About

Apartheid Racism and the ethnic cleansing and genocide it causes is the worst manifestation of racism

Football Against Apartheid opposes Apartheid Racism:
  • as practiced by Israel today and for 66 years against the Palestinian people
  • as practiced by Apartheid South Africa which was expelled from African football Confederation in 1958 for reason of Apartheid Racism
FACT: Apartheid Israel was previously expelled by the Asian Football Association in 1974 for reason of Apartheid Racism, but was later accepted into UEFA in 1994 despite being geographically distant from Europe.

Apartheid as practised by Israel means:

  1.    Players arrested, tortured and jailed without charge for several years. (International Mahmoud Sarsak best known case)
  2.    Players attacked shot, maimed and disabled  ( Best known case  Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, Adam Abd al-Raouf Halabiya, 17 )
  3.    Football Stadium has been deliberately bombed and destroyed   (most recently on 26 November 2012)
  4.    Football and other sporting equipment supplied by FIFA seized by Israel  (Details is The General’s Son by Miko Peled)
The Israeli military Occupation of Palestine by Israel and division prevents Palestinian football officials, players and fans from travelling between the two major parts of Palestine which means Palestinians are:
  •     Unable to play international matches “At Home”
  •     Unable to organise national league or cup competitions
  •     Unable to travel to watch or support their national team at “home”  or “Away” matches
  •      Football Against Apartheid believes that football fans through out the world must unite to bring apartheid racism to an end.

The governing bodies of football rightly proclaim that racism is a scourge on our sport and rightly tackle incidents of racial taunts by players and fans,  but to date: 

  • The Football Association (FA) has taken no action to end apartheid racism, its massacres and ethnic cleansing (read Ilan Pappe)
  • The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), despite the president’s pronouncements against racism has taken no action against apartheid despite protests at UEFAs offices,   on the contrary UEFA has rewarded Israeli Apartheid with prestigious UEFA tournament finals 
  • FIFA , despite all its talk of fighting racism allowed Apartheid Israel to enter football via the Oceanic Football Confederation and UEFA after Asian Football Confederation expelled it for racism in 1974
  • FIFA congress in Sao Paulo in Brazil on 10 June 2014 will hear a call from the Palestinian Football Association to expel Apartheid Israel and its genocidal ethnic cleansing from FIFA.
How Football Against Apartheid (FAA)  campaigns:
  • FAA puts anti-apartheid football fans in touch with others to establish new groups at every Football Club, world wide. We organise short joint (home & away fans against apartheid) recruitment campaigns for an hour before matches.
Why should Israel be expelled from FIFA:
Football Against Apartheid fully supports the call by Jibril Rajoub, chair of the Palestinian Football Association, to expel apartheid Israel from FIFA at the FIFA Congress in Brazil in June 2014, because:
• Israel has about 60 established or proposed racist laws (see Adalah), half of which have been proposed in the last three years.
• It encourages widespread discrimination and practices ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide.
•  Israel was admitted to UEFA in 1994 and has maintained its membership ever since, despite Israel’s restrictions on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and penalising footballers.
• The restrictions have meant that often a full Palestinian team cannot be brought together.
• Palestinian footballers are jailed without trial, and denied access to their family even by phone for up to 3 years
• The Palestinian national team may have qualified for Olympic final had 8 players from GAZA been allowed to play in the decisive match, which was lost by 5 – 3 on penalties.
• Palestinian football fans are racially abused and attacked and hospitalised at Israeli league matches, career ending bullets in legs whilst returning home from training.
• Children playing football in local park have been massacred
• The National stadium has been bombed several times
• In October 2010 Mr Platini acknowledged this problem and made threats to expel Israel from UEFA if restrictions were not removed. He has never followed up on these promises.

OUR DEMANDS:

An end to discrimination in football
• We want institutional racism out of the FA, UEFA, and FIFA as well as the Met Police
• We fight against all forms of discrimination on grounds of race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, disability, and we celebrate our differences.
• We want procedures in place at the FA to redress the imbalance of white male dominated hierarchy, and football management to be a fair reflection of our multi-cultural society.
• We agree Arsenal / Spurs or fans at fans call themselves anything they like. Yid, Yid army, is anti-anti-Semitic and rhymes and imitates Red, Red Army. Football wit and fun. But it’s certainly NOT alright for Arsenal fans or any other fans to racially abuse Spurs fans, or indeed any anyone, any where.
• We respect Jewish people and we champion Jewish anti-Zionist campaigners Miko Peled and Ilan Pappe and others who want sport and football in particular to be seen up front opposing racist Apartheid and racist Zionism. (Both Peled & Pappe have written excellent books on the subject).

Activism in football

• We plan joint demonstrations of unity of Football Against Apartheid with home and away Anti-Apartheid banners at as many League Matches as possible every week to inform fans, about apartheid. Local rivalries occur naturally in football, but anti-apartheid fans at all clubs unite to campaign against the evil of Apartheid racism and ethnic cleansing at all our clubs.
• As the World Cup approaches Football Against Apartheid will highlight the dangers of racism, fascism and apartheid and campaign world-wide to kick them out of football, and call on people around the world to sign the petition to EXPEL Israeli Apartheid from world football: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/643/930/477/expel-israeli-apartheid-from-fifa-world-and-uefa-european-football/
• We call on all football fans to ensure that fascists never again get a foothold in our sport

Democracy in football

• We demand an end to billionaire’s control of our game
• We call for 5% of all share sales to be set aside for democratic control by the fans of every club where shares are exchanged / sold.
• Genuine and transparent elections for every post in football. We want fans views to matter more.
• We want genuine elections and votes for fans regarding admission of a new “Nation” such as Gibraltar to UEFA.
An end to the greed in football
• We want an end to working class fans being currently frozen out & overcharged to watch football
• We want 25% of all attendance to be safe, low cost standing room.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED:
• Support Football Against Apartheid
• (FAA) groups are now established at Premiership clubs: Spurs, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea & Liverpool, with groups developing at Crystal Palace, and need your support.
• Message Football Against Apartheid on Facebook to consider how we may work together to establish a campaign at your club.
• Or Email:  join@footballagainstapartheid.org
• Twitter:  @FAApartheid