Update

Sports Stars Stand Up for Palestinian Rights in Unprecedented Numbers

Active men and women football players (association and American), entire football teams, cricket players, basketball players, boxers and others have all taken to social media to courageously show their solidarity with Palestinians living under the brutal oppression of Israeli apartheid.

During Israel’s most recent round of violent attacks on Palestinians, athletes from around the world and across sports spoke up for Palestinians rights in unprecedented numbers.

As Israel carried out military assaults on besieged Gaza, killing more than 247 Palestinians, including 66 children, ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, violent repression of protests against Palestinians and mass arrests across the occupied West Bank and within present day Israel, many in the sports world expressed outrage. Active men and women football players (association and American), entire football teams, cricket players, basketball players, boxers and others have all taken to social media to courageously show their solidarity with Palestinians living under the brutal oppression of Israeli apartheid.

Palestinian athletes have long documented Israel's brutal and persistent attacks on Palestinian sports. Israel has shot and imprisoned Palestinian athletes, and killed Palestinian children playing football, more than once. This past May, Israeli soldiers killed two promising football players, 16 year old Said Odeh of Balata in the occupied West Bank and Muath Nabil Al-Zaanin of Beit Hanoun FC in Gaza. Israel has bombed and destroyed Palestinian stadiums and sports structures, and it routinely denies freedom of movement to Palestinian athletes traveling to training and matches, both withing the occupied Palestinian territory and abroad. In 2018 alone, Israeli snipers ended the careers of dozens of Palestinian athletes in Gaza participating in peaceful protests. The Israel Football Association includes Israeli clubs based in illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land and has failed to address rampant racism in Israeli football. 

Israel instead uses international sporting events to sports-wash its regime of military occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid against Palestinians. 

Palestinians are calling on the world of sports to take a stand for Palestinian rights, by refusing to participate in Israeli sports-washing events and by joining the global campaign to boycott Puma due to its complicity in Israeli apartheid through its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association.  

Below are just some of the recent expressions of solidarity from athletes and teams around the world.


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