Adidas weighs withdrawal of sponsorship of Jerusalem Int’l Marathon that goes thru occupied villages

by on January 7, 2011 8
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From Coteret. Marathon route goes through Issawiya, Sheikh Jarrah, Shuafat refugee camp. Int'l pressure is at work.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel/Palestine

{ 8 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. pabelmont says:
    January 7, 2011 at 12:11 pm

    BDS comment (my style):

    We cannot ask Israelis not to run in (or sponsor) their own marathons (tho we might ask them not to run in (or sponsor) exercises within the OPTs), but Americans can and should ask Adidas (and other non-Israeli sponsors) not to sponsor ANY exercises/activities within Israel (until occupation ends or is legal, etc, etc.).

  2. Kathleen says:
    January 7, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    Excellent..more sunlight on apartheid conditions and strategies being used by the Israeli government

  3. Potsherd2 says:
    January 7, 2011 at 1:26 pm

    I had heard this route was already changed because of pressure.

  5. Henry Norr says:
    January 7, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    The Coteret article Phil links to is dated Dec. 12. I just did a little googling and came up with the following Jan. 2 entry at a blog called “Israel matzav”:

    Jerusalem Marathon route changed

    Adidas has caved in to the threat of an international boycott, the Jerusalem City Council has caved in to Adidas, and the Jerusalem Marathon will be rerouted not to take in any areas of Jerusalem that were liberated in 1967, including the Jewish neighborhoods in those parts of the city.

    The Jerusalem Municipality had decided to change the course of the Jerusalem Marathon. The new route will not include running paths in areas of Jerusalem that were added to the city after 1967. Last month, two Meretz members of the Jerusalem City Council asked Adidas, which I sponsoring the marathon, to pull out of its sponsorship, threatening to start an international campaign accusing the company of supporting “occupation.”

    Municipality officials denied that it was pressure from Adidas that led to the change of the route. In a statement, a city spokesperson said that the municipality was hoping to keep politics out of the event.

    Maybe they forgot to point that out to the ‘loyal opposition.’

    The blog is written by “Carl in Jerusalem,” whose description of himself begins: “I am an Orthodox Jew – some would even call me ‘ultra-Orthodox.’ Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991.”

  6. Stephanie Westbrook says:
    January 7, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    The only news source I’ve found talking of a change to the route is Jan 2 Ma’an article, which cites the Ma’ariv article.
    link to maannews.net

    An LA Times article (link to tinyurl.com
    from Dec 14 also cites the Maariv article, but adds:

    Peleg [who handles the city's sports affairs] said the course wouldn’t be changed, and a notice from the organizers posted on a runners forum assured the athletes (in Hebrew) in no uncertain terms that the marathon would go ahead as planned under the Adidas sponsorship and that any changes — if there were any — would be minor and not affect the “amazing course.”

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