Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has sent an appeal to Swimming New Zealand to withdraw its seven-swimmer team from the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships to be held in Netanya, Israel from 6 -10 September. The appeal was sent yesterday.
The appeal is in response to repeated pleas from Palestinian civil society for BDS (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel because of its well-documented apartheid policies against Palestinians, its military occupation of all historic Palestine and its refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their land and homes in Israel/Palestine.
“We are calling on Swimming New Zealand to stand with Palestinians and turn their back on racism and apartheid” says PSNA National Chair John Minto.
“As Israeli cabinet ministers encourage racist pogroms against Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank it is unconscionable that New Zealand would give comfort to this regime”
“We don’t want this country to be part of ‘sports-washing’ racism and oppression by Israel”
Already this year the Israeli regime has killed more than 200 Palestinians, including at least 34 children, making 2023 the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005. At the same time Israel has imprisoned 165 Palestinian children and issued demolition orders for 57 schools in the occupied West Bank that will leave 6,550 Palestinians without education.
Even the venue for the competition reeks with racist history.
“The town of Netanya where the event is to be held has been built on the site of the Palestinian district of Umm Khalid, ethnically cleansed by Israeli militias during the 1947/48 Nakba. The Palestinian survivors are now refugees, refused the right to return to their land and homes”
The sports and cultural boycott of apartheid Israel this century follows the successful sports boycott of apartheid South Africa last century in which New Zealand played a significant role.
Hosting an international swimming competition on colonized land, violently stolen from its Palestinian inhabitants who continue to be denied basic human rights, is helping to ‘sportswash’ the ongoing system of apartheid, settler colonialism and war crimes that Israel is conducting against the Palestinian people.
“New Zealand stood against racism last century and we must do the same today. Non-violent pressure through BDS against apartheid Israel is the way forward for Palestinian freedom”
“Swimming New Zealand must do the right thing”
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
Letter sent to Swimming New Zealand yesterday:
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
29 August 2023
Nick Tongue
Chair
Swimming New Zealand
Anna Tootill
Deputy Chair
Swimming New Zealand
Kia ora Nick and Anna,
Urgent Appeal to Swimming New Zealand to withdraw the Aotearoa New Zealand team from the World Aquatics Junior Championships
We are writing to urgently request Swimming New Zealand to withdraw its seven-swimmer team from the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships to be held in Netanya, Israel from 6 -10 September. (This appeal is being made at the last minute because we have only just become aware of New Zealand’s proposed participation in this event)
We are making this plea in response to repeated appeals from the Palestinian people for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel because of its well-documented apartheid policies against Palestinians, its military occupation of all historic Palestine and its refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their land and homes in Israel/Palestine.
The town of Netanya where the event is to be held has been built on the site of the Palestinian district of Umm Khalid, ethnically cleansed by Israeli militias during the 1947/48 Nakba. The Palestinian inhabitants of this area that survived are now refugees, unable to return.
Just to be clear, in recent years Israel’s apartheid policies have been documented and condemned by every credible human rights organisation in Israel and around the world. For example:
· B’Tselem – Israel’s largest and most respected human right organisation, in their January 2021 report “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”
· Amnesty International, in their February 2022 report “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians”
· Addameer and Harvard Law School label Israel an apartheid state
· UN Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human Right Council, Michael Lynk, Israel has imposed upon Palestine an apartheid reality in a post-apartheid world
Palestinians are calling for boycotts of apartheid Israel just as black South Africans called for boycotts of apartheid South Africa.
It would be unconscionable for Swimming New Zealand to send this team to compete in a country which has so far this year killed more than 200 Palestinians, including at least 34 children, making 2023 the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005.
Hosting an international swimming competition on colonized land, violently stolen from its Palestinian inhabitants who continue to be denied basic human rights, is helping to ‘sportswash’ the ongoing system of apartheid, settler colonialism and war crimes that Israel is conducting against the Palestinian people.
Its deeply ironic that these junior world champs are being hosted by a country that has imprisoned 165 childrenand issued demolition orders for 57 schools in the occupied West Bank that will leave 6,550 Palestinians without education. Is Swimming New Zealand aware Israel has a government where ministers encourage illegal Israeli settlers to destroy Palestinian towns and villages in violent pogroms assisted by Israeli occupation forces? These attacks on Palestinian villages have escalated dramatically under the new Israeli far-right government.
There is no level playing field in an apartheid state. Former Palestinian backstroke champion, Amjed Tantish, is fighting the odds to bring a Palestinian swimming team to the Olympics. From a 1948 refugee family, the first pool he built in Gaza port was polluted from sewage pipes destroyed by Israeli forces in 2004. Undeterred he built an improvised pool on the beach that was destroyed by Israeli bombs in 2006. Tantish then built a pool on his family farmland to continue giving swimming lessons to children. In the 2008 Israeli ‘Cast Lead’ war on Gaza Tantish’s home was hit, killing two of his nephews, destroying the house and pool. Another attempt to create a pool in the port was thwarted by the 2014 ‘Protective Edge’ Israeli onslaught on Gaza that again destroyed sewage pipes polluting the sea and rendering the water supply undrinkable. Finally, using the rubble from bombed out buildings, he has created a pool in the port upstream from the sewage spills. Children that have been traumatised by constant war and the ongoing siege of Gaza, the world’s largest open air prison, can again enjoy learning to swim and hope to live Tantish’s Olympic dream. At least until the next Gaza bombing.
This is the reality of Israel’s apartheid policies and their impact in sport for Palestinians. Just as the world mobilized for a sports boycott of apartheid South Africa, we must now refuse to play sports in apartheid Israel.
In earlier times, New Zealand sporting greats such as Ken Gray, Graham Mourie, Bruce Robertson, David Kirk, Bob Burgess, John Kirwin and Anne Hare refused to compete with South African apartheid era sports teams.
We call on Swimming New Zealand to demonstrate its commitment to anti-racism and genuine transformation through sport by pulling out of the World Junior Championships and refusing to be complicit in Israeli apartheid.
We are urging Swimming New Zealand to do the right thing and abandon this event in apartheid Israel.
We look forward to hearing from you shortly.
Nā,
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa