More than 300 Palestinian sports clubs and dozens of major Palestinian civil society organisations are launching a call to ban Israel from the Olympic Games, starting with the games in Paris this summer, Al Jazeera reports.
The Palestinian clubs are calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to “apply its principles and fulfil its obligations by banning Israel from the next Olympic Games to be held in Paris in July 2024, until it ends its grave violations of international law, particularly its system of apartheid and its ongoing genocide in Gaza,” according to a statement from the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) Movement.
The Palestinian clubs include men’s and women’s football, basketball, and volleyball teams, and those whose players have been killed by Israeli bullets.
“In the face of this televised genocide, there is no longer any excuse for international sporting or non-sporting bodies to not expel Israel, or at a minimum suspend its membership.
“To allow Israel, in the midst of a genocide, to participate in the upcoming Olympic games would signal to the international community that the IOC approves of the gravest of war crimes.”
