Anna Baltzer: US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation!

Last week, more than 100 organizations worldwide, including dozens of US Campaign coalition members, signed onto a letter of support for the first Israeli sports team boycott campaign in the United States, organized by member group Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign. The Israeli basketball team Maccabi-Haifa has been in the United States, playing US teams, including the Minnesota Timber wolves. When the Timber wolves refused to cancel their game with the Maccabi, almost two dozen activists protested inside the stadium, calling on the team to "Stop Playing with Apartheid!" The protestors were ejected from the game for "disruptive and inappropriate messages". Meanwhile counter protestors waving Israeli flags were allowed to stay. According to a press release on the MN BBC website, a legal observer and  civil rights attorney was assaulted and temporarily arrested by local security and police. A boycott of Apartheid South Africa's sports team proved to be a particularly effective tool in the struggle to end oppression there. At the time, South African teams that had not taken a public stance against apartheid would not be invited by any self respecting tournament or venue. It should be no different with Apartheid Israel today. In the same way that South African teams were, almost all Israeli sports teams are cynically used as "ambassadors" of an apartheid state. Additionally, Maccabi is sponsored by Ya'akov Shahar, chairman of Mayer's Cars and Trucks Ltd, the official importer to Israel of Volvo. Both companies are heavily involved in the Israeli occupation, as documented by Who Profits, an Israeli research project. Israeli sports teams like Maccabi are also notorious for racism and racial discrimination against Palestinians.