#GameOverIsrael: Ex-footballers, rights groups, influencers launch Israel boycott campaign

An international campaign powered, among others, by renowned former footballers and football support groups is seeking to prompt countries to boycott the Israeli football team.

#GameOverIsrael, launched on Tuesday, strives to make some of the countries priding themselves on trailblazing football history, including England, France, Italy, and Spain, to suspend the team.

The countries are also expected to ban Israeli club sides from continental competition and prevent Israeli players from joining domestic leagues.

Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Norway, and Scotland are the rest of the nations that the campaign seeks to bring pressure to bear on towards realizing the purpose.

The bid is also backed by rights bodies, activism groups, and famous personalities.

Reporting on the development, UK-based media organization Novara Media identified some prominent supporters as former French footballer Eric Cantona and former England player and commentator Gary Lineker.

The drive is also backed by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, Irish actor Liam Cunningham, and British artist Bobby Vylan among many others.

Protesting ‘assault on Palestinian life’

According to the report, coordinated protests have been planned across all the nine countries, with campaigners demanding federations take a stand against the regime’s “assault on Palestinian life.”

It was referring to Tel Aviv’s ongoing decades-long campaign of occupation and deadly aggression against Palestinians, including its October 2023-present war of genocide on the Gaza Strip.

#GameOverIsrael’s supporters protest, inter alia, the regime’s killing of nearly 65,000 Palestinians during the genocide, including a reported number of 774 athletes and other members of Gaza’s sports community as well as its destruction of numerous sports facilities throughout the coastal sliver.

‘Normalcy is complicity’

Novara Media, meanwhile, cited Richard Falk, a former United Nations special rapporteur, as commenting on the international complicity that was favoring the regime’s continued aggression.

“Israel has for many years used culture and sports to whitewash its violations of international law and human rights,” added the former UN official, who now presides over the Gaza Tribunal, a non-governmental tribunal and public inquiry in London. “Sporting governing bodies have been shamefully complicit during this genocide.”

Taking a stand against Israeli ‘sportswashing’

“It’s perfectly legitimate and morally imperative to demand that football federations across Europe and the world boycott Israel,” he added, asserting, “Normalcy is complicity.”

Last month, Italy’s Football Coaches’ Association pressed the national federation to demand the regime’s suspension.

Soon afterwards, Norway’s federation pledged to channel proceeds from its upcoming qualifier against the Israeli team into humanitarian relief for Gaza.

And on Monday, Spain’s prime minister escalated the pressure, urging that the regime be excluded altogether from international sporting events, arguing it must not be allowed to exploit such platforms to “whitewash” its military campaign.

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