The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on the International Olympic Committee and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to take serious measures against Israel, including accountability and accountability for the crimes it committed against Palestinian athletes in the context of the crime of genocide that it has been carrying out in the Gaza Strip since. The seventh of last October.
Euro-Med highlighted in a press statement that the ongoing Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip for the eighth month in a row left at least 270 Palestinian athletes martyred, while all infrastructure, facilities and sports stadiums were destroyed or severely damaged.
He warned that the Israeli army deliberately turned the Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City into a detention center to detain and humiliate hundreds of Palestinians, who appeared naked and stripped of their clothes, including children, in scenes shown by the Israeli media in December 2023.
The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor stressed that
international sports bodies must take a decisive stance regarding Israel’s violations against athletes and civilian sports objects in the Gaza Strip, especially the FIFA, which is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting of its council before July 20, to decide on the possibility of taking measures against the Israeli federation. At the request of the Palestinian Federation, with the support of the Asian Football Confederation, Israel’s membership is suspended immediately.
Euro-Med said that the Israeli army continues to commit the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip, through which hundreds of athletes and players were targeted and killed in all governorates of the Gaza Strip, destroying the sports infrastructure and turning some stadiums into mass graves and centers for abuse and arrests in flagrant violations of all continental and international laws and conventions. .
He added that Palestinian sports have always been and still are under Israeli targeting to block the Palestinian voice and representatio
n and in the context of seeking to kill all the elites and competencies in the Gaza Strip.
The Human Rights Observatory documented the destruction of 31 sports facilities, football fields, gyms, headquarters, and sports training halls, which may amount to the destruction of more than 80% of sports facilities at the stadiums or clubs level in the Gaza Strip.
This included the destruction of the following stadiums: ‘Yarmouk’, ‘Palestine’, ‘Mohammed Al-Durra’, ‘Beit Hanoun’, ‘Al-Tuffah’, ‘Al-Shuja’iya’, ‘Al-Shati’, ‘Beit Lahia’, and ‘Rafah’. “, “Deir Al-Balah”, and “Nuseirat”, in addition to the Khan Yunis Municipal Stadium, in addition to the bulldozing and destruction of 300 five-a-side courts, the destruction of 22 swimming courts, 12 covered sports halls for basketball, volleyball, and handball, and the destruction of 6 sports fields. Tennis, 28 sports and fitness centers were damaged, destroyed, and targeted.
The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory pointed out that hundreds of players from the Gaza Strip were
prevented from their right to move and travel in order to represent Palestine in various international tournaments, in addition to the Israeli military attack causing the cessation of all sports activities, events and tournaments.
He stressed that the FIFA, with its basic laws and disciplinary and ethical rules, expressly prohibits support for actions that violate human rights and international law, which are clarified in Articles 2, 3, 5 and 47 of the Statutes, in addition to Article 5 of the Code of Conduct, and that the International Federation cannot continue Turning a blind eye to these violations committed in light of the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Med warned of suspicions of double standards in the policies and dealings of FIFA, which was quick to impose a comprehensive ban on Russia’s participation in international tournaments until further notice in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before the start of the World Cup in 1950 in Brazil, FIFA decided to ban Ge
rmany. Japan was excluded from participating in the tournament qualifiers due to the sanctions imposed on them for their role in World War II.
On the eve of the Thirty-Third Olympic Games, scheduled to be held in the French capital, Paris, from July 26 to August 11, the Euro-Med Monitor stresses the need for Gaza to include the slogans carried by the Olympic Games urging peace and what the flame symbolizes regarding the principle of the Olympic Truce
Source: Maan News Agency