By John Minto
Older readers will know about the international solidarity campaign against apartheid South Africa which came to a head in the 1970s and 1980s.
The campaign was led by the liberation movements, the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress, which asked for international solidarity through boycotts of white South Africa in all areas: diplomatic, trade, economic, cultural, sports, academia etc It was seen as the best way the international movement could support the liberation struggle from outside South Africa.
The idea was to build intense pressure on South Africa’s white regime to make it impossible for them to continue their racist apartheid policies against black South Africans.
India was one of the first countries outside Africa to take action in support of international sanctions as millions of Indian South Africans faced racist discrimination from South Africa’s apartheid policies which divided the country into four groups based on race – Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Asians (mainly Indians) – and legalised discrimination of people depending on their racial classification.
Predictably, western countries were much slower to act.
But of all the links with the outside world white South Africa enjoyed, it was the sports boycott which had the greatest impact. White South Africans knew the world was complaining about their racist policies and there were calls to boycott but this was just a vague irritating noise in the background. The sports boycott changed all that.
In defiance of South Africa’s race-based policies the non-racial sports movement inside the country formed SACOS (South African Council on Sport) to organise sport on a non-racial basis while SANROC (South African Non-Racial Olympic committee) spearheaded the boycott internationally.
Sport is central to a country’s national identity because of its powerful ties to national pride and cultural distinctiveness. It was therefore the sports boycott of South Africa which brought the greatest pressure from outside the country to end apartheid. It was sport which became a weathervane in the anti-apartheid struggle.
When Papwa Sewgolum was forced to stand in the rain outside the whites-only clubhouse to receive the winner’s trophy after the 1965 Natal Open golf tournament, millions of people around the world saw the ugly reality of life under apartheid.
Sport touches everyone.
Similar to Apartheid South Africa, Apartheid Israel uses its participation in international sporting structures as a tool for normalizing its system of apartheid. Palestinians are making the same call against normalization, to isolate Apartheid Israel and hold it accountable for its crimes against humanity.
The appalling genocide being conducted in Gaza is just the latest example of industrial-scale slaughter of Palestinians by Apartheid Israel’s leaders. In January this year Israel killed the Palestinian Olympic football coach, Hani Al Masdar, and destroyed the office of the Palestinian Olympic Committee in Gaza.
Sport cannot be separated from other aspects of life under apartheid. As SACOS used to say “you cannot have normal sport in an abnormal society”. This is just as true today for Apartheid Israel as it was for Apartheid South Africa. It is unconscionable that Israel should continue to enjoy participation in international sporting organisations and international sporting events while Palestinians and Palestinian sportspeople are being massacred in their tens of thousands – the majority killed being women and children – by Israel’s apartheid regime.
Just as the progressive world supported the call for a sporting boycott to isolate apartheid South Africa, we must campaign for Israel to be suspended from international sports organisations and international sporting events until it ends its grave violations of international law – particularly its apartheid rule and the crime of genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza.
The campaign for Israel to be suspended from the 2024 Paris Olympics is gathering momentum. It is scandalous that Israel has not been suspended in the same way Russia and Belarus have been because of their involvement in the invasion of Ukraine.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus cannot complete under their countries’ flags. They can compete only as “Individual Neutral Athletes”. Any Russian or Belarusian athletes who “actively support the war cannot compete” and any of their athletes “who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies cannot compete” Similarly, “support personnel who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies cannot be entered”
Harsh conditions for a country which attacks a European country. But what about a country which commits genocide against Palestinians?
So far not a peep from the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee and a glance at a picture of the executive board is not encouraging.
The board is hardly representative of humanity. The Board Chair is from Germany with three of the four deputy chairs also European. In nine of the 15 board positions are held by Europeans while Europeans make up just 9.32% of the world’s population! The only person from Africa on the Board is a European from Zimbabwe and the only person from Asia is based in Singapore.
Will this board hold Israel to account as it is holding Russia and Belarus to account? Or will the board provide protection for Apartheid Israel on behalf of western interests and resist calls for Israel’s suspension?
Time will tell but the signs are not good.
In the case of white South Africa the International Olympic Committee did all it could to protect the country and keep it in the Olympics. It is likely to do the same to protect Apartheid Israel.
However, no matter what the IOC does, it is how the rest of humanity reacts which determines the outcome.
It is good people around the world who ultimately have the power to force change. International solidarity with oppressed people is the most powerful way to force change on the corporate and the comfortable.
The power of sporting boycotts must now be used against the indiscriminate, industrial-scale slaughter of Palestinians by the settler colonial state of Apartheid Israel.
Before you go…
You can find out more about the sports boycott campaign against Apartheid Israel here and you can sign petitions to ban Israel from the Olympics here and from all international sports here.
Nā,
John Minto
National Chair
For MLN
21 June 2024