As the Games open in Paris: “Israel” out of the Olympics — Boycott colonial athletics!

As the 2024 Olympic Games open in Paris, France on Friday, 26 July, they have been deemed the “Genocide Games” as they welcome the participation of dozens of Zionist soldiers amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the systematic destruction of Palestinian sport as part and parcel of the attack upon Palestinian life throughout Gaza and all of Palestine.

 

It is clear that the participation of the “Israeli” delegation at the Olympic Games is a direct endorsement of the Zionist genocide in Palestine, especially as the International Olympic Committee swiftly banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from sending a national delegation or from personal participation if they are involved in the war effort in Ukraine. Those who are participating are doing so under a neutral banner — and even this decision is being assailed as insufficiently harsh against Russia and Belarus. At the same time, active Zionist soldiers engaged in a genocide are competing openly, bearing the flag under which the genocide is being conducted. The decisions of the IOC appear to mirror the priorities of NATO, rather than those of justice or even international law and human rights.

In a statement to the Lebanese Olympic Committee, the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon emphasized that the IOC is promulgating “rules” that aim to silence individual countries from speaking out against the continued participation of the genocidal Zionist regime. They noted: “The position of the International Olympic Committee and its recent message may explain the lack of response of the Olympic committees in other Arab countries to the messages of the boycott campaigns in those countries, out of fear of the ‘warning’ that reached them.”

The flag bearer of the Zionist delegation, Peter Paltchik, publicly flaunted his enthusiasm to send US-made missiles to rain down destruction on the Palestinian people in Gaza, and their delegation includes dozens of other members and veterans of the occupation military. Olympic athletes even visited occupation soldiers as they were carrying out the genocide in Gaza in order to express their support. Karim Zidan wrote, “Accompanied by the president of the Israeli Olympic Committee and other key officials within the national committee, the three Olympians—Inbar Lanir, Raz Hershko and Tina Nelson Lev—posed for pictures with some of the soldiers and commanders stationed along the Gaza border.” As the heroic Palestinian resistance is criminalized and designated as “terrorists” as they exercise their right to defend their land and people and engage in armed struggle for national liberation, genocidal colonialist soldiers are being celebrated as symbols of international sport by the IOC and the French state.

The Paris Olympics have also, once again, highlighted the complicity of the French state in the colonization of Palestine and the ongoing genocide. French president Emmanuel Macron welcomed the Zionist regime’s president Isaac Herzog, who has not only presided over the genocide but has labeled boycott efforts a form of “terrorism.” This lines up well with the French state’s continued efforts to criminally prosecute activists and organizers for working to boycott and internationally isolate the Israeli regime, as well as its attempts to ban and criminalize demonstrations for Palestine and organizations working for Palestinian liberation, such as the Collectif Palestine Vaincra. France, alongside the United States, Germany, Britain, Italy, Canada and other imperialist powers, has been a full partner in the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine.

Of course, France also continues to imprison Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine who has been jailed in French prisons for over 40 years, despite being eligible for release since 1999 and even having his release ordered by French courts, only for his return to Lebanon to be blocked by French politicians, acting together with U.S. officials.

Thousands of people have joined mass demonstrations in France against the participation of “Israel” in the Olympic Games. CAPJPO-Europalestine and Marchons pour la Palestine gathered daily for two months in front of the Olympic Games Organizing Committee in Aubervilliers. A mass demonstration in Paris — with the participation of Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, who has become an international spokesperson for the campaign to exclude the Zionist regime from the Olympics — brought large numbers into the streets against the celebration of genocide at the Games.

Protesters in Toulouse denounced the participation of “Israel” in the Olympic Games, including a rugby team, BRIC – Bourrassol Rugby International Club, that issued an official statement: “Today, we stand alongside the Collectif Palestine Vaincra to denounce the fact that athletes can compete in the 2024 Olympic Games under the banner of Israel, currently the perpetrator of war crimes and responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians.”

The Zionist genocide in Gaza has already taken the lives of hundreds of Palestinian athletes, including 69 Olympians. Palestinian stadiums and sports clubs have been targeted for destruction, and even children playing football in the yard of an UNRWA school where they were displaced were targeted by “Israeli” bombs. Mohammed Hamada, the first Palestinian Olympic weightlifter, has been denied participation in this year’s Olympics due to the genocide; he lost 20kg (44 pounds) due to the Zionist policy of imposed starvation against Palestinians in Gaza.

In addition, hundreds more Palestinian athletes are imprisoned by the Zionist regime, among the over 9,700 Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails and the thousands more being held, their names and identities hidden, in the notorious detention camps for Palestinians in Gaza, where Palestinian hostages are subjected to the most severe forms of torture, abuse, starvation, medical mistreatment, forced amputation, sexual assault and other forms of state terror. Muazzaz Abayat, an amateur bodybuilder from Bethlehem, who prior to his detention weighed 109 kg and was solidly muscular, was released from Zionist jails emaciated and severely injured. He called upon the world: “We do not want you to free us from occupation. We want you to, at the very least, support our people….I am asking you to look at the condition of the Palestinian prisons. The country they call Israel is killing and torturing prisoners. There are horrible discoveries to be made.”

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of justice in Palestine — particularly sports clubs, athletes and people involved in international and local sport — to step up the athletic boycott of the Zionist regime. The Zionist regime is engaged in an active genocide against the Palestinian people, and its sporting infrastructure is deeply intertwined with the Zionist project for the past 76 years, including and especially its military. The Zionist sports project is one of colonialism and supremacy, weaponized in the genocide against the Palestinian people. It’s long past time to get “Israel” out of the Olympic Games! Further, we urge people of conscience to boycott, protest and disrupt all sporting events involving “Israeli” teams or representatives of the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine. There is no fair play for genocide, and it is long past time that “Israel” is a pariah in all aspects of international sporting.

As the Olympic Games open in Paris to the celebration of genocide and the welcoming of dozens of genocidal Zionist regime soldiers, their attempt to destroy Palestinian sport must inspire the outrage of all to exclude, isolate and boycott “Israel”. Despite the destruction and genocide imposed by Zionism and imperialism, Palestine rises, the resistance grows, and liberation draws nearer.

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