For as long as Palestinians can remember, Israel’s occupation has seeped into all aspects of everyday life – including sports.
To be an athlete in Palestine means enduring unjust and life-threatening barriers and restrictions put in place by Israel. Israel’s illegal occupations throughout Palestine, including in the West Bank, make it very difficult for people in Gaza to leave the city and travel to international tournaments and competitions.
In 2018, a talented Gazan cyclist named Alaa al-Dali was brutally shot in his leg by an Israeli sniper at a protest at the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel-occupied territories. In fact, that protest was part of a series of protests called the March of Return, which took place from early 2018 to late 2019, where Gazan citizens protested Israel’s violent displacement of Palestinians from their homes in 1948. Gaza became an open-air prison as Israel used snipers, tear gas, and other weaponry to kill and injure thousands of peaceful Palestinian protesters at the fence.
For al-Dali, the protest was also a way to fight for his right to travel out of Gaza– a request often denied by Israel– so he could compete at that year’s Asian Games sporting event. “We are trying to do sport, they restrain us with politics,” he told Al-Jazeera in a 2019 interview.
Israel has been attempting to erase Palestine’s sports presence for years. By injuring, killing, and denying Palestinian athletes access to leave their country to compete in sporting events, they are preventing Palestine from the visibility and unification that nations receive from competing. These tournaments are broadcasted to millions of global viewers, and the ability to wave the Palestinian flag for the world to see is a symbolic and pivotal step toward freedom.
Taking away this visibility simultaneously silences Palestinian voices. Consumers of sports media may begin to forget the existence of the state altogether. Their attention is diverted from Israel’s historical oppression of the once sovereign nation, allowing Israel to continue its destructive agenda with little to no media focus on their atrocities. Without representation of the nation’s flag, people or land, the war-torn country is easily forgotten.
As Israel’s destruction of Palestine becomes more and more deadly, Palestinian sports teams have begun to fade. Many Palestinian athletes, coaches, and Olympians have been injured or killed by Israeli attacks, and Palestinian sports stadiums have been destroyed by airstrikes, stripping Palestine of its potential to compete in sports competitions.
However, Israel’s inclusion in these sports organizations remains prevalent. The Israel Football Association (IFA) has finished a four-year contract with sporting attire company Puma. More recently, Israel competed at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games and secured seven Olympic medals– the most they have ever won.
When the Palestinian Football Association urged FIFA to exclude Israel from Olympic football matches, no action was taken. The same disregard was shown to the Palestinian body when it wrote to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asking for Israel to be denied entry to the 2024 Summer Olympics.
As international organizations, major sports bodies such as the IOC and FIFA have a responsibility to hold countries accountable for unethical actions. In fact, in the past, FIFA has banned various countries due to their unjust political conflicts and corruption. Russia was banned from the 2022 FIFA World Cup in relation to its occupation of Ukraine; South Africa was suspended from competing in 1961, when it was an apartheid state, which also led to the country being banned from the Olympics. FIFA only allowed South Africa to compete again when apartheid came to an end in 1990.
These organizations’ past measures prove that they are capable of taking action and even potentially contributing to positive political change and reform through their actions. However, it is clear that their “activism” is selective, because when it comes to Israel, FIFA and the IOC have chosen to stay silent – and complicit.
By allowing Israeli sports teams to compete in major sports competitions, the Olympics has essentially aided Israel in concealing its genocidal actions with winning titles and gold medals. A prime example of “sportswashing”– a term describing how countries publicly known for unethical practices will use major sports tournaments to redefine their reputation. By including Israel in the Olympic Games, the IOC handed Israel a golden opportunity to redirect the media and general public’s attention away from its violations of international law and toward Israel’s victorious gymnastics competitions.
Sports corporations, media outlets, and media consumers must work together to suspend Israel from competing until they stop their illegal occupation of Palestine. Eventually, there is hope that Palestinians will one day be free of the violence inflicted upon them, rebuild safely and be able to proudly represent their country at major international sporting events.