List of petitions calling for Israel to be banned from sports

Main article: Boycotts of Israel in sports

Demanding that Israel be banned from international sports have been in the works for years and have grown louder due to the Israel–Hamas war. While Russia has been sanctioned for its illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, Israel says it opposes political interference in sports. Both FIFA and the IOC have avoided calling for condemnation of Israel, stating that the Israel–Hamas war cannot be compared to other wars.

Background

International sanctions have been an effective method of punishing those who violate international laws since 1972, when the South African team was banned from the Olympic Games for twenty-three years. In 2014, the European Union passed sanctions against Russia after it illegally annexed Ukraine's territory.

Petitions

West Asian Football Federation

In February 2024, the twelve-member West Asian Football Federation sent an open letter to FIFA, all of its national member associations, and the sport's six regional confederations imploring them to take a "decisive stand against the atrocities committed in Palestine and the war crimes in Gaza, by condemning the killing of innocent civilians [...] and the destruction of the football infrastructure [by] taking a united front in isolating the Israeli Football Association from all football-related activities until these acts of aggression cease." The federation's president, Prince Ali bin Hussein, also wrote to EU members and Britain's native countries imploring their engagement.

BDS

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a movement launched in 2005 to call on people to pressure governments to meet their obligations under international law to end apartheid Israel by imposing sanctions, called for an Olympic ban in 2012 and 2016, and accused Fifa of ignoring calls to respect Palestinian rights "for years" in December 2023. The following month, they alleged that over the same period, Fifa had "actively shielded Israel from accountability for its ongoing war crimes and violations of Fifa's own statutes through its inclusion of teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land", even going "so far as to sanction not the illegal settlement clubs but fan clubs expressing support for Palestinian human rights".

4Sports Kuwait

In 2024, more than 23,560 people signed an online petition asking FIFA to ban Israel from the world sports body in response to the killing of Palestinian footballers by the occupation forces and the destruction of sports venues in Gaza. The petition, created by 4Sports Kuwait, calls out the Israeli regime's sports violations in Gaza under the ongoing genocide that has resulted in the deaths of at least 23,357 Palestinians in nearly 100 days.

DiEM25

DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025) launched a petition in January 2024 calling for suspension of Israel from world sport "until it fully complies with international law and sports regulations," alleging that multiple sports organisations including the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, UEFA, and FIBA were "complicit as they allow a continuous participation of the occupying apartheid regime in their events". Around the same time, Chris MacManus, an Irish Member of the European Parliament, published a letter signed by several MEPs calling for UEFA, FIFA, and "all other competent bodies to take decisive action." One of the petition's co-organizers, Katrina Pijtelovic, compared Israel's actions to Russia's actions in invading Ukraine in 2022, and questioned why there was "no condemnation from FIFA, from UEFA, from IOC or anybody" despite Ukraine's previous widespread suspension from sports for killing far fewer children.

Jordan's Football Association (JFA)

On New Year's Eve 2023, after videos were released showing Israeli soldiers turning Yarmouk Stadium into a Palestinian detention camp surrounded by armed soldiers and tanks in which many women, men, and children were gathered, blindfolded or covered in underwear, the Jordan Football Association (JFA) issued a declaration demanding that international sports associations take "decisive action to stop the aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories" by calling for severe sanctions against Israel's sports associations in an effort to isolate the regime from international sports. This includes banning Israeli sports from world championships "until the occupying state complies with international ceasefire demands".

PFA

The Palestinian Football Association or PFA has called on FIFA to expel the Israel Football Association (IFA) amid the ongoing war in Israel and Gaza. The PFA say they want to address the unprecedented international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed by Israel and have called on FIFA to pressure the IFA to address discrimination and racism in its league and recognize the breach of federation rules.

The Palestine Football Association (PFA) also sent letters to IOC and FIFA calling for an "urgent international probe into occupation crimes against sports and athletes in Palestine". At the FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Palestine Football Association (PFA) President Jibril Rajoub alleged that Israel had violated multiple FIFA statutes, including over the Gaza conflict and the inclusion in Israeli leagues of teams located in Palestinian territory, and called on the World Football Organization to suspend Israel and ban Israeli teams from FIFA events. He had previously called for FIFA to expel Israel in 2015, after they restricted the movement of Palestinian players and players in clubs in West Bank, though withdrew the call after heavy pressure.

300 Palestinian sport clubs

300 Palestinian sports clubs asked the International Olympic Committee to exclude Israel from the Olympics Games. In January 2024, Palestinian sports and youth clubs called for Israel's exclusion as part of a wider boycott campaign. The open letter signed by 32 organizations called on the International Olympic Committee to "apply its principles and fulfill its obligations" by banning Israel.

Irish Sports for Palestine

350 athletes signed an open letter from Irish Sports for Palestine calling for a ban on Israeli sport. Shortly afterwards, six Irish basketballers boycotted a women's tournament match against Israel in early February 2024, while at a subsequent EuroBasket 2025 qualifier, the players that did play the match declined to shake hands with players of the Israeli team.

Parliamentary in the United Kingdom

In 2021, a parliamentary petition was launched in the UK calling for sanctions against the Israeli regime and a freeze on all trade, especially arms exports. The petition received over 386,000 signatures and forced the English Parliament to debate the issue.

Artists (Art Not Genocide Alliance)

Thousands of artists, curators and creative professionals signed an open letter that called out the "ongoing atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza", and called on the Venice Biennale to ban "any official representation of Israel" at that event. The letter, released on 26 February 2024 by the activist group Art Not Genocide Alliance, was signed by more than 17,000 signatories including the photographer Nan Goldin, the Turner Prize winner Jesse Darling, and representatives for Albania, Cyprus, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Nigeria and Zimbabwe at that year's Biennale. In the global art world, many artists worry that speaking out in favor of a ceasefire could negatively affect their careers. An open letter about the war published in Artforum magazine in October led to the dismissal of its editor.

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel called on IOC, FIFA, and several other sporting bodies to exclude the country over its human rights record.

French politicians

A group of French politicians, have asked the International Olympic Committee to ban Israeli athletes representing the country in the summer games. A group of left-wing politicians in France called on International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in February 2024 to exclude Israel from the upcoming games.

French lawmakers, belonging to three left-wing parties

Twenty-six French lawmakers, belonging to three left-wing parties, signed a petition sent to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach calling for sanctions against Israel at the 2024 Summer Olympics after the regime's "war crime" in Gaza. The same lawmakers want Israeli athletes to compete in the games without state symbols — the Israeli flag and national anthem — and compete impartially, just as Russian and Belarusian athletes competed at the Tokyo Olympics.

Public figures

Notable figures, including Ken Loach, Bob Russell, Ahdaf Soueif and the late John Berger wrote an open letter urging FIFA to suspend the IFA. In a larger sporting boycott, in 2012 footballers condemned Israel's plans to host the UEFA Under-21 Championship in Israel, and Norwegian national team coach Egil Olsen supported an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Former professional soccer player Gary Lineker called on FIFA and the International Olympic Committee to join a global boycott of Israel, angering Conservative lawmakers and an anti-Semitic watchdog in the UK. Ken McCue, a member of the Irish group Insaka-Ireland, was quoted in an article in The Nation as saying that some Irish sportspeople were considering mounting their own call for Israel to banned from the Olympics, on the grounds that the IOC had previously instituted similar bans on Russia and South Africa. The Spanish politician Josep Borrell has also stated that there was no reason to not impose sanctions on the Israeli regime to hold it accountable for its numerous violations of international law.

Reactions

Both FIFA and IOC have avoided calling for condemnation of Israel's current war and the resulting humanitarian crisis, with an IOC spokesperson stating in November 2023 that the situation was unique and could not "be compared to any other war or conflict in the world". Israeli FA chief executive said that "we are against involving politicians in football and being involved in political matters in the sport in general." Article 4 of FIFA's constitution prohibits "discrimination of any kind against a country or group of people" and stated that any violation of this obligation of non-discrimination is punishable by "suspension or expulsion".