Dublin Protest: Show Israeli Apartheid the Red Card

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Saturday June 04, 2005 23:44

by redjade

{ photos by redjade } ©

On 4 June, Irish soccer supporters should show Israeli Apartheid the Red Card
Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign - http://ipsc.ie

→ Boycott the Ireland-Israel football matches

On 4 June 2005, Ireland is due to play Israel in Dublin, as part of the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers. The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), supported by the Movement against Israeli Apartheid, is calling on Irish supporters who attend this match to use this opportunity to protest against Israel's continued refusal to respect Palestinian rights and International law:

[....]

Impact of Israeli Apartheid on Palestinian football

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. In September 2004, 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 teammates. 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.

more at
http://www.supportpalestine.org/soccerstatementMay.html

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Mar 26 2005
Fairplay for Palestine - Vigil at Israeli Embassy
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69125

On Saturday March 26th 12 noon-2pm, members of the Dublin Catholc Worker Community [ http://www.geocities.com/DublinCatholicWorker/ ] and the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Committee [ http://ipsc.ie/ ] held a protest vigil at the Israeli Embassy.