OVERVIEW
Israel's regime of settler colonialism and apartheid, which has oppressed Indigenous Palestinians since 1948, prevents Palestinians from practicing their sports.
During Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza, the Israeli military occupied Al Yarmouk stadium, transforming it into a detention, torture, and interrogation center before completely destroying it.
Palestinian players and athletes are routinely attacked, imprisoned, and killed. Athletes are denied freedom of movement to attend their own matches, competitions, and training. Palestinian stadiums and sports infrastructures have been bombed and destroyed. Israel even prevents sports equipment from being imported and sports facilities from being developed.
Racism against Palestinians is institutionalized in Israeli sports – from segregated youth football leagues to anti-Palestinian hate from fan clubs that go routinely unpunished.
In addition, Israeli football and basketball clubs based in illegal settlements are allowed to compete in official Israeli leagues, making international governing bodies FIFA and FIBA complicit in Israel’s violations of international law.
Despite all this, Western-dominated sports bodies have looked the other way, refusing to take action. More than 300 Palestinian sports clubs and dozens of civil society organizations are calling to #BanIsrael from the Olympics. Join us as we seek to ban Israel from international sports forums, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA until it ends its grave crimes against Palestinians and its attacks on Palestinian sports.
WHY?
Israel’s decades-long regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid has for decades denied Palestinians their basic rights, including cultural rights. Israel has killed and maimed hundreds of Palestinian athletes, including during its genocidal assault on Gaza that started in October 2023.
But well before Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, Israel had deliberately and systematically destroyed Palestinian stadiums and sports infrastructures and detained Palestinian players and athletes. It has restricted their freedom of movement, banning Palestinian athletes in the occupied West Bank from training with their counterparts in the Gaza Strip and subjecting them to interrogations at checkpoints when traveling across the West Bank or abroad to take part in international competitions. Israeli forces have in the past deliberately targeted the feet of teenage Palestinian footballers with live ammunition.
Meanwhile, Israel allows football and basketball teams based in its illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land to play in its official leagues. FIFA, FIBA, and the IOC have failed to take action against Israel for its inclusion of these illegal teams in its official leagues and its attacks on Palestinian sports. By failing to act, these sporting bodies are allowing Israel to sportswash its forced displacement of Palestinians, its apartheid regime, and its genocidal military assaults on Palestinians. These same sporting bodies immediately imposed sanctions on Russia shortly after its illegal invasion of Ukraine, while not only refusing to hold Israel accountable for its decades-long record of grave crimes against Palestinians, which now include genocide but actively shielding it from accountability as well.
Palestinians are calling to #BanIsrael from global sports, just as apartheid South Africa was.
Israel’s apartheid regime has killed and maimed dozens of Palestinian footballers and athletes, in its repeated military assaults on besieged Gaza, in particular the Gaza Genocide, and its attacks across the occupied West Bank.
In 2018, the Palestinian Amputee Football Association was founded in Gaza and consists mainly of players who lost limbs to repeated Israeli military assaults on Palestinians in Gaza and sniper fire at peaceful protests.
Palestinians have long complained to sporting bodies such as FIFA and the IOC about Israeli attacks against Palestinian sports, including arrest, torture, denial of movement permits of athletes, the bombing of football stadiums, in addition to routine disruptions of the import of sports equipment.
Israel’s illegal wall, colonial settlements, as well as its policy of siege, curfew and military roadblocks have systematically obstructed the practice of sports by Palestinians and denied Palestinian athletes regular training and participation in matches and tournaments, at home and abroad.
Moreover, Israel consistently prevents Palestinian athletic teams from traveling and denies entry of international athletes into the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel has routinely arrested Palestinian players before games. In 2012, Israel demolished a community center in Silwan which served two football groups and 300 children.
Furthermore, Palestinian football players have been forced to end their sports careers after being shot by Israeli forces in the legs.
Israeli football teams enact racist policies toward Palestinians. The Israel Football Association has failed to address and sanction its constituent teams for tolerating and perpetuating racism and extremist hate speech. Below are a few examples of these discriminatory strategies.
Guy Levi, former coach for the prominent Israeli team, Beitar Jerusalem, said he would not bring a Palestinian citizen of Israel to the team, noting, “Even if there were a player who fit in professionally, I would not bring him in.”
The team’s fans have habitually attacked Palestinians and were witnessed chanting “death to the Arabs” at matches against Palestinian teams. Amit Ben Shushan, a football player with Beitar Jerusalem, also sang with the audience, "I hate Arabs" when they won the Israeli Cup in 2009.
The Israel Football Association (IFA) runs segregated youth leagues based on national origin, keeping Palestinian and Israeli youth from playing together.
While Israel deliberately destroys Palestinian football stadiums and detains Palestinian players, it allows teams based in illegal settlements to play in its football and basketball leagues.
Israeli settlements are considered a war crime under international humanitarian law. The UN special adviser on sport for development and peace, 66 members of the European Parliament, 30 members of the Swiss Parliament, more than 40 members of the Danish Parliament, 38 members of the British House of Commons, civil society organizations, football fans, and Human Rights Watch have all urged FIFA to resolve the issue of settlement clubs.
An April 2016 report commissioned by FIFA and written by John Ruggie recommends that FIFA implement the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights throughout its activities. These principles outline businesses' human rights responsibilities. This includes excluding Israeli settlement teams or suspending the IFA from FIFA.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented the grave consequences of Israeli settlements, noting: “They are located on land that has been unlawfully taken from Palestinians, they exploit natural resources that belong to Palestinians but are allocated in a discriminatory manner in favor of Israelis, and they are part of a discriminatory regime that privileges Israeli businesses while blocking Palestinian businesses, social, and cultural institutions and infrastructure from developing.”
HRW’s report on Israeli settlement teams highlights the support the IFA provides for the sustainability of the settlements despite contravening international accords. As a result, the IFA “engages in business activity that supports the settlements. Settlement football clubs provide part-time employment and recreational services to settlers, making the settlements more sustainable, thus propping up a system that exists through serious human rights violations.”
