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Demand Justice for Palestine SHOW ISRAELI APARTHEID THE RED CARD! On March 26 Ireland is due to play Israel in Tel Aviv as part of the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers. The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) supported by the Movement against Israeli Apartheid is calling on the FAI and on Irish players & supporters to boycott this match in protest against Israel's continued refusal to respect Palestinian rights and International law. Show your support for justice and human rights by staying at home on March 26 and showing Israeli Occupation and Apartheid the red card! While Israeli sportsmen and women travel freely around the world, the Palestinian team has to surmount a labyrinth of checkpoints and border crossings just to play their home matches overseas. With no decent pitches on which to train and a suspended national league, their success in getting to the preliminary qualifiers cannot be overstated. Furthermore, Israeli authorities regularly prevent Palestinian players from attending international games. Last September five players were prevented from travelling to the World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan. Unable to play in Palestine the team travels to Doha, Qatar, for home games and trains in Ismailia, Egypt, more than 100 miles from the local Gaza players' homes. Israel's labyrinth of checkpoints makes just getting to and from training a journey fraught with danger. Players from the West Bank have to circumvent Israel's Apartheid Wall, take a bus to Amman (Jordan) and then fly to Cairo to meet up with their Gazan team mates. Travelling within the Gaza Strip can take hours because of the checkpoints. For instance, it took Palestinian players 40 hours to get to Rafah from the Egyptian border after last year's Uzbekistan match. Despite these hurdles, their recent success has inspired tens of thousands of Palestinian children to hope that there can be a future beyond the latest Israeli curfew. Palestine's future generations and sporting talent is being wasted by illegal occupation, restrictions on movement and collective punishment. Since September 2000 Israeli forces have killed over 3,565 Palestinians - 22% of whom were children. In the past year alone Israeli soldiers have killed 176 Palestinian children. Many more have been left seriously injured by snipers and tank shells - unable to kick a football again. Although youth under 17 make up more than 50% of the population of Palestine, there are few resources available to them under the occupation. Youth centres have been destroyed by the Israeli army. For instance, prior to the April 2002 reinvasion of West Bank towns and cities, the Old City of Nablus had 13 youth institutions. Now only 5 of these are operating. Despite the restrictions imposed on them, Palestinian children continue to defy Israeli curfews just to play soccer in the streets. Their steadfast resistance to occupation is mirrored in the determination of the Palestinian team to one day hear their national anthem played to tens of thousands of cheering supporters in a home ground in a Free Palestine. Not only sports, life for the Palestinian people is getting daily more unbearable. Ghettoised and isolated from each other behind checkpoints, settlements, Jewish-only roads and the Apartheid Wall, the Palestinian people is deprived of its land and livelihood or uprooted as refugees. Israel today stands in violation of over sixty UN resolutions as well as many international conventions on human rights. Through its continued military occupation of Palestinian territories, its policies of racial discrimination against its Palestinian citizens and its denial of Palestinian refugees' rights, Israel resembles a 21st century Apartheid South Africa. However, despite its refusal to abide by international law, Israel continues to enjoy preferential trading terms with the European Union and governments have been cowardly in its refusal to demand sanctions against Israel. Palestinian and international civil society is calling for a boycott of all Israeli goods and services, divestment and sanctions until Israel respects Palestinian rights. During the 1970s and 80s Irish sporting fans showed their opposition to Apartheid policies by boycotting sporting events with South Africa. Like the Dunnes stores' workers who refused to handle South African produce, the Irish people refused to give legitimacy to Apartheid by boycotting the Springboks tour. It's time for the people to demand justice for Palestine. We are calling upon the Irish soccer players ad supporters to stand up for justice and human rights by boycotting the March and June soccer matches Ireland vs. Israel. The Irish people should not allow Israel to use the football field to represent and assert itself and its occupation and apartheid politics in front of the international community. Irish football should not allow players and supporters to be manipulated as political pawns by a criminal Israeli regime, who show a total disregard for International Law, and continue to imprison the Palestinian people behind an 8 metre high Apartheid wall built on stolen Palestinian land, while at the same time, pretending to engage in peace talks. Empty seats and a major protest outside need to show the Israeli Government that there is no place for Apartheid in the 21st century. To endorse this call please email Your Comments |
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