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Adidas, Don't Help Running Apartheid:

Cancel Sponsorship of Jerusalem

Marathon!December 13, 2010

To Adidas International Headquarters (Global_Public_Relations@adidas.com),

We are a group of Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian 2005 Call for Boycott,

Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and

universal principles of human rights. We have noticed the mounting campaign[1]

against your

company's sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon scheduled to be held in March, 2011.

Going through the settlement of Pisgat Zeev in occupied East Jerusalem, to the background

view of the illegal apartheid and annexation wall, and circling the Hebrew University, whichis built on land belonging to the East Jerusalem neighborhood Issawiyah - this marathon

boasts of the Israeli illegal control and occupation of the oppressed indigenous Palestinian

population of East Jerusalem. Indeed, as the campaigners noted, the marathon aids and abets a

violation of international law, namely the war crime described by article 49 of the Fourth

Geneva Convention, which states: The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of

its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

We would like to inform you that Adidas' sponsorship of this marathon, in its current route or

a revised one, also undermines the Palestinian Call for a cultural, including sports, boycott of

Israel. The marathon is organized by the same municipality that routinely organizes house

evictions and demolitions in East Jerusalem. It signals an international 'business as usual'

message to apartheid and occupation, perpetuated by Israel, on behalf of Adidas.

Jerusalem's municipality is a specifically oppressive Israeli institution and a part of the Israeli

regime official institutions that continue to oppress the entire Palestinian people: in the West

Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza through a cruel occupation and siege; inside

Israel proper - through a system of apartheid against the 1.2 Million Palestinian citizens of

Israel; and in all these areas and the diaspora - through prevention of Palestinian refugees' UN

sanctioned right of return and compensation due to the 1948 Nakba, the mass ethnic cleansing

carried out by the state of Israel in its formation. Jerusalem municipality maintains the

surveillance and organizes eviction orders and demolitions of what it considers 'illegal'Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem. It does so, in spite of not allowing almost entirely any

legal Palestinian construction and of its reluctance to recognize Palestinian ownership of

http://boycottisrael.info/mailto:Global_Public_Relations@adidas.comhttp://boycottisrael.info/content/adidas-dont-help-running-apartheid-cancel-sponsorship-jerusalem-marathon#sdfootnote1symhttp://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/jerusalem/3070-calls-for-adidas-to-withdraw-sponsorship-of-jerusalem-marathon-http://boycottisrael.info/content/adidas-dont-help-running-apartheid-cancel-sponsorship-jerusalem-marathon#sdfootnote1symhttp://boycottisrael.info/content/adidas-dont-help-running-apartheid-cancel-sponsorship-jerusalem-marathon#sdfootnote1symhttp://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/jerusalem/3070-calls-for-adidas-to-withdraw-sponsorship-of-jerusalem-marathon-mailto:Global_Public_Relations@adidas.comhttp://boycottisrael.info/

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houses built even prior to the 1967 occupation. The municipality harshly discriminates against

the Palestinian East Jerusalem residents, investing close to nothing in its infrastructure and

public services, and expropriating over a third of its land for Jewish settlements, in violation

of international law.

Just two and a half weeks ago, the Palestinian residents of one of the marathon's routeadjacent neighborhoods, Issawiyah, held a non-violent demonstration against their oppression

by Israeli authorities. The residents protested the neglect of the authorities in providing

infrastructure and public services; the continued land expropriation, house and other

structures demolitions and the uprooting of trees by Israeli forces; the arrest of teens on stone-

throwing charges into a poorly standardized legal system; and the collective punishment

measures taken against the residents, segregating the neighborhood both from the West Bank

by the apartheid wall - and from the rest of Jerusalem by settlement walls and police and

military checkpoints. The police and army routinely repress the entire neighborhood through

the use of riot-control tear gas in a heavily populated area, which has recently led to the

killing of an 18-month-old Palestinian child.

To avoid Adidas' complicity in the perpetuation of such atrocities, we therefore urge you not

to cooperate with the Jerusalem municipality and to cancel Adidas' sponsorship of the

Jerusalem Marathon, until there's peace and justice in Palestine/Israel.

Sincerely,

Ayala Shani

Jonatan Stanczak

Rachel Giora

Shir Hever

Neta Golan

Iris Hefets

Ofer Neiman

Ohal Grietzer

Tal Shapira

Edo Medicks

Ronnie Barkan

Jonathan Pollak

On behalf of

Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from within

[1]http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/jerusalem/3070-calls-for-adidas-

to-withdraw-sponsorship-of-jerusalem-marathon-

source

http://boycottisrael.info

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