Press release by the Solidarity Network against the occupation of Palestine:
Don”t play with apartheid and occupation; Israeli Davis Cup team is not welcomed in Murcia.
On September 18th, 19th and 20th Israel will play in Murcia against Spain in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup. Antonio García Alarcón, President of the regional tennis Federation in charge of organizing the event has declared to the press that he is proud of the security dispositive guaranteeing access to the game “Murcia has been chosen specifically due to special security requirements of the visiting team”
Murcia local newspaper “La Opinión de Murcia” published on august 24th “Mossad agents will secure the whole region to preserve their tennis players security”[1]”Special security requirements for the visiting team” according to previous experiences, refer to the Davis Cup Israeli team as a not welcomed national team in our country. Authorities are very aware and they are trying to secure the whole city due to the coming protests and mobilizations that are being called. This is why they are securing Murcia with Mossad agents.
The reason why Israeli teams are not welcomed in Spain and need special security is the continuity of the colonization process that Israeli is conducting in Palestine, the massacre and ongoing attacks against Gaza the expansion of settlements in occupied land, the closure of Palestinians into Bantustans, the rejection of allowing the right of return to millions of Palestinian refugees and the apartheid system that Israel is based upon. Is the Spanish government putting internal security tasks into the hands of foreign agents?
We have no doubt about it. Every time Maccabi Tel Aviv is playing in Spain, our arenas are full of Israeli security agents. Every time somebody tries to fly to Palestine, Israeli agents in our airports will interrogate, search, humiliate and even not allow the passenger to fly. Full collaboration between Spanish security services and Israeli agents became normal. Now they are announcing openly that Israeli agents will secure civil society demonstrations against the presence of Israel teams in Murcia.
Israel is not welcomed in Murcia for the same reasons it was not welcomed in Sweden, where they were forced to play with no public, surrounded by a security dispositive while thousands demonstrated in the streets. We reject official invitations to Israeli teams. We reject them playing in our country. We reject normalizing sports relations with a State that is in flagrant violation of the whole system of International lawWe openly propose that our government and local authorities rectify and decide that Spain and Israel will play “closed doors” with no public to acknowledge that Israel sports teams are not welcomed in our country.
Nonviolent direct actions promoted, among others by the solidarity network against the occupation of Palestine happen in the framework of the Global call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions launched by Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005 and that gained momentum due to international protests against the Israeli aggression in Gaza early this year. The global BDS campaign is a nonviolent, principled and rights based approach campaign. We are only asking for the enforcement of international law regarding the occupation Palestine, the apartheid wall, the discrimination system, the siege on Gaza and the denial of the right of return.
Until full rights are guaranteed for the Palestinians, nonviolent punitive measures will be applied with the aim of raising awareness about the Israeli crimes. Demonstrating against Israeli cultural and sport ambassadors. Davis Cup tennis team being only of them. As it has happened in previous visits of Israeli teams in our country, the games will face protests. Nonviolent protests. No doors can be put on the sea. By securing Murcia with security, Spanish or Israeli they won”t achieve anything. If they play, demonstrations will happen. As it happened in Sweden, as it as happened every time Israeli apartheid representatives, with their flags and national anthem try to whitewash the face of their regime. The Israeli regime has to be isolated and pressure has to be enforced until they behave as a civilized country.
We hope citizens and organizations in Murcia will follow the call made by H. E. Father Miguel D´Escoto Brockmann, President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, regarding Israel:”Twenty years ago we played a major role when following civil society and decided it was necessary to apply sanctions to put a nonviolent pressure against South Africa. Today we shall follow the example of a new generation of our civil society that is calling to a similar nonviolent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to put pressure on Israel.
