Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We hear many people saying to leave politics out of sport. However, sport is increasingly being weaponised by oppressive regimes to win positive media coverage. It is called sportswashing. In the words of Nelson Mandela, sport has the power to change the world and the power to inspire. When you see the Dublin women's Gaelic football team and their brave and inspiring call for a ceasefire in Gaza, you realise how true Mandela's words are. Israel is targeting Palestinian athletes, their sports clubs and their facilities. Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza has been turned into a detention centre for men and boys, who are daily stripped, beaten and terrorized. It is painfully clear that Israel has breached the Olympic Charter on sport on several occasions and it continues to do so. The European Council, with the support of Ireland, called on the Olympic committee to ban Russian athletes from the Olympic Games. The Council was decisive in its approach to Russian brutality. Now in the Gaza Strip, there are more than 25,000 dead, mainly innocent civilians. We need Ireland to urge the European Council to call for a ban on Israeli athletes from participating in the Olympics. We must call for Sport Ireland, the Olympic Federation of Ireland, FIFA and all the relevant sporting bodies to call for an international investigation into Israel's violation of the Olympic Charter and impose sanctions. Ban Israel from international sports. Mandela said the Irish Dunnes Stores strikers demonstrated to South Africans that ordinary people far from the crucible of apartheid cared for our freedom. In 2024, it is ordinary people in Irish sport who must show they care. Irish Sport for Palestine has called on Basketball Ireland not to play the women's basketball game against Israel on 8 February in Riga. I concur with this call.

See this speech in context