South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) fully endorses the statement issued by the South African Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (SA BDS) Coalition to ban Israel from the Paris Olympics (quoted below). It is unconscionable that a country, which is plausibly committing genocide and has been declared an Apartheid state, is allowed to participate in the Olympics. It flies in the face of every human rights principle within the Olympics charter.
Israel continuously contravenes the Geneva Conventions, murdering more than 16 000 children, demolishing houses, hospitals, schools, bakeries, water purification plants and all infrastructure required for living in Gaza. This makes a mockery of the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship, and is completely antithetical to the underlying purpose of building a better world.
Russia and Belarus have been banned due to their involvement in the Ukraine war. Such bans, however, merely testify to Western hypocrisy when, despite its flagrant and multitudinous violations of international law, Israel is allowed to participate.
Beyond a call to respect international law, our demand is driven by the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, that is, healing the world, not dealing in death and destruction as we are witnessing in Israel’s actions in Gaza, the West Bank and now also in Lebanon.
We urge the South African government to call for banning Israel from the Olympics, FIFA and all international sporting bodies. There must be no normal sport for an abnormal, genocidal, apartheid Israel.
For media queries, please contact us at [email protected].
Media Alert: South Africa Sports Boycott Apartheid Israel Campaign
Ban Apartheid Israel from the Olympics and all international sporting bodies NOW!
Today is the official opening of the Paris Olympics 2024. Today marks the 294th day of the ongoing Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli soccer team played its first Olympic match yesterday. On Wednesday Hazem Al-Ghalban was killed by Israel’s relentless bombardment on Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. The 26-year-old defender scored 7 goals in his career and put on stellar displays with his team, Ittihad Khan Younis, before Oct 7th, placed 3rd in the league.
Hundreds of Palestinian athletes have been killed during the last nine months of the genocide. 240 Palestinian footballers have been killed by genocidal Israel, including 67 minors. 49 sports facilities have been destroyed, 15 footballers injured and 12 jailed in Gaza.
It is unconscionable to millions around the world that a state committing genocide can continue to participate in the premier global sporting event whose Charter states: “Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Apartheid South Africa before the 1964 Olympic games. It is a disgrace that 60 years later, the apartheid Israeli state is allowed to ‘sports-wash’ genocide, the most egregious crime against humanity, by participating in the Paris Olympic games.
The recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory by apartheid Israel puts obligations on the international community. All states, local governments, corporations and institutions must immediately end all forms of complicity with Israel’s illegal military occupation, its ever more brutal genocide in Gaza, and the root cause of all this: Israel’s 76-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid. Israel cannot be allowed to participate like a normal state in the Paris Olympics.
John Minto, former National Chair of Halt All Racist Rugby Tours that protested and disrupted apartheid South African rugby tours in New Zealand and now National Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa said: “Sport is central to a country’s national identity because of its powerful ties to national pride and cultural identity. It was therefore the sports boycott of South Africa which brought the greatest pressure from outside the country to end apartheid. It was sport which became a weathervane in the anti-apartheid struggle.”
We are sure that South African honorary IOC member, Sam Ramsamy, who was himself instrumental in getting apartheid South Africa kicked out of the Olympics, acknowledges the political and moral duty of all South Africans to voice their support for the Palestinian call for an international sports boycott.
We are confident that Team South Africa will do us proud and that Barry Hendricks, President of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), Anant Singh, South African representative on the IOC and Gayton McKenzie, Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture will publicly support the Palestinian Olympic Committee’s open letter to Mr Thomas Bach, head of the IOC, to immediately exclude Israel from the Paris Olympics as it continues to commit genocide against the Palestinian people.
We further call on Minister Mckenzie to implement sports and cultural boycott policies and on all government departments to ensure South Africa abides by its international obligations to end complicity, for a military and trade embargo and to support South Africa’s efforts in the ICJ, ICC and in the United Nations to push for sanctions, end Israel’s impunity and hold Israel and individuals responsible for genocide accountable.
Genocide is not a game: Ban Israel from the Olympics!
For more information please contact:
- Naazim Adam: 082 336 6711
- Rina King: 082 854 5692
- Saydz Sayed: 073 241 3260
- Nurain Saloogee: 082 947 7758
- Hassen Lorgat: 082 362 6180
- Martin Jansen: 082 870 2025