Bethlehem - Ma‘an - Tomorrow, Saturday 24th March, the England football team will play the Israel football team in a Euro 2008 qualifier match in Israel.
In a press release, the UK–based Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) campaign announced that it will hold a vigil ‘in protest at the match and to call for a sporting boycott of apartheid Israel.‘
BIG says that the vigil ‘will commemorate those Palestinian children killed while playing football.‘ BIG adds that, from September 2000 to December 2006, 869 Palestinian children have been killed, a quarter of whom were under twelve. Therefore, every month an average of fourteen children will die. ‘Many have been killed just kicking a ball around,‘ BIG says.
In its campaign against Israeli apartheid-like policies, BIG says it wishes to re-enact the successful campaign against apartheid South Africa. BIG says that ‘Israel has been engaged in the illegal military occupation of Palestinian land since 1967 and operates an entrenched system of racial discrimination against it non-Jewish citizens.‘ Thus, ‘it is necessary to boycott Israeli sport until it complies with international humanitarian law,‘ BIG states.
BIG‘s vigil will be attended by Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG). J-BIG were formed earlier this year to belie the myth that the boycott campaign is anti-Jewish.
BIG adds that this vigil is just part of a larger campaign in protest against Israel’s inclusion in Euro 2008.