Montevideo – In a letter addressed to the authorities of the Uruguayan Football Association and players, a group of more than 20 social organizations, requested that the invitation of the Israeli government to carry out the final preparation for the World Cup in Qatar be rejected.
“We address the AUF and the Uruguayan team to ask them to please respect the call of the Palestinian people and their soccer players not to collaborate in whitewashing the image of the Israeli military occupation and apartheid regime through the “beautiful game” and sport” indicates the letter.
In another part of it they say that “Israel murders and mutilates Palestinian soccer players and athletes. Palestinian players are frequently imprisoned and tortured, and their stadiums are bombed.”
In that sense, they recalled the 2008 attack on Gaza City “where it killed more than 1,400 people.”
Lastly, they maintain that “the Uruguayan national team and the AUF should not accept the invitation of a State that practices apartheid; the values that our football upholds are opposed to the racist, discriminatory and violent policies that Israel practices”.
The organizations that sign the letter delivered this afternoon are: Coordination for Palestine, Mothers and Relatives of Disappeared Detainees, Human Rights Secretariat of the PIT-CNT, Fucvam, FEUU, Serpaj, Club Palestino de Uruguay Gol a la Impunidad, Organized Rebellion , Free Palestine Committee, Memory and Justice Plenary, Affur, La Izquierda Diario Uruguay, Commission for the Support of the Palestinian People, Swollen with Memory, Coordination of Solidarity with the Haitian people, Danan Vedetá Indigenous Community, Charrúa Basquadé Inchalá Community, Memory in Freedom.
