More than 200 Irish sportspeople have signed a letter in solidarity with the people of Palestine and called for an "immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza" amid Israel's military action in the region.
One per cent of Gaza's population has been killed during the three months of war.
The letter has been signed by, among many others, All-Ireland winning Dublin footballers Michael Darragh Macauley, Bernard Brogan, Philly McMahon, Mick Fitzsimons, Carla Rowe and Sarah McCaffrey, Limerick All-Ireland winning hurlers Sean Finn, Graeme Mulcahy, Darragh O'Donovan and Will O'Donoghue, Cork camogie All-Ireland winner Ashling Thompson, former Munster rugby players Keith Earls, Jerry Flannery and Tommy O'Donnell along with ex-Ireland international footballers James McClean and Kevin Moran and former Ireland manager Brian Kerr.
🇵🇸 “We canot stand idly by and watch a genocide happen before our own eyes and do nothing.” - Michael Darragh MacAuley@MDMA_9 pic.twitter.com/nLqH4vu6Q6
— Irish Sport for Palestine (@Sport4Palestine) January 11, 2024
The publication of the letter comes ahead of this Saturday's national march in solidarity with Palestine which will be held in Dublin.
Irish Sport for Palestine open letter
We have come together as members of the Irish sporting community to show our solidarity with the Palestinian people and to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
For over three months, we have watched in horror as over 22,330 Palestinians, more than 9,000 of them children, have been murdered, and countless thousands more catastrophically injured, while 90% of the population in Gaza have been forcibly displaced.
We ask: How many athletes, sports people, trainers, and those children aspiring to be, have been murdered or displaced by the horrific Israeli violence?
For decades, Israel has targeted Palestinian sports people, preventing them from travelling to competitions, shooting and maiming them, killing them, and destroying their facilities.
Israel continues to target Palestinian athletes, especially footballers, many of them children and youths, and has destroyed sporting facilities in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israeli occupation forces last month turned Gaza's Yarmouk Stadium into a detention centre, where Palestinian men, youths and children have been held without charge, terrorised, and abused. The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) has called on the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), international and continental confederations and all relevant bodies “to take urgent measures to end the gross violations of the Israeli occupation against the Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza, and to subject it to legal accountability.”
The PFA has appealed for an international investigation into the treatment of Palestinian athletes and sports facilities amidst reports of Israeli forces violating the Olympic charter by targeting sports clubs.
What is happening in Gaza is genocide. A system of Apartheid - a crime against humanity - is being imposed on Palestinians. Despite criticism by the UN, respected international organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, International Rescue Committee and Medecins Sans Frontieres, and many more, Israel has made clear its intention to continue to violate international law.
We encourage all sports people across the island to join our call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, for the illegal siege to be lifted, for humanitarian aid to be delivered, and for no further forced displacement of Palestinians.
We advocate for sports clubs, spaces, fan groups and communities to sign up to become Apartheid Free Zones and boycott Israeli products.
We call on Sport Ireland, the Olympic Federation of Ireland, and all relevant sporting bodies to call for an international investigation into Israel’s violation of the Olympic charter and impose sanctions.
We call on the Irish government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. We urge them to support the investigation of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court into the situation in Palestine and submit a case of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza to the International Court of Justice, as South Africa has just done.
After 75 years of racist oppression, Palestinians deserve freedom, justice, and equality. This is a crucial moment for humanity. The time to act is now. We must stand together, and we must not fail.
The full list of signatories, along with the letter, can be found here.
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