Politics has entered sports again, and in a dramatic way. Tthe Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) announced on Tuesday its intention to disrupt the major European bicycle races, the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, to protest the participation of the Israeli professional team "Israel Premier Tech."
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A pro-Palestinian demonstrator on the sidelines of the Tour de France
(Photo: Screenshot)
"The Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France are shamefully rewarding the Israeli government-sponsored cycling team," the BDS statement said. "Even as Israel murders more than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza, even as it intentionally uses starvation as a weapon of war to engineer a famine in Gaza, even as it deliberately fires on Palestinians desperately seeking what little aid enters Gaza and the aid workers delivering it, even as it commits 'sporticide', by killing Palestinian athletes and destroying Palestinian sports facilities. The Israeli cycling team was created by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams with the stated goal of 'sportswashing' Israel’s 75-year-long regime of military occupation and apartheid, and now its genocide."
The BDS statement added that "Israel is able to commit this livestreamed genocide and continue what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have determined to be a 75-year apartheid regime with complete impunity because of the failure of international bodies to uphold international law by sanctioning Israel. Hypocritical international sporting bodies will only meet their obligation to ban genocidal Israel from sports if, as sports journalist Dave Zirin has said, 'we make them'. Let’s do that. We call for more protests than ever along the race routes of the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, which will start from Italy this year. Let’s make sure the road is closed to genocide perpetrators."
The Israel Premier Tech team has yet to comment on the news. They have previously stated that, while they respect the right of individuals to protest and voice their opinions, they anticipate that the team and the races will be accorded respect, and that any demonstrations will not violate the law.