19 June 2024
Thomas Bach
President
And Executive Board Members
International Olympic Committee
Kia ora koutou,
The enormous power of sporting boycotts must be used against Israel’s genocidal war
MLN is a coalition of organizations and individuals from Australia, India, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Palestine, South Africa, South Korea and the United Kingdom which aims to spread knowledge about Palestine in the areas and regions termed as the Global South. We are writing to you because sport, and sporting boycotts, have an enormous power for the good of humanity – and we believe this power should be used to support the struggle of the people of Palestine.
Sport touches everyone.
When Papwa Sewgolum was forced to stand in the rain outside the whites-only clubhouse to receive the winner’s trophy after the 1965 Natal Open golf tournament, millions of people around the world saw the ugly reality of life under apartheid.
When Nelson Mandela, in his prison cell on Robben Island where he had been for 16 years, heard the 1981 rugby game between Waikato and the Springboks had been called off because anti-apartheid protestors had invaded the pitch, he said the prisoners were jubilant. They grabbed the bars of their cell doors and rattled them around the prison. Mandela said it was like the sun had come out.
When South Africa was suspended and then expelled from the Olympic movement, the positive power of sport, and sports boycotts, was demonstrated. This intervention helped to bring a quicker end to apartheid in South Africa. Such positive impacts have been demonstrated time and again in international sport.
Like apartheid South Africa, Israel uses its participation in international sport as a tool for normalizing its systematic discrimination against Palestinians. In response, Palestinians are making the same calls for boycotts as black South Africans did. Palestinian civil society groups are urging us to isolate Israel and hold it accountable for breaches of international law and crimes against humanity.
The indiscriminate killing being conducted in Gaza, described by many as the first live-streamed genocide, is just the latest example of industrial-scale slaughter of Palestinians by Israel’s leaders. In January this year Israel killed the Palestinian Olympic football coach, Hani Al Masdar, and destroyed the office of the Palestinian Olympic Committee in Gaza.
We note the board says it is “politically neutral but is not apolitical” and the world is aware of the steps the board took to hold Russia to account after its invasion of Ukraine.
Last year the IOC banned official representation from Russia and Belarus at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Athletes from the two countries were told they cannot compete under their countries’ flags but can compete only as “Individual Neutral Athletes” provided they do not “actively support the war” and are not “contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies”.
We are asking the board to hold Israel to account using the same steps that it has taken in the case of Russia and Belarus.
It is unconscionable for Israel to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics given what humanity has witnessed these past eight months. We believe Israel should be suspended from international sports organisations and international sporting events until it ends its grave violations of international law – particularly its apartheid rule and the genocidal policies/actions it is perpetrating in Gaza.
As have we noted, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee took firm action when a European country was attacked. We, and as polls attest the great mass of humanity, expect the board to take the same steps against a country involved in indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children.
Lives, no matter the nationality, ethnicity or religion, deserve the same consideration from the Olympic movement.
We look forward to hearing from you.
In solidarity, justice and peace.
Chandra Muzaffar
Hassanal Noor Rashid
Amjad Alqasis
Professor Joseph Camilleri
Professor Junaid Ahmad
Lisa Pires
Lana Latour
Lubnah Shomali
Na’eem Jeenah
Nasser Ibrahim
Ranjan Solomon
Nida Arif
Rifat Kassis
Professor Shad Faruqi
Nor Hakim Ismail
Professor Ilan Pappe
Steve Liddle
John Minto