodies to immediately uphold their statutory obligations – especially their own rules on human rights and non-discrimination given Russian, South African and other precedents. This would include, inter alia, a ban on Israel competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, FIFA World Cup, and UEFA’s EURO. 

For a deeper analysis on the rationale to suspend Israel from international sports, please review this paper (also available in Spanish) that will be sent to sports organisations.

Here’s what you can do.

1. Join the Global Day(s) of Action, March 15-17 

Ahead of the IOC executive board meeting in Lausanne Switzerland (March 19-21), take the call from Palestinian teams to your National Olympic Committee, International Sports Federations and Recognized Sports Federations. Organize protests, sit-ins, peaceful disruptions, or awareness raising events on Israeli attacks on Palestinian sports. Register your group for more information.

2. Olympics qualifiers and events

From now until the Olympic Games start in July, the road to Paris will be filled with opportunities to remind the IOC that there is no place in the Olympics for genocide perpetrators. Earlier this month, four runners took the #CeasefireNow message to the Olympic Trials Marathon in Florida, crossing the finish line with Palestinian flags. Find information on Olympic time trials and qualifiers (also here) or other Olympics-related events in your area. Register your group for more information.

3. Kick Israeli apartheid out of sports

Is your country a signatory to the International Convention Against Apartheid in Sports? If so, it has an obligation to “take all appropriate action to secure the expulsion of a country practising apartheid from international and regional sports bodies.” Register your group to learn what you can do.

4. Sign the petition to ban Israel from world sports

Join more than 70,000 people from all over the world who have signed the petition calling for banning Israel from international sport.

Add your signature here

Israel has killed Palestinian Olympic Football coach Hani Al Masdar, destroyed the Palestinian Olympic Committee offices, and turned sports facilities into shameful mass detention and torture centers.

We can’t sit back as the IOC allows Israel to use the Olympics to sportswash its genocide in Gaza and its apartheid regime against Palestinians everywhere. Support the call from Palestinian teams. 

Join the campaign to #BanIsrael from the Olympics and peacefully disrupt the road to the Paris 2024 games. 

[lettersfromthelevant]

So... the sports scene seems to be doing great, huh?

They suspended Russia, the country that initiated the invasion and killed civilians, while allowing Ukraine - the country invaded and attacked - to compete. However, Israel is also attacked and invaded with over a thousand of our civilians brutalized and we're the ones to get banned now? Okay. "Safety concerns" my ass.

The sports scene is becoming increasingly hostile to Jews and Israelis, which is nothing new. We've seen hostility such as this before, with the most notable occasion being Hitler's ban on Jews in the Olympics. The excuse for banning us this time around is "safety concerns." A transparently bullshit claim that can be seen through just by looking at these same organizations' reactions to Russia and Ukraine. As I mentioned earlier:

They suspended Russia, the country that initiated the invasion and killed civilians, while allowing Ukraine - the country invaded and attacked - to compete. However, Israel is also attacked and invaded with over a thousand of our civilians brutalized and we're the ones to get banned now? Okay. "Safety concerns" my ass.

The rock climbing ban is particularly egregious because it highlights a trend that has been present since the Munich Massacre in 1972. They claim our safety is paramount to them, but when our lives are actively endangered they do nothing to actually protect us. They erase us from public life because it's easier for Jews to just not exist than it is for gentiles to unlearn and prevent antisemitism. They are not interested in doing the work to ensure our inclusion and safety, as demonstrated by the appallingly awful German response to the Israeli Olympics team being taken hostage.

Israelis are intimately familiar with security concerns due to terrorism. What confounds me is the complete apathy and lack of interest in improvement that the rest of the world shows when our lives are threatened. The Munich Massacre marked a turning point in how Israel conducts counter terrorism and national security, but the rest of the world clearly didn't care enough to change. On the contrary, they seemed actively invested in preventing us from securing our safety. The U.S. actually warned the man who orchestrated the attack that Mossad agents were after him. Not-so-fun-fact, did you know that the CIA were best buddies with the PLO?

Clearly, gentile society has drawn an invisible line in the sand and if Jews cross it we are excluded and browbeaten. Things might not be as severe as they were during Hitler's tyranny, but the climate might be shifting in that direction again. This incident is not sports, but has the potential of crossing over: Iceland has threatened to pull out of Eurovision unless Israel is banned from competing. They aren't citing security concerns as their reasoning. Instead, they are fully stating that they are politically opposed to Israel fighting against Hamas and that it goes against Icelandic values.

Apparently, the innocent Israeli lives lost are not important enough for Iceland. I wonder how they would react if a terrorist organization invaded their country, mass raped and slaughtered 1,200+ people, and then kidnapped hundreds more. This is the standard Jews are held to. We are banned when we defend ourselves.

(source)

I don't really know how to end this post, other than by saying, this is why I will always be supportive of things like the Maccabiah Games. Institutions led by Jews, for Jews, provide us with places to go when we cross the invisible line. I meant to publish this around mid-January, when the news about the climbing team broke, but I got side-tracked by antisemitism in another industry because it is infesting everything now. I completely forgot the original conclusion I had for this. I don't want to fear-monger. I'm really tired of envisioning such a bleak future for my people, but I can't help noticing how quickly things are escalating and how easily all of our supposed allies are trying to restrict us from everything, take control over our government, and dictate the future of our people for us.

We really only have each other, and it's essential we maintain the strong bonds that allow for us to persist the antisemitism constantly thrown by a world that has never forgiven us for surviving.

[samijami]

They're arresting students, teachers, and everyone who is protesting against Israel's occupation via peaceful protesting and justifying it as 'they're spitting on Jewish students, threatening them, beating them up, and being antisemitic in a manner that makes them feel unsafe in our school building'.

Highlighting few instances where antisemitic statements were said, and claiming everyone who was protesting on the Pro-Palestinian side was partaking in saying the same antisemitic nonsense. Claiming TikTok 'strangely only has the Pro-Palestinian view' present in the platform, 'indoctrinating the younger generation'.

News reporters go up on camera with a straight face and say with certainty that 'the lack of humanitarian aid being sent to Gazan citizens is not Israel's fault, it is Hamas' fault.' And, 'Israel is infiltrating the 100+ Hamas members hiding in Rafah'. Even saying so much as Israel soldiers are supplying citizens in Rafah with tents and trying to protect them from the violence occurring.

Let me just remind you:

People are peacefully protesting and causing no actual disturbance, yet being assaulted/arrested by police, which is in defiance of their Constitutional Rights.

There may be some antisemitic Pro-Palestinian protesters, but I guarantee you, barely any protests actually have any. Pro-Israelis are purposefully highlighting the few rotten apples amongst the bunch to widespread propaganda.

There are notably more antisemitic Pro-Israeli activists, who associate Zionism to Judiasm. These people also align themselves amongst Nazis, wishing ill to Pro-Palestinian Jews. An instance that Pro-Israelis love to ignore being one where somebody yelled at a Pro-Palestinian Jew that they 'wish Hitler would've killed them in the gas chambers'.

Zionism is not Judiasm. Judaism is not Zionism. Judaism is not contained only within Israel. Israel does not speak for the entire Jewish population. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.

Israeli soldiers are posting themselves on the internet posing with the dead people of Palestine's possessions, bragging about killing children, 'inhaling dead children's shoes', amongst various other things that all constitute war crimes. Serious war crimes. Some also post videos/photos dehumanising these people, or just straight up killing them. These same soldiers rape, torture, and humiliate Palestinian adults and even young children.

Hamas has been provingly opposing against Israel's occupation, even killing the man who claimed to be 'inhaling children's shoes' after he killed them for sport.

Israel are the ones who proposed and passed the lists of banned humanitarian imports to Palestinians. Of those being food of any sort, baby formula, most medical supplies (+women's menstrual products), and many other things the people of Palestine need to have any hope of surviving. Basic human necessities, the only way to feed babies, the only way to stay alive, are what Israel is banning from being sent to these innocent people.

Israel claimed Rafah was a safe place for the Palestinian citizens to go and not be murdered. Right when the world was distracted with the Oscar's, Israel invaded Rafah under the same guise of 'Hamas is there'. Instead of hunting actual 'Hamas terrorists', Israel stripped down innocent Palestinian citizens and made them do various humiliating things to 'prove they are not Hamas'. Amongst these stripped down and humiliated were young children, unarmed adults, and elderly people.

The 'safe space' (Rafah), was made into a blood bath upon Israel invasion. I guarantee you the thousands of children, men, and women murdered in Rafah, living in tents and half-starved, were not 'Hamas terrorists'.

TikTok, nor does any other social media, take up a 'mainly Pro-Palestinian view'. There are plenty of stupid Pro-Israelis here and everywhere else. The problem you're having is that there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that equates Israel to a substantial amount of war crimes and genocide, and there's such a large quantity of it, that it's impossible to not find it everywhere.

Israel soldiers cannot even approach a Palestinian citizen, or even a Pro-Palestinian journalist, protestor, or reporter, without attempting to kill, harm, or commit an otherwise ill action upon them. They definitely cannot approach them to, and would never willingly, give them aid or supply them with tents.

Israel is committing an atrocious genocide against Palestinian citizens, and even attacked other countries with the same intent. Israel is undoubtedly targeting these people with the full intent to eradicate them all from the face of the Earth, and they will continue to do so with the aid the U.S provides them.

[i-am-aprl]

📍Barcelona fans chant in support of Palestine during its team’s match against Maccabi Tel Aviv 🍉

I think it's time to ban Israel from all the sport events

[psychic-waffles]

reminder for figure skating fans

Sign the DiEM25 petition to #BanIsrael from international sports https://bdsmovement.net/news/suspend-israel-from-international-sports-sign-diem25-petition

Sign the Eko petition to ban israel from FIFA & #Paris2024 Olympics https://action.eko.org/a/olympics-and-fifa-ban-israel-from-international-sports-now

[starlightshadowsworld]

the mental gymnastics that people are making to defend a genocide is fucking is insane. the truth is literally being shoved in their faces but they go "um actually ☝️🤓"

like bro, here's your clown makeup, nose and shoes; now fuck off

Underneath "complex issue" is racism.

People especially in the west have been bought up to dehumanise people who don't look like them.

In this case, Arabs.

People equate Arabs to Muslims and suddenly are much more okay with them being killed.

Because they see them as lesser, as terrorists, as inhuman. That's what they are raised to believe.

Israel went from denying that Palestinians ever existed to dehumanising them.

And for people who already held prejudice towards anyone who's skin wasn't light as snow... Wasn't hard to follow along.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, the whole world turned against Russis. They were banned from sporting events, they were instantly condemned.

Someone said that the event was so tragic because "white, blonde haired, blue eyed children" were dying.

Comments about how they couldn't fathom such an atrocity happening in "a civilised" part of the world.

Like the West isn't directly responsible for the atrocities happening in the "uncivilised" parts.

If the races were swapped, the Israelis would have been the ones being killed because they would be no longer white.

And thus no one would care.

When the Ukrainians fought back it was resistence and exercising their right to defend to themselves.

When the Palestinians do it, it's terrorism. Even when it's peaceful, it's terrorism.

Israeli's are killed.

Palestinians die.

It's all in the language we use to explain this atrocity.

People will bend over backwards because they can't admit they don't see Palestinians as human.

Governments will bend over backwards to defend their aligence with Israel, because they can't admit they don't see the Palestinians as human.

And they profit from it.

And that's just talking about Palestine, not the many many other atrocities going on in the world.

It's textbook White Supremacy.

And it's not always the people you expect.

It's not just the openly prejudiced.

It's people who love stories like the Hunger Games and truly understand its themes.

It's the people who were the first to condemn Russia, that suddenly go quiet.

Say its complicated when it comes to people who don't look like them.

Truth is right infront of them.

Google is free.

But that would mean they'd be put into a position where they aren't comfortable.

Which is another aspect of White Supremacy.

And some people would rather die than let that happen.

They can "um actually" all they want, it doesn't change the facts.

There's a genocide and your defending it, and you are the scum of the earth.

And the Palestinians in Gaza might not see your comments, but your poc friends will.

And they'll know that your allyship is simply performative, just like everyone else.

[viktoriakomova]

someone go ask luba when she'll support banning israel from international sport

[bluedabadeedabadie]

Ban Israel from the Olympics

[heritageposts]

Ask an older generation of white South Africans when they first felt the bite of anti-apartheid sanctions, and some point to the moment in 1968 when their prime minister, BJ Vorster, banned a tour by the England cricket team because it included a mixed-race player, Basil D’Oliveira. After that, South Africa was excluded from international cricket until Nelson Mandela walked free from prison 22 years later. The D’Oliveira affair, as it became known, proved a watershed in drumming up popular support for the sporting boycott that eventually saw the country excluded from most international competition including rugby, the great passion of the white Afrikaners who were the base of the ruling Nationalist party and who bitterly resented being cast out. For others, the moment of reckoning came years later, in 1985 when foreign banks called in South Africa’s loans. It was a clear sign that the country’s economy was going to pay an ever higher price for apartheid. Neither of those events was decisive in bringing down South Africa’s regime. Far more credit lies with the black schoolchildren who took to the streets of Soweto in 1976 and kicked off years of unrest and civil disobedience that made the country increasingly ungovernable until changing global politics, and the collapse of communism, played its part. But the rise of the popular anti-apartheid boycott over nearly 30 years made its mark on South Africans who were increasingly confronted by a repudiation of their system. Ordinary Europeans pressured supermarkets to stop selling South African products. British students forced Barclays Bank to pull out of the apartheid state. The refusal of a Dublin shop worker to ring up a Cape grapefruit led to a strike and then a total ban on South African imports by the Irish government. By the mid-1980s, one in four Britons said they were boycotting South African goods – a testament to the reach of the anti-apartheid campaign. . . . The musicians union blocked South African artists from playing on the BBC, and the cultural boycott saw most performers refusing to play in the apartheid state, although some, including Elton John and Queen, infamously put on concerts at Sun City in the Bophuthatswana homeland. The US didn’t have the same sporting or cultural ties, and imported far fewer South African products, but the mobilisation against apartheid in universities, churches and through local coalitions in the 1980s was instrumental in forcing the hand of American politicians and big business in favour of financial sanctions and divestment. By the time President FW de Klerk was ready to release Mandela and negotiate an end to apartheid, a big selling point for part of the white population was an end to boycotts and isolation. Twenty-seven years after the end of white rule, some see the boycott campaign against South Africa as a guide to mobilising popular support against what is increasingly condemned as Israel’s own brand of apartheid.

. . . continues at the guardian (21 May, 2021)

[inariedwards]

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement invites everyone from all around the world to sign a petition to global and European sports organisations to ban Israel from participating until it stops the genocide and apartheid. This is especially timely now as the Paris Olympics are approaching, and it is unconscionable to allow Israel to participate in the Olympics.

Please sign, and also I really recommend following BDS or getting their email newsletters or whatever way functions best for you to stay up to date with their work.

-

The nonviolent BDS movement for freedom, justice and equality is supported by the absolute majority in Palestinian society. BDS rejects all forms of racism and racial discrimination.

[in-case-of-grace]

THIS WEEK'S GOOD NEWS

Maine disqualified Trump from the 2024 ballot!

https://ground.news/article/maine-elections-official-disqualifies-trump-from-presidential-primary-ballot

I am allowed to indulge in gamer news sue me-- Bobby Kotick is OUT as CEO of Actibliz! This follows…well a lot of controversies including discrimination, harassment, mismanagement, and other flavors of employee abuse!

https://www.ign.com/articles/bobby-kotick-leaving-activision-blizzard-on-december-29

South Africa has filed a case in the ICJ against Israel, on the grounds that they're…y'know, committing war crimes and carrying out a genocide in Palestine.

https://ground.news/article/south-africa-files-icj-case-accusing-israel-of-genocidal-acts-in-gaza_38e1b4

For the US, 2023 saw record drops in homicide rates

https://ground.news/article/this-year-set-to-mark-record-drop-in-homicides-research-shows_dc58a8

Ohio's governor vetoed anti-trans legislation that sought to restrict healthcare and ban athletes from competing in affirming leagues. (Again, WEEK AFTER WEEK we are seeing stories like this! We ain't going anywhere!)

https://ground.news/article/ohios-republican-governor-vetoes-trans-care-restriction-and-sports-ban_3bb9bd

Major breakthroughs are being made in nuclear fusion research-- namely, scientists have managed to not only produce reactions that release more energy than was used to start them, but they've also managed to repeat said reaction! (This is actually from last week I just missed it-- but it's p big!)

https://ground.news/article/scientists-successfully-replicate-historic-nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-three-times_7e3657

--- Why not reblog and share other bits of good news you’ve seen this week? My own exposure is limited and I’d love to see stories I missed!

[mightyflamethrower]

The Nova dance party was targeted and attacked by Hamas killers last week. Nearly 300 kids died in the massacre. Another 40 were kidnapped and 1,300 Jews were slaughtered in the Saturday slaughter.

Nearly 300 kids died in the massacre. Another 40 were kidnapped and 1,300 Jews were slaughtered in the Saturday Hamas attack. Babies were slaughtered. Elementary schools were targeted. Dining halls were targeted. Hamas Islamists tossed grenades into bomb shelters where kids were hiding blowing them to bits. Hamas is still releasing videos of their fighters killing Jews for sport.

A poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) back in 2014 found that 89% of Palestinians support terror attacks against Israel. That is quite a majority.

The poll results are:

(88.9%) support the firing of rockets from Gaza at Israel.

(75.4%) believe that the deterrence of the Palestinian Resistance has increased.

(61.2%) of the Palestinians oppose the deployment of UN-multi-national forces in Gaza Strip.

(54.0%) are satisfied with the performance of Palestine-president “Abu Mazen.”

(64.7%) rated the stances of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as “negative.”

(58.1%) are content with the ICRC performance, (71.2 %) with that of the UNRWA.

Today, the American left is calling on the United States to take in one million Palestinian refugees from Gaza.

Democrats, led by members of the “Squad,” are advocating for the U.S. to open its doors to Palestinian refugees from Gaza. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York member of the Socialist-Democratic “Squad,” stated that the U.S. should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas.

Democrats really hate this country and hate you, the American people.

If this happens, it will change America even more than Joe Biden’s open borders.

God help us.

[meilas]

Russia was banned from competing at international sporting events because of its war attack on Ukraine. However, Israel is still allowed to compete, despite the genocide it is committing against Palestine. Israel should be banned from all international events.