On September 9, Tennis Canada announced that the Davis Cup Tie versus Israel would be played in a closed venue format. They claim this measure was “taken to ensure the tie can proceed as safely as possible without disruption.” Tennis Canada further stated, “Ensuring the safety of everyone involved, including athletes, fans, staff, volunteers, and minors, such as ball kids, remains our top priority.” These actions show that Tennis Canada’s cowardice and knowledge that this event is a serious issue.

This claim about “safety concerns” for “everyone involved,” including children, is rooted in anti-Palestinian racism (APR). Tennis Canada’s rhetoric further entrenches the notion that Palestinians (and by affiliation, their supporters) are violent people who seek to cause harm. This language was an active decision that demonstrates Tennis Canada’s commitment to the dehumanization and demonization of Palestinians.

Further, Tennis Canada cannot claim to care about safety, when they choose to protect a genocidal state over the Palestinian people. By not only allowing, but facilitating this tennis match with Israel, Tennis Canada, Halifax, and all organizing bodies involved are co-signing Israel’s actions. These actions include the killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians*, the near complete destruction of education, cultural, health, and sports institutions across Gaza, the forced starvation of an entire population, and a 225% rise in limb amputation cases in Gaza since October 2023.

As Issam Khalidi writes in “The Destruction of Sports Infrastructure in Gaza”: “Since October 2023, athletes and sports infrastructure have been impacted by the genocidal assault that Israel has inflicted on Gaza’s people and its built environment. In addition to the athletes and coaches who have been killed, sports clubs and arenas have been destroyed, and stadiums used for mass arrests and mass graves.”

We condemn Tennis Canada and the International Tennis Federation for caring more about the safety of Israeli athletes than of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, under relentless bombardment. Tennis Canada is not afraid of violence but of civil disruptions that will hold them accountable, disrupt “business as usual”, and cost them pride and money.
“In the end, Tennis Canada has followed Mayor Andy Fillmore in a cowardly flight from the people. Denied the public platform they craved, they now skulk behind closed doors, attempting to celebrate and endorse genocide in secret—shielded from the fury of the community and the judgment of the world.” – Halifax Committee Against Imperialist War and Genocide

We urge Tennis Canada to make a different choice while there is still time. Complicity is a choice, and Tennis Canada must refuse complicity in genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation, and apartheid by:

1. Cancelling the Davis Cup Tie match versus Israel
2. Call on the ITF to suspend Israel
3. Return the $50,000 awarded by Halifax City Council for this event

No sports-washing genocide, war crimes and apartheid.
Call for the immediate cancellation of this event

For latest updates on this campaign, follow No Love for Genocide on Instagram.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Must Demonstrate a Commitment to Universal Human Rights by Banning the United States and Israel from Hosting or Participating in International Sporting Events

The United States has become dangerous for members of the global community, and specifically for non-white/non-European people. The world is witnessing massive violations of human rights and the Constitution of the United States as masked agents using unmarked vehicles raid work places, homes, and places of public assembly to incarcerate and disappear Black, Brown, and Indigenous people and, in too many cases, denying them legal representation and basic information as to their whereabouts and wellbeing to their families and attorneys.

Under the current U.S administration anyone suspected of residing in and/or visiting the United States with or without “proper” documentation, including U.S. citizens, are being harassed, questioned about their political beliefs and even detained without due process. This repressive environment has created a sense of insecurity and anxiety for travelers to the U.S. including students, and even some diplomats of “foreign nations.” Even individuals while in transit to other countries have been subjected to harassment and intimidation.

But this is just part of the story.

The State of Israel, with direct assistance from the United States, is committing gross and profound violations of human rights and international law through military adventures, and carrying out an ongoing genocide in addition to other war crimes including, but not limited to collective punishment and starvation. This is on top of Israel’s eight decade pogrom of apartheid against the Palestinian people, as well as a perpetual disregard for the sovereignty and self determination of the Lebanese, Yemeni, Syrian, and Iranian people and their respective governments and bodies of leadership. The global community, everyday, witnesses Israel’s wanton slaughter of people and pillage of lives with the full endorsement of the United States which continues to fund, arm, and promote Israel’s tactics of terror and barbarity.

Both FIFA and the IOC have previously denied the hosting of, and participation in international events for nations and governments who have acted in ways they deem antithetical to their stated core values of human rights, anti-discrimination and global sustainability. For instance, both IOC and FIFA banned Germany and Japan from international competition following the second world war. Additionally, IOC banned the Republic of South Africa from participating in the Olympic Games from 1964 to 1992 due to the nation’s racist system of apartheid, and FIFA banned the nation from participating in its matches between 1961 and 1992 for the same reason. And, more recently, the IOC has instituted a standing ban on the Russian Federation from participating in its summer and winter games due to what is deemed an illegal invasion and occupation of Ukraine.

This raises the question as to why FIFA and IOC are affording the United States and the State of Israel with preferential treatment over other nations who have been and are currently sanctioned and banned from competition and the hosting of international sporting events for violations of the core values of both bodies.

Therefore, we, the undersigned, as members of the global community and people/institutions of conscience demand that FIFA and IOC withdraw the United States and the State of Israel from hosting or participating in international competition events until such time that both nations demonstrate a willingness to adhere to each agency’s core values and further operate in ways that adhere to international law and human rights.

No sports-washing genocide, war crimes and apartheid.
Call on FIFA and IOC to ban USA and Israel

La Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) et le Comité International Olympique (CIO) doivent manifester leur engagement en faveur des droits humains universels en excluant les États-Unis et Israël de l’organisation et de la participation à des manifestations sportives internationales

Les États-Unis sont devenus une menace pour les membres de la communauté internationale, en particulier pour les personnes non blanches/non européennes. Le monde assiste à des violations massives des droits humains et de l’état de droit ancré dans la constitution des États-unis : alors que des agents masqués à bord de véhicules banalisés font irruption sur les lieux de travail, les domiciles et les lieux publics pour arrêter et faire disparaître des personnes noires, racisées et autochtones, refusant dans de trop nombreux cas à leurs familles et à leurs avocats l’accès à un·e représentant·e légal et à des informations élémentaires quant à leur sort et leur état de santé.

Sous l’administration États-Uniennes actuelle, toute personne soupçonnée de résider ou de séjourner aux États-Unis avec ou sans papiers en règle, y compris des citoyen·nes états-unien·nes légalement documenté·es, est harcelée, interrogée sur ses opinions politiques et même détenue sans procédure légale. Ce climat répressif a créé un sentiment d’insécurité et d’anxiété chez des personnes voyageant aux États-Unis, y compris les étudiant·es, et même chez certain·es diplomates de nations étrangères. Même des personnes en transit vers d’autres pays ont été victimes de harcèlement et d’intimidation.

Mais ce n’est qu’une partie de l’histoire.

L’État d’Israël, avec l’aide directe des États-Unis, commet des violations flagrantes et sévères des droits humains et du droit international à travers ses opérations militaires, et perpétue un génocide en plus de mener d’autres crimes de guerre, incluant, mais sans s’y limiter, des punitions collectives et l’utilisation de la famine comme une arme de guerre. Ce n’est que le point d’orgue des huit décennies d’apartheid perpétré par Israël contre le peuple palestinien, ainsi que de son mépris perpétuel pour la souveraineté et l’autodétermination des peuples libanais, yéménite, syrien et iranien et de leurs gouvernements et dirigeants respectifs. La communauté internationale est chaque jour témoin du massacre arbitraire de civils et du saccage de vies humaines par Israël, avec le soutien total des États-Unis, qui continuent de financer, d’armer et de promouvoir les tactiques terroristes et barbares d’Israël.

Tant la FIFA que le CIO ont par le passé refusé d’accueillir ou de participer à des événements internationaux organisés par des nations ou des gouvernements ayant agi d’une manière jugée contraire aux valeurs fondamentales défendues par ces organisations, à savoir les droits humains, la lutte contre la discrimination et la durabilité à l’échelle mondiale. Par exemple, tant le CIO que la FIFA ont interdit à l’Allemagne et au Japon de participer à des compétitions internationales après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Ailleurs, le CIO a interdit à la République d’Afrique du Sud de participer aux Jeux olympiques entre 1964 et 1992 en raison du système raciste d’apartheid en vigueur dans ce pays. De son côté, la FIFA a interdit à ce pays de participer à ses matchs entre 1961 et 1992 pour la même raison. Plus récemment, le CIO a interdit à la Fédération de Russie de participer à ses jeux d’été et d’hiver en raison de ce qu’elle considère être une invasion et une occupation illégales de l’Ukraine.

Cela soulève la question suivante : pourquoi la FIFA et le CIO accordent-ils un traitement préférentiel aux États-Unis et à l’État d’Israël, alors que d’autres nations ont été ou sont actuellement sanctionnées et interdites de compétition et d’organisation d’événements sportifs internationaux pour avoir violé les valeurs fondamentales de ces deux instances ?

Par conséquent, nous, soussigné·es, en tant que membres de la communauté mondiale et personnes/institutions de conscience, exigeons que la FIFA et le CIO excluent les États-Unis et l’État d’Israël de l’organisation ou de la participation à des compétitions internationales jusqu’à ce que ces deux nations démontrent leur volonté d’adhérer aux valeurs fondamentales de chaque agence et d’agir de manière conforme au droit international et aux droits humains.

https://blackallianceforpeace.com
https://www.instagram.com/blackallianceforpeace
https://x.com/blacks4peace
https://www.facebook.com/BlackAllianceforPeace

Tennis Canada should have the political foresight, maturity, and the moral capacity to refuse what is business as usual. The Davis Cup does not occur or exist outside the context of Israel’s egregious actions. If the City of Halifax, the Province of Nova Scotia, the Scotiabank Centre, the International Tennis Federation and Tennis Canada, proceed with this match, all will be complicit. This event is nothingmorethan an effort to launder the reputation of a state committing genocide and guilty of illegal military occupation and apartheid.

No sports-washing genocide, war crimes and apartheid.
Call for the immediate cancellation of this event

For latest updates on this campaign, follow No Love for Genocide on Instagram.

Co-sponsors:
Labour for Palestine Halifax/Kjipuktuk
Palestine Solidarity Halifax
Nova Scotia Student Strike
Independent Jewish Voices Halifax
Canadian BDS Coalition and International BDS Allies

The Kick Out Apartheid campaign, aligned with the broader BDS movement, calls on fans, athletes, and communities to reject complicity and build grassroots pressure to end apartheid. Canada cannot continue to present itself as a defender of human rights while providing legitimacy to an apartheid regime on the international stage. Tennis Canada must be held accountable, and sponsors must be confronted for their silence. As in other global anti-apartheid struggles, people of conscience must seize this moment to disrupt business-as-usual. That means organizing protests, raising awareness in Halifax and beyond, and demanding that apartheid has no place in sport—or anywhere.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/canada-israel-davis-cup-world-group1-tie-halifax-1.7535769

Momentum is building with support for wearing Palestine arm bands among Arab teams—ask the AFC and its members to support this.

Keffiyehs and Palestine flags in the stadiums and on the streets show the strong support for ending the double standards for the Palestinian Football Association.

We have written to AFC telling them now is the time that the AFC hold FIFA and the UEFA accountable to suspend the Israeli Football Association its violations of the FIFA and UEFA statues.

President Al Khalifa as a FIFA Senior Vice-President needs to speak out and act with integrity. All members of the AFC need to insist President Al Khalifa acts.

Take one-minute to write to the AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and AFC General Secretary Datuk Seri Windsor John, and Asian Football Associations that you call on them to stand with Palestine.

Write your own letter

For many years, the Israeli Football Association has been in serious breach of FIFA’s own statutes as they relate to human rights, anti-discrimination, and equality for the promotion of football in a globally accessible and unifying manner.

FIFA has failed repeatedly for many years to address the Palestinian Football Association’s (PFA) documented complaints.

The Count Down is On. It is now the time for the AFC to take the lead given the Palestinian Football Association (FPA) is one of its members.

IFA was kicked out of AFC for its violations related to human rights, anti-discrimination, and inequality, and still the UEFA and FIFA has tolerated these violations for three decades.

This situation warrants the severest sanctions against IFA now. IFA did not learn the lesson because it feels it’s above the law and therefore is emboldened to continue its racism and breach of the rules with impunity. Allowing IFA to sport wash an apartheid state is a stain and embarrassment to all who care about the sport of football.

Initiating organizations

Canadian BDS Coalition

Just Peace Advocates

Friends of Sabeel North America

Palestine House (Palestinian Canadian Community Centre)

#KickOutApartheid

We finally can share with you this amazing news: our campaign has reached its goal, The Uruguayan national football team will not do its final preparation for the World Cup in Israel.

The AUF made its own official, public announcement, so there is no chance that the decision is changed, and Israel has been definitely discarded.

From Coordinación por Palestina team

Thank you deeply for all your contributions and devoted work and support to raise the scope and the projection of this campaign. Another BDS victory. Justice, Freedom and Equality for Palestinian people will prevail!

COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE “URUGUAY, DON’T GO!” CAMPAIGN:

URUGUAY IS NOT GOING TO ISRAEL!

In view of the official and public confirmation in the media that Uruguay will carry out the final preparation for the 2022 World Cup in Abu Dhabi, we celebrate the news:

URUGUAY IS NOT GOING!

As we said when we launched the campaign, we do not want the celeste T-shirt to be used to whitewash Israeli apartheid or to cover up its serious violations of human and collective rights of the Palestinian people.

We based our statement on the letter we delivered on June 3 at the AUF (Uruguay’s Football Association) headquarters, with the signature of more than 20 social, human rights and football-related organizations in our country.

In these months, the AUF received four letters from Palestinian football clubs and associations explaining the continuous and serious aggressions that Israel commits against Palestinian footballl and sports, plus countless messages from organizations around the world asking the national team not to lend itself to whitewash Israel’s crimes through football.

The many messages sent to the AUF include: from a former coach of the Palestinian national football team, from musician Roger Waters, from Jewish anti-Zionist groups in several countries, from religious institutions, from human rights organizations and solidarity groups from five continents, and from Palestine, Israel, South Africa, India, Canada, USA, Europe, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Turkey, and across our own region. We are deeply grateful for all the solidarity and support received from so many territories and people!

We hope that these messages have been read and heard by the national team players and the AUF leadership; and we are hopeful that they will be taken into account in the future. Because as we said from day one: you cannot paly with apartheid.

For a FREE PALESTINE, URUGUAY DOES NOT GO!

Coordinación por Palestina

Montevideo, October 12, 2022

During the Just Peace Advocates with Friends of Sabeel North America May 28 launch of “FIFA Suspend Israeli Apartheid” Roger Waters told the Uruguay Team – don’t do it. Don’t train or play any matches in Israel.

Take one-minute to write to the head of Puma Canada and Puma North America.

Be part of global #BoycottPuma campaign! Lets give Puma the boot!

Global sportswear manufacturer Puma is involved in violations of international law and human rights. Puma is the main sponsor of the Israel Football Association (IFA), which includes teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

New: In August 2021, Maccabi and Puma signed a multi-year partnership. The Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club and Puma have signed a five-year cooperation agreement worth millions of dollars. The Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv will play with Puma uniforms and with exact copies of the uniforms are available for purchase in the club’s stores.

Since 2019, contact has been made with the head of Puma in Canada calling for a response.

In December 2020 30+ organizations indicated

We join with other consumers in Canada and around the world in letting you know that we will not purchase Puma products until the company stops these unethical practices, and until the Puma logo is no longer featured on the website for the Israel Football Association. The first sentence in your “Code of Conduct” is “Puma respects human rights”; we call on Puma to live up to that commitment.

In the fall of 2021, Puma received more than a 1,000 letters.

Once again Puma tried to explain away their apartheid partnership. Read more.

So it is time to write again.  

With Amnesty International now joining Human Rights Watch and B’Tselm in saying that Israel is practicing apartheid, we call on Puma and other companies complicit in supporting apartheid to be sure they are not left on the wrong side of history!

Amnesty exposed the involvement of “almost all of Israel’s civilian administration and military authorities… in the enforcement of the system of apartheid against Palestinians across Israel, in the West Bank and Gaza,” as well as “against Palestinian refugees and their descendants outside the territory.” Puma surely does not want to be associated with apartheid.

Join in adding your voice by sending a letter HERE

Boycott Israeli Apartheid!

Letter campaign initiated by

https://bdscoalition.ca/

http://cpavancouver.org/

https://samidoun.net/

https://www.justpeaceadvocates.ca/

Organizations supporting the Dec. 2020 call included:

30+ organizations from around the world–US, Canada, Europe, UK, Africa, Palestine and elsewhere say “Uruguay Don’t Go”

On May 30, 2022, solidarity groups in Uruguay launched the campaign URUGUAY, NO VAYAS!  (URUGUAY, DON’T GO!) to ask the AUF (Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol — AUF, or Uruguayan Football Association)and the Uruguay men’s soccer team to NOT to accept the invitation from the State of Israel to carry out the final phase of preparation for the World Cup in that country and/or play a friendly match, on the way to Qatar.

On May 30, 2022, during the webinar “FIFA Suspend Israeli Apartheid”

Roger Waters told the Uruguay Team – don’t do it. Don’t train or play any matches in Israel.

On June 2, 2022, a letter signed by the main social organizations in Uruguay was delivered to the AUF headquarters.

On Friday, July 22, civil society in Uruguay went again to AUF headquarters to demand a response to their request for an interview about the plans of the national team regarding Israel. The sports media had already said that the friendly match with Israel’s team had been abandoned but had said nothing about whether they would be in Israel for the last week of training for the World Cup, on their way to Qatar.

After insisting, the Uruguay campaign organizers received a response from the AUF, informing that “no pre-World Cup activity is planned in Israel.” This response was welcomed but left ambiguity, because several weeks before the AUF President Ignacio Alonso said on TV that “this week” they would decide in which place the national team will do the last week of preparations and added that “likely it will be Abu Dhabi”. But still close to a month later, this has not been confirmed nor announced.

The Message:

Israel is an apartheid state. In this last year, the main Israeli and international human rights organizations have agreed: B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, as well as the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory,
Michael Lynk. Palestinian organizations have been denouncing Israeli apartheid for decades.

And you don’t play with apartheid. 

When South Africa lived under an apartheid regime, there was a powerful international campaign to sanction and isolate that country; and sport played a key role in that campaign.

Thus, that is why the Uruguay organizations are saying “we do not want our national team to stain the beloved light blue shirt by becoming an accomplice of apartheid. The invitations that Israel extends to play friendly matches or do training sessions in its territory are part of a campaign to whitewash its international image – increasingly deteriorated – and hide the crimes it commits daily against the Palestinian people, against its soccer players and athletes.”

Palestinian players are constantly attacked, killed, injured, mutilated, repressed, imprisoned by the Israeli colonial occupation. Their stadiums are bombed. Their freedom of movement is constantly violated so that they cannot assemble the national team (divided between Gaza and the West Bank), nor train, nor go abroad to participate in international competitions. Recently, Israeli forces have killed three teenage soccer players in the West Bank: Mohammad Ghneim (19), Saeed Odeh (16) and Thaer Yazouri (18). Who does not remember the four children killed by an Israeli missile   while playing soccer on the beach in Gaza? 

In addition, the Israeli Football Association (AFI) includes football clubs from illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, on land stolen from Palestinian communities. All Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal according to the UN and international humanitarian law (Fourth Geneva Convention and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court), which prohibits the transfer of the occupying population to the occupied territory, for which they constitute a war crime.

For all these reasons, today we grassroots, civil society, NGOs, faith groups, and others organizations from the international community say to the AUF and the Uruguayan team: listen to the call of your Palestinian colleagues, the Palestinian people and their athletes, and those in Uruguay and elsewhere in the world wo have said: Do not throw overboard the prestige of the Uruguay national team, and do not stain the sky by collaborating to cover up the crimes of Israeli apartheid. 

As organizations who respect the human rights of all, we publicly express our adherence to the campaign URUGUAY, NO VAYAS!  (URUGUAY, DON’T GO!)

The following organizations have signed:

Africa4Palestine
Al-Haadi Musalla
Al-Quds Committee Toronto
Arab Cause Solidarity Committee CSCA
Australian Palestinian Professionals Association
Australians For Palestine
Baltimore Nonviolence Center
BDS Vancouver Coast Salish Territories
Canadian BDS Coalition
Disciples Palestine-Israel Network (US & Canada)
Early Childhood Intercultural Partnerships, Victoria, British Columbia
Free Gaza Australia
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Good Shepherd Collective, Palestine
Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War, Canada
Human Rights for All (HR4A) Saskatchewan
Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
Israel Palestine TaskForce California Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church
Jewish Network for Palestine, UK
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, US
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste (Canada)
Justice for Palestinians Calgary
Kia Ora Gaza (Aotearoa/NZ)
Labor for Palestine, US
Let Kashmir Decide
Mavi Marmara Freedom and Solidarity Association, Türkiye
Mennonite Palestine Israel Network (MennoPIN)
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Montreal
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
SELFOP, UK
The Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church USA
The Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers – New Brunswick, New Jersey
United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Organizations can endorse HERE.

The Boycott Apartheid Israel Collective, EuroPalestine, AFPS, UJFP and Samidoun Région Parisienne were present along the route to show the support of the inhabitants of Île-de-France for the Palestinian people and their resistance.

As they gathered to demonstrate, about fifteen police officers prevented the supporters of justice in Palestine from reaching their planned site on the sidelines of the Tour. They were stopped and confined, subjected to identity checks, pressured to leave… for more than 2 hours, they were kept away from other spectators.

???? La police nasse à Paris des militants pro-palestiniens qui se mobilisent contre la présence de l'équipe israélienne au Tour de France ! Non à la criminalisation de la solidarité avec la Palestine, relayez largement ! #TDF2022 #IsraelApartheidTech pic.twitter.com/DSIpq0VsHe

— Samidoun Paris Banlieue (@SamidounPB) July 24, 2022

All of this repression is an admission of weakness on the part of the supporters of the Israeli occupation! A dozen Palestinian flags and bunches of balloons are enough to make them panic. At the same time, many people did not hesitate to show their support, coming to talk with us, shouting supportive slogans for Palestine or greeting the demonstrators even as they were being corralled by cops.

On the same day, two other groups managed to position themselves on the course and raise the Palestinian colors high. The first in Puteaux by the AFPS and their supporters, and a second in front of La Sorbonne.

The day before, messages of solidarity with the Palestinian people and for the boycott of Israel were seen in Nanterre on the route of the Tour. The slogans remained visible for several days.

???????? Dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche, des messages en soutien à la Palestine et pour le #BoycottIsrael ont été vus à Nanterre quelques heures avant le départ de la dernière étape du Tour de France. #IsraelApartheidTech #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/NTGYtBUS6z

— Samidoun Paris Banlieue (@SamidounPB) July 25, 2022

Throughout the route of the Tour de France, many waved the Palestinian flag high and also held up the many portraits of the prisoners of the Palestinian cause currently imprisoned in Israeli occupation prisons — or in France —  such as Ahmad Sa’adat, Salah Hamouri, Georges Abdallah , Raed Rayan and Khalil Awawdeh. Everywhere, the supporters of Palestine, the Palestinian people and their resistance, mobilized to oppose the sportswashing of the Zionist state.

We salute all the organizations, collectives and individuals who have made all these acts of solidarity flourish all over France. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

This team was founded and is funded by Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams. The objectives of this Israeli team are above all political, as he said himself in an interview in the newspaper Le Monde: “The members of the team are ambassadors of the country of Israel, which is the base of the crew. We use sport to create ties and promote the country’s image.”

Demonstrators explained exactly this to passers-by and residents of the neighborhood, distributing flyers in support of a boycott of the team and “Israeli” sports. We cannot allow sport to be used to whitewash Israeli colonialism and its war crimes!

Activists set up flags and banners not far from the main square of Courcelles, where they were met with great support from spectators and local residents. One woman even came to help the demonstrators hang up the banners and flags. On several occasions, car drivers, seeing the Palestinian flags, honked their horns as they passed.

The various sections of PJPO (Paix juste au Proche Orient) Coordination also demonstrated against “Israel Premier Tech” in the Tour de Wallonie, in Roeulx, Ecaussines, Ittre and Céroux-Mousty.

Below is the video of their action in Ittre:

The PJPO near Écaussinnes also mobilized with flags and banners:

We will be there again in the spring! 

The “Israel Premier Tech” team is also planned to be present in other cycling races in Belgium. Let’s organize ourselves everywhere in Belgium to be present in March and April at the Flèche wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Flèche brabançonne, Ghent-Wevelgem, the Grand Prix de l’Escaut, the Tour de Flandre and Bruges -De Panne.

Source : Charleroi-Palestine