Boycott Israel Campaigners to Hold Vigil in Protest Against England-Israel Match

Israel will play England in a Euro 2008 qualifying match at Wembley on Saturday 8th September. Campaigners for a boycott of apartheid Israel will hold a vigil outside the game.

The Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of Al Aqsa are holding a demonstration to protest against the match and call for the suspension

of apartheid Israel from international football until she abides by international humanitarian law.

Those attending the protest are answering a call from hundreds of Palestinian civil society organisations calling for a boycott of the Israeli state. The call was made in 2005 after the International Court

of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel's separation barrier was illegal.


The boycott movement in the UK has been gathering momentum this summer with support coming from many Trade Unions and campaigning organisations.

Boycott Israeli Goods spokesperson Lucy Williams said 'It is disgraceful that England are playing against Israel at a time when the Palestinians are suffering under an illegal colonial occupation, we think that by playing against Israel England are condoning Israeli war crimes.'

The vigil, along Olympic Way at Wembley Stadium, begins at 3pm on Saturday.

Please call 07845039980 or email  boycott@palestinecampaign.org for photos or interviews.

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Notes for Journalists:

For more information on the campaign please contact us 07845039980 or
by email:  info@palestinecampaign.org and visit:
 http://www.palestinecampaign.org/ and
 http://www.bigcampaign.org/

More information can be found here:
 http://www.palestinecampaign.org/campaigns.asp?d=y&id=147

The campaign to suspend Israel from international football was launched in March in response to the Israel-England qualifier held in Tel Aviv. Protests were held outside the FA on the day of the match. Organised by the PSC, the BIG and J-BIG campaigns, the Scottish PSC, Friends of Al Aqsa UK and with the support of the Palestinian Football Federation, Palestinian Basketball Federation, Union of Youth Activity Center in Palestine, The Union of Social Workers and Psychologists in the West Bank, the Ibda'a Sport Club (Palestine Basketball Champions)' the Bethlehem University Student Senate and the Jenin Branch of the PGFTU among many others.

The Palestinian Under 19's team had planned to tour the UK playing against teams from Cheshire County FA, Chester City FC, Tranmere Rovers FC, and Blackburn Rovers FAC. More information here:  http://www.palestinefootball.myzen.co.uk/index.html

The Palestinian people are experiencing their fortieth year of military occupation. The siege by the Israeli army and the economic blockade have devastated their daily lives so that 'normal' life is impossible. Israel operates an entrenched system of racial Apartheid against its own non-Jewish inhabitants and has been illegally occupying Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights since 1967. It has sought to further annex these lands and has systematically transferred its own civilian population into these occupied territories in contravention of international law. Israel continues to build the illegal Apartheid wall, annexing vast swathes of Palestinian land in the West Bank and creating Palestinian ghettos, despite the ruling of the International Court of Justice that it is illegal.

180 Palestinian organisations and unions, in response to Israeli onslaught, have called for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Apartheid Israel.

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Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign
Box BM PSA
London
WC1N 3XX
Email:  boycott@palestinecampaign.org
Tel: 07845039980
Fax: 020 7609 7779
Web:  http://www.bigcampaign.org/