Tell Football Teams: There’s No Fair Play in Apartheid Israel

E action 2022 friendlies

The world of sports is increasingly standing up for Palestinian rights.

Yet some football teams are positioning themselves squarely on the wrong side of history, allowing their celebrated names to be used to sportswash Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

Juventus, Atlético Madrid, AS Roma, Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain, and Nantes plan matches in apartheid Israel in the coming weeks. Uruguay plans to train in apartheid Israel ahead of the World Cup this fall, and Israeli media is reporting a match with Spain.

Palestinian clubs, whose players have lost lives and limbs to Israeli soldiers and military assaults, have written to the clubs urging them to cancel these complicit matches.

Add your voice to theirs.

Write to all 8 clubs now. There’s no fair play in apartheid Israel.

Al Khader FC players Mohammad Ghneim (19) and Zaid Ghneim (14) and Palestine Football Academy prodigy Thaer Yazouri (18) were killed by Israeli soldiers in April and May this year.

Balata FC’s player Saeed Odeh (16) was killed by Israeli soldiers last year.

The Palestine Amputee Football Association is made up of players who have lost limbs to Israel’s military assaults on Gaza.

It is for these and other players, and for Palestinians young and old who continue to dream, that the Palestinian teams have vowed not to be silent and to draw a moral picket line.

Join them.

Email the 8 clubs: Cancel the matches. Do it for Mohammad, Zaid, Thaer, Saeed, the amputees, and far too many others.

Keep saying their names. And help kick apartheid out of football.

Write to Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Roma, Tottenham, PSG, Nantes, Uruguay and Spain

2,880 people has sent this email already.

2,880

Don’t sportswash Israeli apartheid

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Dear players, management and staff,

I add my voice to the Palestinian teams urging you not to play or train in apartheid Israel.

Israel, just like other oppressive regimes, invites celebrated teams such as yours because it knows these sporting events are a golden opportunity to sportswash its apartheid regime. They help provide apartheid Israel with the cover it needs to continue its prolonged brutal oppression of all Palestinians, including footballers, with impunity.

Playing a match today in apartheid Israel, as it continues to kill, maim, and arrest young Palestinian footballers, goes against the very values underlying sports in general, and the beautiful game in particular. It would be like playing a match in apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.

The world of sports sanctioned Russia over its illegal, months-old invasion of Ukraine. It’s long past time to end the hypocrisy by taking a similar position against Israel’s decades-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid.

Playing the match in apartheid Israel is a choice. You can choose to stand on the right side of history, joining an increasing numbers of teams and athletes standing up for Palestinian rights. Or you can choose to play for Team Apartheid and have that forever in the history book of your club.

Listen to the Palestinian teams. Cancel the match. Do it for:

Zaid Ghneim, age 14, Al Khader FC, killed by Israeli soldiers, May 2022

Thaer Yazouri, age 18, Palestinian Football Academy, killed by Israeli soldiers, May 2022

Mohammad Ghneim, age 19, Al Khader FC, killed by Israeli soldiers, April 2022

Saeed Odeh, age 16, Balata FC, killed by Israeli soldiers, May 2021

The players of the Palestine Amputee Football Association who lost limbs to Israel’s military assaults on Gaza.

There’s no fair play in apartheid Israel.

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