“Sport is inherently political. National teams represent the state and are often used to build cultural capital and international legitimacy,” Moviment Graffitti said in a statement. 

This, it continued, was clearly acknowledged when Russia was expelled from all European sporting bodies, including the rugby union, following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Israel engages in sports-washing – using cultural institutions, including sports, to mask its brutal oppression of the Palestinian people.”

The NGO explained that the “apartheid policies” of Israel are most visible in sport because as “athletes enjoy unrestricted participation in international events, Palestinian athletes under occupation are routinely denied travel permits, imprisoned, maimed, or even killed.”

“The last international tour by apartheid South Africa’s rugby team took place in 1981. From that point until the fall of the apartheid regime, the world rightly boycotted South Africa’s team in protest against its racist and oppressive state policies,” Moviment Graffitti exemplified even further.

In addition to implementing an apartheid system, Israel is now perpetrating full-fledged genocide which has destroyed the infrastructure, healthcare and education in Gaza, killing over 50,000 people, the NGO stated.

“Just days ago, 15 paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza were executed by Israeli forces – shot in the head at close range and buried in a mass grave.”

Israel’s actions, Moviment Graffitti continued, is a “profound moral failing” that should be met with its isolation – including by expelling it from international sporting organisations, the NGO concluded.

The organisations responsible for the protest are: