Eleven organisations and campaign groups, including BDS Cyprus and the Cyprus Peace Council, have come out against Maccabi Tel Aviv playing its EuroLeague home games in Limassol, saying Cyprus should not give Israeli clubs a home ground for what they called sportswashing.
In a joint statement on Friday, the groups said they strongly oppose Israeli basketball clubs playing their home fixtures in Cyprus. The Spyros Kyprianou arena in Limassol has been formally approved as Maccabi Tel Aviv’s home venue, and the first game is set for 22 October.
The groups said that while Palestinian athletes are being killed, imprisoned and denied the most basic conditions to train and compete, Cyprus is giving an Israeli sporting institution a safe and convenient home, so that its international fixtures can continue with minimal disruption.
They said Israeli forces had turned Al-Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza into a detention site, where footage showed Palestinians, including children, stripped to their underwear and detained on the pitch, and that the stadium was later left in ruins.
Allowing the club to move its games to Limassol, they said, helps preserve the appearance that Israeli sporting life can carry on normally, insulated from the destruction of Palestinian sporting and civilian life.
The statement said Cypriot citizens are providing the infrastructure and policing that make the arrangement possible. The groups said the public has a right to know who agreed to it, how much the security operation will cost, and why Cypriot public resources should be used so that an Israeli sporting institution can carry on with business as usual.
They described the arrangement as the kind of sportswashing and normalisation that the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement calls on international civil society to reject. They urged Cypriot athletes, sporting organisations, trade unions, supporters and civil society to stand with Palestinian athletes and with the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.
“No business as usual. No Cypriot home ground for sportswashing,” the statement said.
The statement was signed by BDS Cyprus, AFOA, Anatropi, Cyprus Palestine Solidarity Action (CPSA), the Cyprus Peace Council (CPC), Genocide Free Cyprus (GFC), Global Sumud Cyprus, Far Right Watch, NEDA, United for Palestine and Voices for Palestine.
Background
The Spyros Kyprianou arena in Polemidia, Limassol, was formally approved on 6 October as the home venue for Maccabi Tel Aviv’s EuroLeague games, replacing the club’s base in Serbia. The arena holds 6,000 spectators, but only 5,000 will be admitted to Maccabi games, philenews reported. Police will take over the venue 24 hours before each game, and everyone entering will need a fan card.
Maccabi had earlier written formally to President Nikos Christodoulides about playing its home matches in Cyprus. The government declined to give further details, citing security reasons.
