USACBI is happy to welcome to its Advisory Board the well-known sports journalist and social activist, Dave Zirin. Zirin is a contributing writer for The Nation and author of many books including The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World and Brazil’s Dance With the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy. In 2010, Zirin wrote a column defending the Turkish U-19 soccer team for boycotting a match with Israel. He is an endorser of the USACBI call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. More recently he has written articles critical of Cleveland Cavaliers Coach David Blatt, a former Israeli soldier, and an “open letter” critical of a propaganda trip to Israel for NBA players arranged by Zionist billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Zirin also criticizes Adelson in this Electronic Intifada podcast.

In working with Zirin, USACBI is pushing forward with building a sports boycott movement that is integral to challenging the utilization of sports to legitimize Israeli apartheid and to whitewash its occupation and violence. Palestinians are denied the right to participate freely in sports events and training, even as sports is celebrated as an arena of universal inclusion. As in the case of South Africa, we think it is time for American solidarity activists, athletes, sports fans, and people of conscience to refuse complicity with Israeli apartheid and not to cross the sports picket line.