Radical US sports writer Dave Zirin asks why a major multinational corporation is sponsoring football (soccer) teams in illegal Israeli settlements.
“Palestinian footballers are routinely forced to endure Israeli military raids and tear gas on our fields, denied by Israel our right to travel to matches, and have seen our teammates killed and our stadiums bombed. I was jailed by the Israeli occupation for three years without charge or trial and released only after a 96-day hunger strike and worldwide outcry…
“All the while, the IFA [Israel Football Association] holds matches in illegal Israeli settlements, which rob us of our land, water, resources and livelihoods. Adidas’ sponsorship of the IFA prominently places its iconic logo on Israel’s abuses of our rights.”
These are the words of former Palestinian national team player Mahmoud Sarsak, whose jailing by Israel in 2009 and subsequent hunger strike in 2012 launched an international solidarity campaign that eventually won his freedom.
Read the article by Dave Zirin in Green Left Weekly.