hussain.mahammed
a lonely traveller
Innovative Minds and the Islamic Human Rights Commission are calling on campaigners to contact Arsenal Football Club and protest their decision to signed a sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination.
Palestinian children play football in fear of israeli snipers who may at any time decide to "have some fun" and target them from from inside the fortified Israeli settlement built illegally on their land.
"The Israeli army claimed that the soldiers shot dead 11 year old Khalil in self-defense. However, a report issued by the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, denies the Israeli army’s claims and accuses it of lying. Its investigation confirms that the 11 year old victim was playing football with his friends when he was fatally shot. The report further proves that he did not pose any threat to the Israeli soldiers’ lives, who were positioned in a watchtower a kilometer away..."
Arsenal Football Club has just signed (26th February) a sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination.
The £350,000 agreement makes Israel Arsenal's "official and exclusive travel destination." Israel will be featured on digital perimeter boards and 450 high-definition LCD screens at the stadium on game days.
The tourism ministry will also have access to the club's official website Arsenal.com, database and magazine to promote Israel as a holiday destination
The televised ads will reach audiences of up to 700 million in an estimated 198 countries. The Israeli Tourism Ministry will also receive intellectual property rights, the use of the team logo and the right to use photos of the team and its players in ads. For an additional fee, Arsenal players will also appear in the ads.
The deal doesn't stop with promoting Israel but actually grants Israel a physical presence in the stadium. The Israeli Tourism Ministry can use the stadium's banquet hall twice a year and can organize an exhibition at the end of the playing season.[3] The stadium will also feature permanent sales tables for t-shirts.
The two-year sponsorship deal begins at the start of next football season in six months' time.
With the world boycotting Israel as a tourist destination Israeli tourism minister Abraham Hirchson admitted employing Ernst & Young financial advisers to help develop a new strategy to entice people to Israel. He estimated that the sponsorship deal will bring in an additional 2 million tourist to Israel annually
Arsenal's managing director, Keith Edelman at a press conference in Israel explained how Arsenal could help sell apartheid Israel: "We are the largest club in London and have 30 million fans around the world. We are in the forefront of the anti-racism campaign in England and have an excellent brand that can promote any product... we will assist Israel become a more popular destination". He also promised "when we find the time, club representatives and players will come to visit Israel,".
A grieving father Hussein Maqanen holds a poster of his two sons killed by the Israelis. Ibrahim was aged 14, and Adel was aged 17. Adel was killed whilst playing football.
Israeli snipers targeted him from inside a military bunker on a hill overlooking the patch of dirt which was his football field near Khan Younis.
The Jerusalem Post has hinted that Arsenal's chief shareholder, Danny Fiszman, vice chairman David Dein and managing director Edelman have used their Jewish backgrounds to steer the club towards Israeli causes including setting up football academies in Israel at a time when when Palestinian children are routinely targeted by israeli snipers whilst they play football.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz confirmed this, quoting Uzi Gafni, a director of the Israeli Tourism ministry on the Arsenal deal as saying "I knew I needed someone with ties to Judaism, Edelman may not go to synagogue every Friday, but there are warm Jews at Arsenal who wanted to give something to Israel.".
16 year old Jaser recovering after being shot with an Israeli M-16 machine gun whilst playing football. The bullet left an 8 cm hole in Jaser's liver.
IMPACT OF ISRAELI APARTHEID ON PALESTINIAN FOOTBALL
While Israeli sportsmen and women travel freely around the world, the Palestinian team has to surmount a labyrinth of checkpoints and border crossings just to play their "home" matches overseas.
With no decent pitches on which to train and a suspended national league, their success in getting to the preliminary qualifiers cannot be overstated.
Furthermore, Israeli authorities regularly prevent Palestinian players from attending international games. In September 2004, five players were prevented from travelling to the World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan. Unable to play in Palestine, the team travels to Doha, Qatar, for "home" games and trains in Ismailia, Egypt, more than 100 miles from the local Gaza players' homes.
In September 2004, five players were prevented from travelling to the World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan
Israel's labyrinth of checkpoints makes just getting to and from training a journey fraught with danger. Players from the West Bank have to circumvent Israel's Apartheid Wall, take a bus to Amman (Jordan) and then fly to Cairo to meet up with their Gazan teammates.
Travelling within the Gaza Strip can take hours because of the checkpoints. For instance, it took Palestinian players 40 hours to get to Rafah from the Egyptian border - a distance of 100 metres - after last year's Uzbekistan match. Upon returning home from the Uzbekistan match in Doha, Striker Ziad Al Kourd discovered his house in the Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah had been destroyed. The Israeli army had demolished it whilst looking for smuggling tunnels. In his absence they have since deemed Al Kourd a security threat and banned him from travelling.
Despite these hurdles, their recent success has inspired tens of thousands of Palestinian children to hope that there can be a future beyond the latest Israeli curfew.
Israeli Checkpoints - After the Uzbekistan match, it took the players 40 hours to get to Rafah from the Egyptian border
- a distance of just 100 metres
Palestine's future generations and sporting talent is being wasted by illegal occupation, restrictions on movement and collective punishment. Since September 2000 Israeli forces have killed over 3,565 Palestinians - 22% of whom were children. In the past year alone Israeli soldiers have killed 176 Palestinian children. Many more have been left seriously injured by snipers and tank shells - unable to kick a football again.
Although youth under 17 make up more than 50% of the population of Palestine, there are few resources available to them under the occupation. Youth centres have been destroyed by the Israeli army. For instance, prior to the April 2002 reinvasion of West Bank towns and cities, the Old City of Nablus had 13 youth institutions. Now only 5 of these are operating.
Upon returning home from the Uzbekistan match, Striker Ziad Al Kourd discovered his house in the Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah had been demolished by the Israeli army!
Despite the restrictions imposed on them, Palestinian children continue to defy Israeli curfews just to play soccer in the streets. Their steadfast resistance to occupation is mirrored in the determination of the Palestinian team to one day hear their national anthem played to tens of thousands of cheering supporters in a home ground in a Free Palestine.
SUGGESTED ACTION
1)We are calling on all campaigners to write to Arsenal Football Club to protest their decision to support Israel. Remind them that Israel is a racist apartheid state which is consistently in breach of international law in its human rights abuses; that Israeli snipers routinely target Palestinian children playing football and that such a deal endangers Arsenal's anti-racist reputation: Invite them to instead support the sports boycott of Israel.
2)Contact the Football Association's ‘Kick Racism out of Football' Campaign reminding them that Israel is a racist apartheid state which is consistently in breach of international law in its human rights abuses; that Israeli snipers routinely target Palestinian children playing football; and that such a deal endangers the FA's anti-racist reputation and the Kick it Out campaign itself.
THE EMIRATES CONNECTION
It was revealed that before approaching Arsenal FC, Israel had tryed to entice two other European football clubs to help sell apartheid Israel as a holiday resort. Both clubs pulled out of the deal.
JUVENTUS DUMPS ISRAEL
The tourism ministry has previously looked at tying up deals with Italian club Juventus, but this fell through after another sponsor, Libyan oil company Tamoil, opposed the move.Tamoils agreement with Juventus involved an initial sum of €110 million to cover the period between July 2005 and July 2010, in exchange for which the Libyan-based oil company Tamoil will receive exclusive shirt sponsorship rights.for 5 years. A further €130 million has been agreed to cover the following 5 years, making the deal worth a total of €240 million.[8] Although the agreement did not bar Juventus from seeking other sponsors Tamoils 10 year shirt sponsorship deal gave it sufficient clout to convince Juventus to dump Israel.
AC MILAN DUMPS ISRAEL
Next the Israeli Tourism Ministry approached the Italian Serie A club AC Milan which initially agreed. However before launch they also dumped Israel. Israels Tourism Ministry was furious and asked israeli prime minister Sharon to intervene:
AC-Milan Online reported:
Sharon asked to help win AC Milan sponsorship. Israel's tourism ministry has appealed to prime minister Ariel Sharon to take advantage of his personal friendship with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi to persuade Italian football club AC Milan to reverse its decision not to act as a testimonial for Israel. Owned by Berlusconi, Milan, one of the world's most famous teams, has decided not to accept 550,000 euros from the Israeli tourism ministry in exchange for promoting travel by Italian tourists to Israel.
Despite such pressure AC-Milan refused to help Israel.
ARSENAL SAYS YES, BUT WHY?
After these failed attempts, Uzi Gafni (a director of the Israeli Tourism Ministry) decided to approach clubs in England:
"We didn't go near Chelsea because of its anti-Semitic image prior to the Abramovich era, Manchester United arouses antagonism, and Tottenham, despite its Jewish connection, isn't big enough. Luckily, Arsenal got back to me, just two days after I made the initial contact.”
Arsenals main sponsor is United Arab Emirate's-based Emirates Airways. Emirates airlines' 15-year stadium and eight-year shirt sponsorship deal is worth $175m.[10] With such negotiating power why didn't Emirates kill the deal?
At a press conference with Israeli Tourism Minister Avraham Hirchson the Arsenal managing director Keith Edelman said the campaign was given the blessing of Emirates Airlines. "Before we strike any deal, we discuss it with our partners. This was the situation here as well,".
Edelman added that representatives of United Arab Emirate's-based Emirates Airways, one of the club's main sponsors, were kept abreast of developments throughout negotiations with Israel and have voiced no objections to the deal.
Initially Emirates VP for corporate communications Mike Simon told Gulf News that the Israeli deal will have no impact on Emirates investment in Arsenal. But with public pressure already mounting on Emirates airline their spokesman has now announced that the Arsenal-Israel tie-up is “unfortunate and we are obviously not happy. We will do our best to persuade Arsenal to not renew its deal with Israel.”.
Clearly this is a totally unacceptable response to their initial collusion in securing Israel the sponsorship deal. But before we suggest any action against Emirates we will give them an opportunity to respond - please watch this space.
Related Sources
Palestinian children play football in fear of israeli snipers who may at any time decide to "have some fun" and target them from from inside the fortified Israeli settlement built illegally on their land.
"The Israeli army claimed that the soldiers shot dead 11 year old Khalil in self-defense. However, a report issued by the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, denies the Israeli army’s claims and accuses it of lying. Its investigation confirms that the 11 year old victim was playing football with his friends when he was fatally shot. The report further proves that he did not pose any threat to the Israeli soldiers’ lives, who were positioned in a watchtower a kilometer away..."
Arsenal Football Club has just signed (26th February) a sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination.
The £350,000 agreement makes Israel Arsenal's "official and exclusive travel destination." Israel will be featured on digital perimeter boards and 450 high-definition LCD screens at the stadium on game days.
The tourism ministry will also have access to the club's official website Arsenal.com, database and magazine to promote Israel as a holiday destination
The televised ads will reach audiences of up to 700 million in an estimated 198 countries. The Israeli Tourism Ministry will also receive intellectual property rights, the use of the team logo and the right to use photos of the team and its players in ads. For an additional fee, Arsenal players will also appear in the ads.
The deal doesn't stop with promoting Israel but actually grants Israel a physical presence in the stadium. The Israeli Tourism Ministry can use the stadium's banquet hall twice a year and can organize an exhibition at the end of the playing season.[3] The stadium will also feature permanent sales tables for t-shirts.
The two-year sponsorship deal begins at the start of next football season in six months' time.
With the world boycotting Israel as a tourist destination Israeli tourism minister Abraham Hirchson admitted employing Ernst & Young financial advisers to help develop a new strategy to entice people to Israel. He estimated that the sponsorship deal will bring in an additional 2 million tourist to Israel annually
Arsenal's managing director, Keith Edelman at a press conference in Israel explained how Arsenal could help sell apartheid Israel: "We are the largest club in London and have 30 million fans around the world. We are in the forefront of the anti-racism campaign in England and have an excellent brand that can promote any product... we will assist Israel become a more popular destination". He also promised "when we find the time, club representatives and players will come to visit Israel,".
A grieving father Hussein Maqanen holds a poster of his two sons killed by the Israelis. Ibrahim was aged 14, and Adel was aged 17. Adel was killed whilst playing football.
Israeli snipers targeted him from inside a military bunker on a hill overlooking the patch of dirt which was his football field near Khan Younis.
The Jerusalem Post has hinted that Arsenal's chief shareholder, Danny Fiszman, vice chairman David Dein and managing director Edelman have used their Jewish backgrounds to steer the club towards Israeli causes including setting up football academies in Israel at a time when when Palestinian children are routinely targeted by israeli snipers whilst they play football.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz confirmed this, quoting Uzi Gafni, a director of the Israeli Tourism ministry on the Arsenal deal as saying "I knew I needed someone with ties to Judaism, Edelman may not go to synagogue every Friday, but there are warm Jews at Arsenal who wanted to give something to Israel.".
16 year old Jaser recovering after being shot with an Israeli M-16 machine gun whilst playing football. The bullet left an 8 cm hole in Jaser's liver.
IMPACT OF ISRAELI APARTHEID ON PALESTINIAN FOOTBALL
While Israeli sportsmen and women travel freely around the world, the Palestinian team has to surmount a labyrinth of checkpoints and border crossings just to play their "home" matches overseas.
With no decent pitches on which to train and a suspended national league, their success in getting to the preliminary qualifiers cannot be overstated.
Furthermore, Israeli authorities regularly prevent Palestinian players from attending international games. In September 2004, five players were prevented from travelling to the World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan. Unable to play in Palestine, the team travels to Doha, Qatar, for "home" games and trains in Ismailia, Egypt, more than 100 miles from the local Gaza players' homes.
In September 2004, five players were prevented from travelling to the World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan
Israel's labyrinth of checkpoints makes just getting to and from training a journey fraught with danger. Players from the West Bank have to circumvent Israel's Apartheid Wall, take a bus to Amman (Jordan) and then fly to Cairo to meet up with their Gazan teammates.
Travelling within the Gaza Strip can take hours because of the checkpoints. For instance, it took Palestinian players 40 hours to get to Rafah from the Egyptian border - a distance of 100 metres - after last year's Uzbekistan match. Upon returning home from the Uzbekistan match in Doha, Striker Ziad Al Kourd discovered his house in the Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah had been destroyed. The Israeli army had demolished it whilst looking for smuggling tunnels. In his absence they have since deemed Al Kourd a security threat and banned him from travelling.
Despite these hurdles, their recent success has inspired tens of thousands of Palestinian children to hope that there can be a future beyond the latest Israeli curfew.
Israeli Checkpoints - After the Uzbekistan match, it took the players 40 hours to get to Rafah from the Egyptian border
- a distance of just 100 metres
Palestine's future generations and sporting talent is being wasted by illegal occupation, restrictions on movement and collective punishment. Since September 2000 Israeli forces have killed over 3,565 Palestinians - 22% of whom were children. In the past year alone Israeli soldiers have killed 176 Palestinian children. Many more have been left seriously injured by snipers and tank shells - unable to kick a football again.
Although youth under 17 make up more than 50% of the population of Palestine, there are few resources available to them under the occupation. Youth centres have been destroyed by the Israeli army. For instance, prior to the April 2002 reinvasion of West Bank towns and cities, the Old City of Nablus had 13 youth institutions. Now only 5 of these are operating.
Upon returning home from the Uzbekistan match, Striker Ziad Al Kourd discovered his house in the Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah had been demolished by the Israeli army!
Despite the restrictions imposed on them, Palestinian children continue to defy Israeli curfews just to play soccer in the streets. Their steadfast resistance to occupation is mirrored in the determination of the Palestinian team to one day hear their national anthem played to tens of thousands of cheering supporters in a home ground in a Free Palestine.
SUGGESTED ACTION
1)We are calling on all campaigners to write to Arsenal Football Club to protest their decision to support Israel. Remind them that Israel is a racist apartheid state which is consistently in breach of international law in its human rights abuses; that Israeli snipers routinely target Palestinian children playing football and that such a deal endangers Arsenal's anti-racist reputation: Invite them to instead support the sports boycott of Israel.
2)Contact the Football Association's ‘Kick Racism out of Football' Campaign reminding them that Israel is a racist apartheid state which is consistently in breach of international law in its human rights abuses; that Israeli snipers routinely target Palestinian children playing football; and that such a deal endangers the FA's anti-racist reputation and the Kick it Out campaign itself.
THE EMIRATES CONNECTION
It was revealed that before approaching Arsenal FC, Israel had tryed to entice two other European football clubs to help sell apartheid Israel as a holiday resort. Both clubs pulled out of the deal.
JUVENTUS DUMPS ISRAEL
The tourism ministry has previously looked at tying up deals with Italian club Juventus, but this fell through after another sponsor, Libyan oil company Tamoil, opposed the move.Tamoils agreement with Juventus involved an initial sum of €110 million to cover the period between July 2005 and July 2010, in exchange for which the Libyan-based oil company Tamoil will receive exclusive shirt sponsorship rights.for 5 years. A further €130 million has been agreed to cover the following 5 years, making the deal worth a total of €240 million.[8] Although the agreement did not bar Juventus from seeking other sponsors Tamoils 10 year shirt sponsorship deal gave it sufficient clout to convince Juventus to dump Israel.
AC MILAN DUMPS ISRAEL
Next the Israeli Tourism Ministry approached the Italian Serie A club AC Milan which initially agreed. However before launch they also dumped Israel. Israels Tourism Ministry was furious and asked israeli prime minister Sharon to intervene:
AC-Milan Online reported:
Sharon asked to help win AC Milan sponsorship. Israel's tourism ministry has appealed to prime minister Ariel Sharon to take advantage of his personal friendship with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi to persuade Italian football club AC Milan to reverse its decision not to act as a testimonial for Israel. Owned by Berlusconi, Milan, one of the world's most famous teams, has decided not to accept 550,000 euros from the Israeli tourism ministry in exchange for promoting travel by Italian tourists to Israel.
Despite such pressure AC-Milan refused to help Israel.
ARSENAL SAYS YES, BUT WHY?
After these failed attempts, Uzi Gafni (a director of the Israeli Tourism Ministry) decided to approach clubs in England:
"We didn't go near Chelsea because of its anti-Semitic image prior to the Abramovich era, Manchester United arouses antagonism, and Tottenham, despite its Jewish connection, isn't big enough. Luckily, Arsenal got back to me, just two days after I made the initial contact.”
Arsenals main sponsor is United Arab Emirate's-based Emirates Airways. Emirates airlines' 15-year stadium and eight-year shirt sponsorship deal is worth $175m.[10] With such negotiating power why didn't Emirates kill the deal?
At a press conference with Israeli Tourism Minister Avraham Hirchson the Arsenal managing director Keith Edelman said the campaign was given the blessing of Emirates Airlines. "Before we strike any deal, we discuss it with our partners. This was the situation here as well,".
Edelman added that representatives of United Arab Emirate's-based Emirates Airways, one of the club's main sponsors, were kept abreast of developments throughout negotiations with Israel and have voiced no objections to the deal.
Initially Emirates VP for corporate communications Mike Simon told Gulf News that the Israeli deal will have no impact on Emirates investment in Arsenal. But with public pressure already mounting on Emirates airline their spokesman has now announced that the Arsenal-Israel tie-up is “unfortunate and we are obviously not happy. We will do our best to persuade Arsenal to not renew its deal with Israel.”.
Clearly this is a totally unacceptable response to their initial collusion in securing Israel the sponsorship deal. But before we suggest any action against Emirates we will give them an opportunity to respond - please watch this space.
Related Sources