The enormous power of sporting boycotts must be used against Israel’s industrial-scale killing of Palestinians

Older readers will know about the international solidarity campaign against apartheid South Africa which came to a head in the 1970s and 1980s.

The campaign was led by the liberation movements, the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress, which asked for international boycotts of white South Africa in all areas: diplomatic, trade, economic, cultural, sporting, academic etc It was seen as the best way to support the liberation struggle from outside South Africa.

The idea was to build intense pressure on South Africa’s white regime to make it impossible for them to continue their racist policies.

India was one of the first countries outside Africa to act in support of international sanctions as Indian South Africans faced discrimination under apartheid policies which divided the country into four groups based on race – Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Asians (mainly Indians) – and legalised discrimination against people depending on their racial classification.

The campaign gathered steam slowly at first but eventually came to dominate South Africa’s dealings with the rest of the world. Predictably, western countries were much slower to act against South Africa’s apartheid policies.

White South Africans knew the world was complaining about their policies but this was just a vague, irritating noise in the background. The sports boycott changed that.

Sport is often central to a country’s national pride because of its powerful ties to national identity and cultural distinctiveness. It was therefore the sports boycott of South Africa which brought the greatest pressure from outside the country to end apartheid. It was sport which became a weathervane in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Sport touches everyone.

When Papwa Sewgolum was forced to stand in the rain outside the whites-only clubhouse to receive the winner’s trophy after the 1965 Natal Open golf tournament, millions of people around the world saw the ugly reality of life under apartheid.

Similarly when Nelson Mandela, in his prison cell on Robben Island where he had been for 16 years, heard the 1981 rugby game between Waikato and the Springboks had been called off because anti-apartheid protestors had invaded the pitch, he said the prisoners were jubilant. They grabbed the bars of their cell doors and rattled them around the prison. Mandela said it was like the sun had come out.

The positive power of sport, and sports boycotts, has been demonstrated time and again in international sport.

Like apartheid South Africa, Israel uses its participation in international sport as a tool for normalizing its systematic discrimination against Palestinians. In response Palestinians are making the same calls for boycotts as black South African’s did, urging us to isolate Israel and hold it accountable for breaches of international law and crimes against humanity.

The indiscriminate killing being conducted in Gaza, described by many as the first live-streamed genocide, is just the latest example of industrial-scale slaughter of Palestinians by Israel’s leaders. In January this year Israel killed the Palestinian Olympic football coach, Hani Al Masdar, and destroyed the office of the Palestinian Olympic Committee in Gaza.

Sport cannot be separated from other aspects of life under apartheid. As the non-racial South African Council on Sport (SACOS) used to say “you cannot have normal sport in an abnormal society”. This is just as true today in Israel as it was for South Africa.

So just as the progressive world supported the call for a sporting boycott to isolate apartheid South Africa, we must respond to Palestinian calls for Israel to be suspended from international sports organisations and international sporting events until it ends its grave violations of international law – particularly its apartheid rule and the crime of genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza.

The campaign for Israel to be suspended from next month’s 2024 Paris Olympics is gathering momentum. Israel must be suspended in the same way Russia and Belarus have been because of their involvement in the invasion of Ukraine.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus cannot complete under their countries’ flags which are banned from the games. They can compete only as “Individual Neutral Athletes”. Any Russian or Belarusian athletes who “actively support the war” cannot compete and any of their athletes “who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies cannot compete” Similarly, “support personnel who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies cannot be entered (in the Olympics)”

So far the International Olympic Committee Executive Board has tried to avoid the issue and a glance at its makeup is not encouraging.

The board is hardly a model of democratic representation. The board chair is from Germany with three of the four deputy chairs also European. In fact ten of the 15 board positions are held by Europeans despite Europeans making up just 9.32% of the world’s population! The only person from Africa on the Board is a European from Zimbabwe and the only person from Asia is based in Singapore.

Will this board hold Israel to account as it is holding Russia and Belarus to account? Or will the board provide protection for Apartheid Israel on behalf of western interests and resist calls for Israel’s suspension?

Politics and sport have always been mixed and always will be.

Western countries must end Israel’s impunity for anything it does. We must hold Israel accountable for its words and actions as we do for other countries.

For the New Zealand government this means it must move from hypocrisy to demanding accountability for Israel.

And the Israeli flag must not fly in Paris.

John Minto

National Chair

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa