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Tangier – A petition entitled “Don’t be Distracted, Boycott the World Cup Final in support of Gaza” has been launched, calling people to voice their support for Gaza and their dismay at world leaders’ and decision makers’ silence about the fate of Gaza by boycotting the World Cup Final game scheduled for Sunday, July 13.
The petition states that, on the one hand, according to Aljazeera, “over 3,000 homes have been partially destroyed by the Israeli air strikes,” while on the other hand; “FIFA is expecting World Cup 2014 to be the ‘most watched TV event ever.’”
Gaza now is not only under siege from air bombardments but also the subject of continuous, brutal, ground raids by Israeli troops. According to CNN, so far “about 103 people, including children,” have been killed in four days of Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Chris Hayes of MSNBC has explained that the Israeli government purports to not target civilians, calling residents ahead of time to tell them to evacuate before an Israeli bomb is dropped. This is semantics. Whether or not you warn someone ahead of time that their house is going to be bombed, you are targeting a residential home full of civilians. Houses in Gaza are packed so closely together that even with their careful targeting, Israeli bombs are destroying not only their intended targets, but homes around them as well. Israeli bombs are also falling on hospitals.
The petition further asserts that there can be little doubt that Israel has chosen the timing of this latest offensive based on the calculation that the world is busy watching, marketing and financing the World Cup, and therefore will not be paying attention to what is happening to the people of Gaza.
This petition, created in change.org, calls people to boycott the World Cup Final match as a gesture of support to Gaza. It mentions that FIFA and BeIN sports are expending huge amounts of revenue from the expected large number of viewers.
The idea behind the petition is that a boycott of viewers may impact the estimated revenue and therefore send a clear and strong message to decision makers all over the world to act and pressure the government of Israel to end the bombardment of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Edited by Myriam Fizazi-Hawkins. Photo edited by Maroua Bouamara
