Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

4-minute read
16 July 2023 | 16:05 CAT

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Several organizations, including the SA BDS Coalition, have spoken out against the planned friendly soccer match between South African Orlando Pirates and apartheid Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Coalition was not satisfied with the response from Orlando Pirates, who, in a statement, acknowledged the “plight” of the Palestinians, but the match will go ahead.

The Orlando Pirates are scheduled to play the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv on July 13 in Marbella, Spain. Despite increasing pressure and appeals from all quarters, the Pirates have justified the decision to participate in the match by citing the rules of the world’s football governing body FIFA, saying they must adhere to the rules to safeguard the club’s reputation and future.

In response to the decision of Orlando Pirates to participate in the match, The Coalition’s Hassen Lorgat said there is nothing friendly about playing with those who kill people with impunity.

“The Israelis yesterday have removed a family from their home that they’ve been staying in for 75 years with the backing of a court in Old Jerusalem. It is with impunity that this occurs,” says Lorgat.

On Monday, hours after the club rejected an appeal by the BDS to cancel the match, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) said that the club would be guilty of “sportswashing” if it goes ahead with the match against the Israeli team. It said that the club had a moral obligation to boycott the match, referring to its anti-apartheid past when it routinely went against apartheid rules and policies of the time, hired black South African footballers, and supported the international boycott of the apartheid government. It had even been banned from using government infrastructure in the apartheid era.

PACBI stated that the “Palestinians are not calling for charity but for the most basic form of solidarity, and that is to do no harm to our struggle for freedom, justice and equality. Playing with a team representing apartheid Israel would normalize apartheid and sportswash it, and that would harm our struggle for a future without apartheid and settler-colonialism. Just as those who fought apartheid in South Africa expected international teams to heed the call from the oppressed South African majority not to play with representatives of that regime, Palestinians are asking Orlando Pirates not to play with Maccabi Tel Aviv.”

Several news articles have also appeared written by long-standing Pirates fans expressing disappointment over the club’s decision.

Listen to the full interview on Your World Today with Mufti Yusuf Moosagie.