As the Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues unabated, leaving hundreds dead and critical infrastructure in ruins, an urgent question confronts the international sports community: Is it time to take a stand against Israel’s actions and express solidarity with the Palestinian people?
Mounting Pressure on Sports Bodies
Over the past year, since the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, major sports organizations like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have largely remained silent, adhering to a long-standing policy of avoiding political entanglements. But as the civilian death toll mounts and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, many are arguing that neutrality is no longer an option.
“Inaction begins to feel like its own conscious choice,” writes sports journalist Jonathan Liew in a recent op-ed. “It’s six months since Fifa promised a prompt ruling on whether or not to impose sanctions on Israel’s national team for the actions of its government, and we’re still waiting.” Similar criticism has been leveled at the IOC for allowing Israeli athletes to compete in the Olympics just months after a major assault on the West Bank town of Jenin left its main football stadium in ruins.
Attacks on Palestinian Sports
The destruction of sports facilities is just one facet of the hardships endured by Palestinian athletes and fans under Israeli occupation and siege. According to a source close to the matter, 344 Palestinian footballers have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, while the West Bank league has been suspended indefinitely. The recent deaths of two Gazan footballers, Eyad Abu-Khater and Hisham Al-Thaltini, in Israeli airstrikes sparked global outrage but little concrete action from sports governing bodies.
“For the Palestinians, sport has always been a form of expression, a place of wonder and play, a brief taste of freedom…and so of course it cannot be allowed to live,” Liew writes. This suppression, he argues, stems from the same doctrine of domination and othering that underlies the broader conflict.
Calls for Solidarity and Boycott
In the face of such realities, a growing chorus of voices is calling on the sports world to take a stand, even if only a symbolic one. Displays of solidarity, from the “Free Palestine” banners unfurled by fans at European football matches to statements of concern from star athletes, have sparked both controversy and hope. Some advocate going further, arguing for boycotts and sanctions against Israeli teams and sporting events as a means of applying pressure.
“To resist this Israeli regime…is a resistance to the doctrine of untouchable power, a resistance to violence and othering as the solution to our common problems,” Liew contends. “And even if sport is a blunt and pointless tool of social change, it must nonetheless be deployed.”
Critics, of course, are quick to denounce such stances as misguided at best and antisemitic at worst. They argue that singling out Israel while remaining silent on other geopolitical crises reeks of double standards and ancient prejudices. Mixing sports and politics, they contend, can only lead to further division and strife.
A Moral Imperative?
But for those who view the Palestinian struggle as a matter of basic human rights and dignity, the imperative to act overrides such concerns. “Killing children is wrong,” Liew writes bluntly. “A government that declares some humans as more worthless than others is wrong. Presiding over a famine is wrong. How is this complicated? How is this remotely possible to frame as the benign option, and resistance to it as some kind of sublimated hatred?”
These are questions that the international sports community, for all its entrenched norms of neutrality, may soon be unable to ignore. As the violence escalates and the cries for justice grow louder, the choice between passive complicity and active solidarity is becoming starker by the day.
It remains to be seen whether major organizations like FIFA and the IOC will finally heed the call, or whether the allure of “business as usual” will prove too strong to resist. But one thing seems certain: For the besieged athletes and sports lovers of Palestine, the playing field has never been level – and time is running out for those with the power to help balance the scales.
