Meet Palestinian Soccer Star Mahmoud Sarsak at the Crossroads Women's Centre - later today

2-4pm Sunday, 26 May 2013 Crossroads Women’s Centre 25 Wolsey Mews, London NW5 2DX
We have just been given the precious opportunity to have the first UK public meetingwith Mahmoud Sarsak, Palestinian hunger-striker and footballer. In 2009 Mahmoud, then age 22, was arrested and detained in Israel without charge or trial.  In 2012, after three years of torture and indefinite incarceration, he went on a heroic three-month hunger strike.  Israel denied him proper medical treatment and offered him release only if he agreed to exile, but he refused.
Mahmoud was part of a mass prisoners’ hunger strike (over 2,000 Palestinians), which forced Israel to promise an end to solitary confinement, the right to family visits from Gaza and that administrative detention would not be renewed without evidence brought before a court.   Mahmoud continued even after the mass hunger strike ended as he was the only prisoner held under "Combatant Law" – even more notorious than administrative detention.  He was supported internationally, including by Eric Cantona and other footballers, and by Ken Loach, Noam Chomsky and many others.  He ended his hunger strike only when he won his right to stay in Palestine. Yesterday, as part of the Red Card Israeli Racism protest (also known as Red Card Israeli Apartheid), Mahmoud and Alexei Sayle handed a letter to Michel Platini, president of the Union of European Football Associations, urging him to cancel the planned under-21 European football tournament in Israel. Islington Friends of Yibna,  Payday men’s network and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network For more information:  07816 251 377 or 07880 731 865

UEFA Protest London Friday 24 May, 2013

From Red Card Israeli Racism:

PROTESTERS TARGET UEFA ANNUAL CONGRESS OVER GAMES IN ISRAEL

Posted on 13 May, 2013 by admin

PROTESTERS TARGET UEFA ANNUAL CONGRESS OVER GAMES IN ISRAEL

- Protest rally 11.00 – 16.00 FRIDAY MAY 24  Grosvenor House Hotel W1K7TN

- Ken Loach calls under21 finals in Israel “shocking” and “ill-advised”

- Author/comedian Alexei Sayle agrees with football stars: Israel staging finals gives the country unwarranted reward

- Campaigners charge UEFA with condoning entrenched discrimination

- Platini urged to meet Palestinian footballer and former political prisoner Mahmoud Sarsak

As England ‘s Under-21 team prepares for the UEFA Finals in Israel on June 5-18, campaign group Red Card Israeli Racism is charging European football’s governing body with condoning Israeli discrimination against Palestinians and has called a protest outside the UEFA Annual Congress in London on 24th May.

Filmmaker Ken Loach, who has supported the campaign for more than a year, said: “It is shocking that UEFA has ignored calls from the Palestinian Football Association and many football clubs, as well as anti-racist human rights campaigners across Europe , to reconsider its ill-advised decision. UEFA should recognise the plight of Palestinian footballers and the intolerable difficulties that are put in their way by the illegal Israeli Occupation.’”

Echoing many footballers, including Demba Ba and Eden Hazard from Europa League winners Chelsea, author and comedian Alexei Sayle said hosting the tournament was “a reward and honour” which Israel did not deserve because of “its cruel and harsh actions against the Palestinian people.”

Campaigners are calling on congress delegates to give a hearing to visiting Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, who staged a prolonged hunger strike during his third year of detention without trial in Israel . His plight drew support from Sepp Blatter, Eric Cantona and others, leading to his eventual release last July.

Referring to the decision by renowned scientist Stephen Hawking not to join in an international conference in Israel because of its treatment of Palestinians, Red Card campaign coordinator Geoffrey Lee said: “UEFA should follow Hawking’s lead and refuse to be part of one of Israel ‘s window-dressing exercises. If we condemn racist chanting against black players in Europe , why do we condone a whole system of racism against Palestinians, created and enforced by successive Israeli governments?”

Red Card Israeli Racism is part of a coalition of groups modelling themselves on the campaign for a sporting boycott of South Africa during the apartheid era.

For further information contact:
Paul Collins – 07402 742593
paul.collins93@yahoo.com

Shamiul Joarder – 07813 882026
shamiul@foa.org.uk

Notes for editors
*** Alexei Sayle is available for interviews via the above contacts ***

1. Protest about UEFA’s decision to hold the 2013 u-21 in Israel began soon after it was announced, with a letter to UEFA President Michel Platini from 42 Palestinian football clubs. An open letter from prominent Europeans soon followed.

2. Last June, as instances of racism and human rights abuses in Ukraine and Poland prompted UK government ministers to boycott some Euro 2012 matches, Mahmoud Sarsak’s hunger strike brought the case against Israel hosting an international tournament to world attention.

3. Last November saw an unprecedented public statement by international star Frédéric Kanouté and 51 fellow footballers, including Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Demba Ba.  Prompted by an eight-day bombardment of Gaza during which Israeli forces killed more than 140 Palestinians included a number of boys playing football, and destroyed sports facilities, the players wrote that holding the Under-21 Finals in Israel “[would] be seen as a reward for actions contrary to sporting values.”

4. Israeli discrimination against Palestinian athletes is long standing and ongoing. Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Football Association, said during Sarsak’s hunger strike, “For athletes in Palestine , there is no real freedom of movement and the risks of being detained or even killed are always looming before their eyes.” He questioned the commitment of the  Israeli government to FIFA regulations and the international Olympic charter.  Israel ‘s extensive system of racist laws is thoroughly documented.

5. Teddy Stadium, where England ’s under 21s are scheduled to play in June, is home to Israeli team Beitar Jerusalem, whose hard-core supporters recently made news for their hostile reaction to the signing of its first ever Muslim players.Moshe Zimmermann, a sports historian at Hebrew University, said, “The fact is that the Israeli society on the whole is getting more racist, or at least more ethnocentric, and this is an expression.”

6. After a period of recovery from his ordeal, Mahmoud Sarsak has been touring Europe highlighting the difficulties facing Palestinian sports people such as imprisoned fellow footballers Omar Abu Rouis and Mohammed Nimr, and top 90′s player Zakaria Daoud Issa who recently died of cancer while in Israeli custody. Many Palestinian political prisoners are currently on hunger strike. Sarsak is expected in the UK from May 24 to June 30 on a tour supported by leading members of Show Racism the Red Card, Footballers Against Racism in Europe and FIFPro. Please address requests for interviews with Sarsak to the contacts above.

7. Red Card Israeli Racism is part of a Europe-wide network of groups committed to the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel as long as it denies freedom, justice and equality to Palestinians.

8. Protesters outside the UEFA congress on Friday May 24 will include delegations from France, Italy and Belgium and will hand in petitions, letters and statements from across Europe.

Kick Israel out of UEFA

Some important announcements from the Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods website:

RED CARD ISRAELI RACISM CAMPAIGN TARGETS UEFA CONGRESS

Posted on 16 March 2013 by jews4big | Leave a comment

PROTEST at UEFA’s Annual Congress in London on May 24

SUPPORT Mahmoud Sarsak’s UK tour in May-June 2013

PARTICIPATE in the Goals for Peace tournament on May 19

BUILD the campaign to Red Card Israeli Racism

The Red Card Israeli Racism campaign is escalating its activities as the June 5-18 dates for UEFA’s under-21 men’s football final in Israel draw near.

The London-based campaign is now part of a European coalition of groups working to expose the folly of staging a major competition in a state which shows contempt for the rights of Palestinian football players and supporters.  Beyond June, Red Card has the potential to develop into a long-term challenge to Israel ’s membership of UEFA – the overarching body for European football.

The June tournament will probably still go ahead, but the case against it has gained prominence over recent months.  Frederic Kanoute and 51 other leading professional players issued a statement deploring Israel ’s attacks on Gaza in November, saying they called into question holding the games in Israel . In January, a well publicised action at the UEFA offices in Nyon , Switzerland , forced UEFA president Michel Platini to give pro-Palestinian protesters a hearing after two years of turning a deaf ear to the campaign.

In March, the congress of the French trade union CGT-INRA passed a resolution contesting UEFA’s decision to stage the competition in Israel and a former French minister of sport, Marie-George Buffet, wrote to Platini calling on him to hold it elsewhere.

In the UK , football media are opening up space for discussion of the issues, such as this piece on the FootyMatters website, written by members of the student group Football Beyond Borders. It prompted a reaction from the Jewish Chronicle, insisting that UEFA would “stand firm” against our campaign.

FBB has held two well-attended public meetings in London to mobilise support for the campaign.

The Red Card petition now has 6,500 signatures, and rising.

The UK will become the focus of intense campaigning action as UEFA holds its annual congress in London on Friday May 24. A major demonstration is planned for the occasion.

The men’s and women’s Champions League finals will be taking place around the same time and Friends of al-Aqsa are organising a 16-plus anti-racist tournament in east London – Goals for Peace – for up to 20 six-a-side teams.

Mahmoud Sarsak, the national Palestinian team player whose release from unlawful detention we campaigned for last Spring, plans to be in England at that time as part of an extended European tour. He aims to visit Norway , Spain , France , Italy , the UK and Ireland between April and June, meeting players, officials, fans, politicians, journalists and activists.

The intended dates for the English leg of his tour are May 16-26, visiting Scotland until June 8 and moving on to Ireland before returning to his home in Gaza later in the month.

The campaign is working to build support for the tour through mainstream organisations such as FARE (Footballers Against Racism in Europe), Kick It Out and Show Racism the Red Card, trade unions and faith groups, as well as pro-Palestinian and human rights bodies.

Red Card Israeli Racism was established in London in 2011 by members of PSC, Friends of al-Aqsa and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods. It currently (March 2013) has a steering group representing those organisations but is inviting much wider participation to build a sporting boycott campaign alongside other BDS groups around Europe .

Contact: info@rcir.org.uk

Got all that? Good.  But just in case you didn't get all that, here's the Red Card Petition link again and here's a link to the Red Card Israeli Racism website.

Anti-apartheid sports boycott and the lessons for Palestine Solidarity

Here's a good write-up of the meeting at SOAS I announced a few days ago:

Lessons of the anti-apartheid sports boycott for Palestinian solidarity

Posted on February 8, 2013by Gavin Brown

On Tuesday 5 February, Helen Yaffe represented the Non-Stop Against Apartheid project at a meeting organised by Football Beyond Borders at SOAS.  The meeting asked, “What can the boycott of the U21 UEFA Football Championships in Israel learn from the Anti-Apartheid Movement?” Here we offer a report on the evening’s discussions.

The meeting opened with the inspiring, informative and emotive film Have you heard from Johannesburg: Fair Play (2010) about the worldwide campaign to get apartheid South Africa banned from international sports competitions. It focused first on efforts, initiated by South African activist Dennis Brutus, to have the country expelled from the Olympics and later how activists mobilized to stop the South African rugby team – the Springboks – from playing in Britain, Australia and New Zealand in the late 1960s. Following the film, Patsy Pillar, a white South African woman, one of the founders of the exile-initiated boycott movement in Britain in 1959, reflected on how this strategy took roots in Britain and developed into an international solidarity movement.

Helen Yaffe’s presentation about the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group (CLAAG) briefly explained its origins and purpose, and summarized the types of boycott and solidarity actions the group engaged in. Illustrated with photos from the Non-Stop Picket,occupations of South African Airways and other protests, Helen then drew out the key principles and/or lessons which could be adopted in boycott campaigning:

• Boycotts should be part of active political campaign, not a passive action by individual consumers;
• Use all available channels simultaneously, from pressure group tactics to direct action in the streets;
• Make the campaign/boycott relevant to people in Britain by relating to racial, class and sexual oppression – identification will increase participation;
• Defence campaigns are vitally important – success brings publicity and builds confidence. (There were over 700 arrests on the Non-Stop Picket of the South African Embassy, but the group won 90% of court cases);
• Educate activists. They must know what they are fighting for and against, especially with regard to the role of British political/economic interests;
• Don’t be held back by disapproval from ‘respectable’ forces;
• Internal democracy encourages participation: Everyone should have speaking rights; there should be no censorship of literature or groups.

Springbok Reception Committee banner (Source: City Group)

Next Maha Rezeq, a Palestinian activist described how Palestinians grow up in struggle and affirmed the importance of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. The final panelist was Geoff Lee from the Red Card to Israel campaign, who detailed their work to date in demanding the relocation of the under 21s UEFA football championship, which is due to take place in Israel in June 2013. When he mentioned that UEFA are meeting in London on 24 May, it was suggested that this would provide an ideal opportunity for a vibrant protest, inspired by those thousands of courageous and uncompromising anti-apartheid activists in the late 1960s, to demand that the games are moved out of Israel.

The chair, Timesh Pillay, did an excellent job of opening, summarising and encouraging participation, and there were numerous questions and comments from the audience of around 50, mostly students, several specifically about the Red Card campaign. One of the more general questions asked whether the treatment of Palestinians by Israel could be compared to the apartheid system in South Africa. Helen referred to comments from Desmond Tutu, a black leader of the liberation movement in South Africa, who condemns ‘Israeli apartheid’, and she questioned the absence of a powerful boycott campaign against Israel like the one against apartheid in South Africa.

There are just four months left to build an effective boycott campaign to demand the relocation of the under 21s UEFA football championships. Individuals and groups are encouraged to get involved. The next meeting takes place at SOAS on Thursday 14 February at 7pm.

 Got that?  There's another meeting on 14th February 2013 at SOAS, presumably in the same room but I'll let you know.

SOAS Palestine Society, Football Beyond Borders, and Red Card Israeli Racism Present:

From Facebook:

• • 

    Tuesday
  • 

    19:00 until 21:00

• Khalili Lecture Theatre, Lower Ground Floor, SOAS

• Join us for a special and timely event: a screening of Fair Play, a documentary about the sports boycott of Apartheid in South Africa, followed by a discussion with four guests. Fair Play is a documentary from the highly esteemed series Have You Heard From Johannesburg by Connie Fields: http://www.clarityfilms.org/haveyouheardfromjohannesburg/

UEFA hears case against Israel hosting European games

From the Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods website:

PROTEST FORCES PLATINI TO DEFEND UEFA UNDER-21 FINALS IN ISRAEL

Posted on 27 January 2013 by jews4big | Leave a comment

RED CARD ISRAELI RACISM NEWS RELEASE

See also Ali Abunimah’s report on Electronic Intifada

(Pictures courtesy of Euro-Palestine)

Michel Platini obliged to share the limelight with a Palestinian football shirt held by French campaigner Olivia Zemor

Campaigners occupy the reception area at the headquarters of
European football’s governing body UEFA

A protester’s poster highlights Israel’s detention of football players

PROTEST FORCES PLATINI TO DEFEND UEFA UNDER-21 FINALS IN ISRAEL

• Pro-Palestinian campaigners occupy entrance to UEFA’s Swiss HQ

• Platini says he will “think about” Israel hosting Euro 2013

• 6,000 signature petition handed over, more protests planned

Dozens of pro-Palestinian campaigners brought growing anger over Israel hosting this year’s European under-21 football finals right to UEFA’s door on Friday (January 25), forcing the organisation’s president Michel Platini to grant them a hearing at his headquarters in Nyon , Switzerland.

Platini had previously spurned calls from sources as diverse as the president of the Palestinian Football Association, internationally renowned film-maker Ken Loach and a list of more than 50 football stars including Frederic Kanoute and Didier Drogba, not to reward Israel for its flouting of Palestinian human rights.

On Friday he gave the first hint that he was listening to the protests, saying in a televised news conference after a meeting of UEFA’s Executive Committee  that he would “think about it and take a decision in the current year”.

Olivia Zemor of French campaign group Euro-Palestine, leading the activists who crowded into UEFA’s reception area in Nyon, charged Platini with ignoring Israel ’s active discrimination against Palestinians – not only restrictions on movement but destruction of facilities, detention without trial of players and the killing of young boys playing football.

Campaigners also noted that of the grounds likely to be used for the men’s junior tournament on June 5-18, one is on land seized from two Palestinian villages, one is beside a largely destroyed village and a third is a stadium from which a Palestinian club was expelled in 1948.

The protests shamed Platini into pledging to “see what he could do” about the detention for almost a year of Palestinian Olympic squad goalkeeper Omar Abu Rois and Ramallah player Mohammed Nimr.

Last May, as a mounting international campaign forced Israel to release hunger striking Palestinian national team player Mahmoud Sarsak after three years in detention, Platini rebuffed calls to relocate Euro 2013 claiming Israel would host a “beautiful games”.

Since then support has grown around Europe for the Red Card Israeli Racism campaign which is calling on football enthusiasts who care about human rights to take the following actions in the months leading up to the June finals.

• Continue adding signatures to the almost 6000 names already on the Red Card petitiion

• Join protests at the next ExCom meeting in March (venue to be announced)

• Mobilise for protests at UEFA’s Congress in London on May 24

• Organise anti-racist football tournaments to draw attention to the plight of the game in Palestine

Contact:  info@rcir.org.uk

FURTHER INFORMATION

1. Full report of Nyon protests including still photos

http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article8010

 2.Video from Nyon plus links to media reports.

http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article8011

3.   Israel ’s U-21 championship venues:

a)  Bloomfield  – before Israeli forces occupied  Jaffa  in 1948, the ground was known as Basa (swamp) Stadium, home to local  Jaffa  team Shabab el-Arab. They were expelled and later formed Shabab el-Nassera in  Nazareth . In January 1949 the Basa stadium was given to the Hapoel Tel Aviv team by the Israeli “custodian of absentee property”.

b) Teddy Stadium, named after former  Jerusalem  mayor Teddy Kollek, is beside an almost entirely destroyed village, al-Maliha.

c) Reserve stadium at  Ramat Gan  was built on land seized under the Absentee Property Owners Law of 1950 from the Palestinian villages of Jarisha and al-Jammasin al-Sharqi.

Cantona onside for BDS and prisoners' rights

I got this Friends of al Aqsa report via Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods.

Eric Cantona has lent his name to calls for the release of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held without charge or trial by Israel and to calls to relocate the UEFA under-21 competition away from Israel to a state with a better human rights record.  Here's the letter Cantona, among others, signed:

We are all shocked at the racist chanting at football matches in Poland and Ukraine where Euro 2012 is being played. Footballing bodies and politicians have been outspoken in their condemnation. Indeed some government officials are boycotting group stage matches in Ukraine because of perceived human rights abuses in that country.

So why are these same groups silent when Israel is to host the U.E.F.A. Under 21s competition in 2013? Racism, human rights abuses and gross violations of international law are daily occurrences in that country.

Israeli government ministers respond to mob attacks on black refugees by denouncing them as 'infiltrators' and calling for them to be imprisoned in military camps.

Israeli jails house around 4,000 Palestinian political prisoners, more than 300 of them "administrative detainees" held without charge or trial. One of these is a footballer from Gaza, Mahmoud Sarsak, aged 25. He has been imprisoned for nearly three years. No charge, no trial. In desperation, he has been on hunger strike for more than 80 days and is now close to death. He, and all victims of abuse by the Israeli state, need our support.

It is time to end Israel's impunity and to insist on the same standards of equality, justice and respect for international law that we demand of other states.'

Signed (in personal capacity):

Eric Cantona

Noam Chomsky, Professor MIT, USA

John Dugard, Former Special Rapporteur of UN on Palestine, South Africa

Trevor Griffiths, Writer, UK

Paul Laverty, Screenwriter, UK

Ken Loach, Filmmaker, UK

Miriam Margolyes OBE, Actor, UK

John Pilger, Journalist, author, film maker, Australia

Ahdaf Soueif, Writer, UK

Michael Mansfield QC, UK

Israel of course isn't the only serial human rights abuser to host an international competition. Just recently Azerbaijan hosted the Eurovision song contest and more seriously Bahrain hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Football has a higher profile than both of those but as with holding Eurovision in Azerbaijan and the Grand Prix in Bahrain, the holding of the UEFA under-21 competition in Israel will have the effect of whitewashing the crimes of the regime, hence the calls to relocate.

Against ethnic cleansing, against UEFA whitewashing Israel and against war criminals visiting the UK

And it's all in today's Guardian letters page:

On Thursday Palestinians are protesting about the latest instance of ethnic cleansing by the Israeli government. In the Beer Sheba (Beer es Saba) region of southern Israel about 30,000 inhabitants are about to be driven from their homes.

Their villages have been designated "unrecognised" for more than 60 years, making their lands easy prey for confiscation. And while they are refused the same rights as other Israeli citizens to facilities such as running water, schools and hospitals, the Israeli state demands their taxes.

The British government must condemn any move to evict the Palestinian citizens of Israel from their lands, which were documented under the British Mandate as privately owned Palestinian land – not ownerless as the Israeli state now claims.

Geoffrey Bindman QC
Victoria Brittain
William Dalrymple
Ken Loach
Tony Benn
Ahdaf Soueif
Miriam Margolyes
Caryl Churchill
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Linda Riordan MP
Bob Russell MP
Martin Caton MP
Katy Clark MP
Alex Cunningham MP
Julie Hilling MP
John McDonnell MP
Andy Slaughter MP
Dame Jenny Tonge
John Pilger
Leila Sansour
Ghada Karmi
Ilan Pappe
Dr Salman Abu Sitta
Prof Steven Rose
Prof Hilary Rose
Louise Christian
Rodney Bickerstaffe
Bruce Kent
Reem Kelani
Lowkey
Kika Markham
Michael Rosen
Leon Rosselson
Alexei Sayle
Jeremy Hardy
Hugh Lanning, Chair PSC
Keith Sonnet
John Austin
Canon Garth Hewitt
Andy de la Tour

• Those who lead European football must respond to an appeal from Palestinians dismayed at the prospect of Israel hosting Uefa's under-21 tournament in 2013. A state that uses military might to hold sway over land it illegally occupies and exploits, flouts international law and ignores UN resolutions surely forfeits the right to be treated as a member of the community of nations. But western powers continue to embrace Israel as an ally.  

During the 2011 under-21 tournament in Denmark in June, 42 Gazan football clubs, backed by many sporting bodies, wrote to Uefa president Michel Platini calling on his organisation not "to reward Israel for its violent repression of Palestinian rights". We ask Uefa to respond positively to this plea.

Stephane Hessel diplomat
Ken Loach filmmaker 
Michael Mansfield barrister
Miriam Margolyes actor
Nurit Peled Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought joint winner 2001
John Pilger journalist and filmmaker,
Ahdaf Soueif novelist and political and cultural commentator
Jean Ziegler vice-president, advisory committee of the UN human rights council

• The government changes the law and brings out the red carpet to allow alleged Israeli war criminals into the UK (Former Israeli minister to visit UK after change in arrest law, 4 October) but changes the rules to arrest visiting Palestinians whose only "crime" is to campaign for their rights (Palestinian activist was held unlawfully, says high court, 1 October). The Goldstone report, which has been endorsed at the UN general assembly, provides clear evidence of how in its 2008-09 attack on Gaza, Israel was responsible for attacks on children, use of human shields, and use of phosphorous bombs and flachettes in civilian areas. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also documented serious cases of abuse. For William Hague to invite to the UK Israeli leaders who were in government at the time these alleged crimes were committed is a slap in the face for relatives of the 1,400 dead, the 5,000 injured and the many others who suffered due to Israel's Cast Lead attack on Gaza.
Dr Stephen Leah
York

Not bad, not at all bad. Now wait for the balancers....