Palestinian soccer star Mahmoud Sarsak (Photo: Paris Horizontal Gallery)
Mahmoud Sarsak, the iconic Palestinian soccer star who was thrust into international fame after starving himself to protest his illegal imprisonment, is currently touring the UK campaigning for a boycott of the European Under-21 Championship. Sarsak has one message; the UEFA is wrong to allow Israel to host the tournament, which is now underway.
Protesting outside the UEFA Congress in London, speaking at public meetings and cafes, Sarsak is telling his story. CNN‘s article begins with a dramatic statement, “Mahmoud Sarsak is twice the man he used to be,” then cuts to his boyhood dream, growing up in a refugee camp in Gaza:
“It runs through the family blood. All of my brothers played,” he says.
“When I was growing up I looked up to Palestinian players. We didn’t have TV so we didn’t know anything of any international players. We looked up to them because they were so confident and happy. They made people smile. They brought spirit and life into the destructive places we were living in. That’s what I wanted to do. Put smiles onto people’s faces in such a hard place to live.”
It soon became clear that Sarsak had talent. At 14 he became the youngest player to represent the Rafah soccer team, and was called up for an international tournament in Norway. Soon he came to the attention of the Palestinian national team, which has been recognized by FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, for more than 15 years.
But it wasn’t until 2009 that Sarsak was offered a professional contract with a team in the West Bank. Finally he managed to secure the hard-to-come-by permit required by Palestinians to leave Gaza.
“I was delighted,” Sarsak recalls of the day he left his home.
“Through football I would be able to help my family survive. I was on my way to establishing myself as an independent person. Building a home, building a family. The day before I traveled, all my friends came and celebrated. Everyone was delighted.”
CNN’s article recounts Mahmoud Sarsak’s harrowing experience: picked up and detained without charge, on the very cusp of his achievement, and held under the draconian Israeli military system of administrative detention, illegal under international law, for 3 years of harsh sometimes tortuous imprisonment.
A child whose talents were recognized early on, whose spirit and beauty brought joy to the hearts of Palestinians. In many many ways Mahmoud Sarsak’s story and his dream reminds me very much of other famous, young, talented, charismatic Palestinians thrust into international spotlight.
The acclaimed Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh is still languishing in jail. Award winning photo journalist Mohammad al-Azza was shot in the face while doing his job. Broadcast Journalist Musab Shawer Al-Tamimi, and the list goes on and on and on. Like the singer Mohammed Assaf, who made his way to fame before the occupier had a chance to crush him.
Israel targets children, sometimes on their way to school in the morning, often blighting their lives from their teens on. Those lucky enough to make it to their twenties, who are vocal about their conditions, are a threat to Israel’s national security– especially if they are successful.
The two-week tournament began Wednesday in Israel. Kudos to CNN for covering Sarsak’s UK tour and for asking Should soccer boycott Israel’s European Championship?
You be the judge:
“UEFA should not allow Israel to use a prestigious football occasion to whitewash its racist denial of Palestinian rights and its illegal occupation of Palestinian land.”
But, for some of those campaigning for a boycott of the tournament, they say the most damning evidence comes from Sarsak’s own experiences while in detention.
“This (hunger strike) was the only way left to achieve my liberation,” he claims. “The Israelis killed my hope, killed my dreams, killed everything. It was either to live in dignity or be buried underground.”
I owuld like this boycott better….
South African bodies call for Israel to be excluded from diamond processing over ‘war crimes’
Published time: June 06, 2013 14:30
Edited time: June 06, 2013 15:09
A villager holds some diamonds dug out from a mine outside the village of Sam Ouandja, northeast of the Central African Republic.(Reuters / David Lewis)
South African human rights groups, trade unions and major civil society organisations are calling for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to exclude Israel from diamond processing.
The certification scheme is designed to stop ‘conflict diamonds’ from entering the mainstream diamond market and was set up in 2003. The organisation which runs the scheme is currently meeting in South Africa.
The coalition of organisations such as South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers, the country’s largest trade union federation COSATU; South African Students Congress; the Coalition for a Free Palestine and BDS South Africa say that “billions of dollars’ worth of diamonds exported via Israel are a major source of revenue for the Israeli military, which stands accused of war crimes.”
The coalition is calling for Israel to be excluded from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme due to its human rights record against Palestinians, and to end all exports of rough diamonds to Israel immediately.
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is the process to prevent “conflict diamonds” from entering the mainstream rough diamond market. Established by UN GA Resolution 55/56 in 2003, the process is aimed “to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments.” In order for a country to be a participant, it must ensure that any diamond originating from the country does not finance a rebel group or other entity seeking to overthrow a UN-recognized government, that every diamond export be accompanied by a Kimberley Process certificate and that no diamond is imported from, or exported to, a non-member of the scheme. As of 30 November 2012, there were 54 participants in the KPCS representing 80 countries, with the European Union counting as a single participant.
The organizations also wants to ban diamond polishing and cutting in Israel. They claim excluding Israel from the diamond processing would be a great chance for the South African authorities to display “moral vision and political leadership”.
“The Kimberley Process has played an important role over the past decade in resolving conflicts linked to the diamond trade but there is no doubt that it has to be reformed… [by] expanding the definition of conflict to include human rights abuses linked to diamond extraction perpetrated by governments and companies; and expanding downstream monitoring so that the process covers not just the rough diamond trade but also the international movement and polishing of diamonds,” Southern Africa Resource Watch director Claude Kabemba told the Business Day newspaper.
The coalition also pointed to the local benefits of such a move, claiming it could bring more diamond processing jobs back to South Africa. “Consumers will have a clear conscience that their diamonds are not funding, assisting or in any way involved with the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, and more jobs will be created locally for our people by bringing this diamond processing back home instead of it being done in Israel,” South African activist Mbuyiseni Ndlozi is quoted by the Middle East Monitor as saying.
The Kimberley Process, established a decade ago to help resolve international diamond trade conflicts and to ensure that the diamond trade is not used as an instrument to fund military rebellions and other violence interfering with human rights. The organization includes 54 participants representing 90 countries while its members account for about 99.8 percent of the global production of rough diamonds, the Middle East Monitor reports
http://rt.com/business/israel-africa-diamonds-human-rights-324/
RE: “CNN asks: Should soccer boycott Israel’s European Championship tournament?“
MY REPLY TO CNN’S QUERY: “Is the Pope Catholic?”
SEE – “Suspicion and Hate: Racist Attacks On Arabs Increase in Israel”, By Julia Amalia Heyer, Spiegel Online, 6/05/13
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/racist-attacks-against-arabs-increase-in-israel-a-903529.html
International soccer is totally corrupt. Qatar will host the 2022 World cup FFS. In summer.
So not surprised that Israel got the nod. The bots need it.
Let them have it.
It won’t be for much longer they can bask in the admiration of the world.
“Israel targets children, sometimes on their way to school in the morning, often blighting their lives from their teens on. Those lucky enough to make it to their twenties, who are vocal about their conditions, are a threat to Israel’s national security– especially if they are successful.”
Targets children? You linked to a poster from Ma’an. What’s the proof these boys are 10-14? Why were they the subject of a poster? Did you investigate their ages or the facts of their cases? If one threw a rock that injured an Israeli child, would you still claim that Israel “targets children?” How about if they threw a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli child? Do Palestinian suicide bombers who blow up babies “target children?”
“Those lucky enough to make it to their twenties, who are vocal about their conditions, are a threat to Israel’s national security– especially if they are successful.””
Those lucky enough? Do most Palestinians not make it to their twenties? Do a large minority not make it into their 20s?
We hosted Mahmoud in Liverpool, U.K. last week, he spoke very calmly and eloquently about his experience. It was truly inspiring and thought provoking for all of us.