WeeklySA_Admin* Two SA lawyers lead charge to stop Israel olympic team from participating in Paris Games
* World Court rules Israel’s occupation in Palestine unlawful
PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR BANNING OF ISRAEL FROM PARIS OLYMPICS
Petition: Non-profit body obtains 380 000 signatures to petition the international sport federations…
By Monk Nkomo
Pressure is mounting on international sport federations to immediately isolate and ban Israel from all competitions over its continued military offensive in Gaza, where more than 30 000 Palestinians including 1 000 athletes had been killed since October last year.
Leading the charge to ban Israel are two South African lawyers Max du Plessis and Sarah Pudifin-Jones, who specialised in international law and human rights and were part of the South African legal team at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide – a claim that Israel has vehemently denied.
The two lawyers’ legal analysis has claimed that Israel must be banned from any soccer-related activities for violating FIFA’s statutes amid the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza. The report was prepared by the two legal gurus at the behest of EKO, a social justice non-profit organisation which has so far collected nearly 380 000 signatures to petition the international sport federations to ban Israel.
They called on the international Olympic Committee, FIFA and UEFA to immediately ban Israel from all international sporting codes because of its continued undermining of FIFA’s objectives. Israel had violated the internationally recognised human rights of Palestinians and continued to discriminate against them on the basis of their race, national origin and birth in direct contravention of FIFA’s Article 4 (1).
The Asian Football Confederation had also given its backing for action against Israel while President of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, said FIFA could not afford to remain indifferent to what he described as violations or the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
According to Reuters, both South African lawyers called on FIFA to act against Israel arguing that countries that contravened FIFA’s rules, that included human rights and discrimination of any kind, had in the past been suspended or banned.
These included:
* South Africa being suspended in 1961 because of the country’s apartheid policies;
* Yugoslavia banned in 1992 following the United Nations sanctions amid the Serb-dominated government’s aggression in the Balkans;
* In 2022, both FIFA and its European counterpart, UEFA, acted swiftly to suspend Russian teams from their competitions following the country’s unprompted invasion of Ukraine.
The mounting pressure for the banning of Israel is expected to gain momentum ahead of the start of the Olympic games scheduled to be held in Paris, France from July 26 to August 11 this year. Nearly 10 500 athletes are expected to compete in different sporting codes for the coveted medals.
‘’ The Olympics spirit is meant to build a peaceful and better world’’, both Du Plessis and Pudifin-Jones are quoted as saying. Israel, which has waged war against innocent men, women and children, ignored this principle.
Israel, has firmly denied the allegations of genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza, which was launched when the terror group invaded southern Israel on October 7 last year killing 1200 people and taking 251 as hostages. Israel’s military offensive was to destroy Hamas, topple its regime and free the hostages.
The country accused South Africa of acting as an emissary of the Hamas terror group, which ruled Gaza and sought to eliminate the Jewish state. It says that the Israel Defence Forces was targeting Hamas terrorists, not Palestinian civilians, and pointed out that civilian casualties in the fighting were unavoidable as terrorists operated from deep within the population.
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) submitted a proposal to suspend Israel in May this year, with FIFA ordering an urgent legal evaluation while promising to address it at an extraordinary meeting of its council which was set to take place at the weekend.
Despite the ongoing genocide, Israel’s sports teams continue to compete internationally. Israel’s football team is set to compete in major European matches soon and with the Olympics coming up in a week’s time, now was the time for sporting federations to join international committees and add the needed pressure to stop Israel’s violence.
According to the South African lawyers’ report, after Israel’s 9-day siege on Gaza in 2021, 140,000 Ekō members called one of the world’s biggest sports brands, PUMA, to drop its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association.
‘’We met with PUMA’s CEO to deliver our message. And thanks to our collective pressure, and the tireless work of Palestinian solidarity activists over the years, PUMA quietly ended its relationship with Israel’s Football Federation last year, months after Israel’s current invasion. So we know we can use sports to push for change in Israel, but only if we speak out now’’.
There can be no doubt that Israel’s conduct in Palestine had undermined, and continued to undermine, FIFA’s objectives.
“Israel has violated the internationally recognized human rights of Palestinians, contrary to Article 3. It has discriminated and continues to discriminate against Palestinians on the basis of race, national origin and birth in direct contravention of Article 4(1).
“Its conduct undermines the humanitarian objectives described in Article 5.1(b). Israel’s conduct demands censure, in line with the position adopted by FIFA in relation to similar egregious violations of its objectives and internationally recognized human rights.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinian proposal accused the Israel Football Association (IFA) of complicity in violations of international law by the Israeli government and discrimination against Arab players, an allegation which the IFA had rejected.
In recent years, when the Palestinian Football Association brought motions to suspend Israel, FIFA did not impose sanctions, declaring in 2017 the matter to be closed and not subject to further discussion until the legal or de facto framework changed.
The report by the South African lawyers argued that developments since October had given rise to a new legal framework that necessitated FIFA’s intervention. – Additional reporting by Reuters and Times of Israel
ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION OF PALESTINIAN TERRITORY ILLEGAL – ICJ
JURISDICTION: Court says Israel was under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as rapidly as possible…contracts…
By Own Correspondent
Policies and practices used by Israel in its occupation of Palestinian territories were in breach of international law.
The was the finding today of the International Court of Justice in the The Hague made in an advisory opinion in respect of the legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.
In its advisory opinion, which emanated from a request by the United Nations General Assembly on 30 December 2022, the court unanimously reaffirmed its jurisdiction on the matter and that the State of Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory was unlawful under international law.
The court was of the view that the effects of Israel’s policies and practices, and its exercise of sovereignty over certain parts of the occupied Palestinian territory, constituted an obstruction to the exercise by the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination. This included Israel’s annexation of parts of the occupied Palestinian territory, the fragmentation of this territory, undermining its integrity, the deprivation of the Palestinian people of the enjoyment of the natural resources of the territory and its impairment of the Palestinian people’s right to pursue its economic, social and cultural development. “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land – neither in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on social media platform X, reports Bloomberg.
“No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth and likewise the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be disputed,” he said.
Amnesty International’s Erika Guevara Rosas has welcomed the ICJ advisory, saying: “The International Court of Justice has issued its opinion and the conclusion is loud and clear: Israel’s occupation and annexation of the Palestinian territories are unlawful, and its discriminatory laws and policies against Palestinians violate the prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid.
“This is a historic vindication of the rights of Palestinians who have endured decades of cruelty and systematic human rights violations stemming from Israel’s unlawful occupation”.
South Africa was among 49 member states of the United Nations which delivered a statement to the ICJ in February 2024 on the matter.
In summary, the ICJ concluded that:
• Israel was under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as rapidly as possible;
• Israel was under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory;
• Israel has the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
• all States were under an obligation not to recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of Israel in the said occupied territory;
• the United Nations, and especially the General Assembly, which requested the opinion, and the Security Council, should consider the precise modalities and further action required to bring to an end as rapidly as possible the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Responding to the court’s advisory opinion, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola said: “Today’s ruling by the ICJ affirms South Africa’s long-standing position that the occupation by Israel of Palestinian territory remains unlawful under international law. The international community must act to bring an immediate end to the occupation and the gross violations of international humanitarian and human rights law being perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people. There is now an additional legal obligation for all States to end complicity in Israel’s illegal actions and to act to ensure respect for international law”.
