(CC BY-dignidadrebelde, Flickr)

Anti-Israel boycotters are pushing Adidas to cancel its sponsoring of Israel’s soccer team. We must counter these voices of hatred and urge the multinational sportswear manufacturer to stand by Israel!

Some 130 Palestinian football clubs and sports associations have recently called on sportswear giant Adidas to end its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA) over the IFA’s inclusion of football clubs based in Judea and Samaria, which they allege is “stolen Palestinian land.”

In a letter addressed to Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted, the Palestinian clubs charged that “Adidas is lending its brand to cover up and whitewash Israel’s human rights abuses” and is giving “international cover to Israel’s illegal settlements.”

They threatened Adidas that its sponsorship of the IFA makes it eligible for inclusion in the United Nations’ blacklist of companies doing business in or with Israeli companies based in Judea and Samaria.

The Palestinian clubs further threatened Adidas with “consumer-led boycott campaigns in the Arab world and globally.”

Hind Awwad of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) said that Adidas’ association with the IFA, “as it tramples Palestinian rights,” will implicate Adidas in “Israel’s egregious human rights violations, including illegal settlements, home demolitions and land grabs throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.”

PACBI has launched a petition calling on Adidas to end its IFA sponsorship.

Adidas has a responsibility to do the right thing and NOT heed the hateful call from Palestinian footballs clubs to end its ties with Israel. We must counter BDS’ heinous, hate-filled campaign!

Please send Adidas a message thanking them for their sponsorship of the IFA and asking them not to listen to the voices of Israel-haters and anti-Semites.