Louth's Byrne says FAI needs to act on wishes of Irish football family
Louth TD Joanna Byrne said it is incomprehensible for Ireland to line out against ‘terror state of Israel during a genocide’ at a protest outside the Dáil demanding the cancellation of the Ireland v Israel Nations League games in autumn
Louth representative and Sinn Féin spokesperson on Sport, Joanna Byrne TD, has said that it is “incomprehensible that anybody believes our national team should line out against the terror state of Israel while a genocide is ongoing” and has demanded the cancellation of the Ireland v Israel Nations League games this autumn.
Addressing Wednesday’s Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign protest outside the Dáil demanding the cancellation of the Ireland v Israel Nations League games, Deputy Byrne said that “we need to do everything in our power to Stop The Game. Ireland cannot not play against Israel – it's as simple as that.”
The Louth TD said: “Israel actively uses football to sportswash its image and to extend its territory while also committing genocide and implementing apartheid.
“Their slaughter of footballers and bombing of football pitches cannot be accepted or normalised. Front-line Israeli soldiers with blood on their hands lining out against our national team cannot be accepted or normalised.
“And we need to stand firm on the consensus, that sportswashing cannot be accepted or normalised.”
Deputy Byrne said the Football Association of Ireland needed to respect and act on the wishes of the Irish football family, and added: “The FAI needs to hear this loud and clear.
“Ireland has a choice now whether it wants to stand on the right side of history or not. This is bigger than sport, but sport has the power to send a strong message - a message of morality.
“A question needs to be put to the FAI as to who they’re listening to? The PFAI don’t want this match to go ahead, the Unions don’t want this match to go ahead, and the vast majority of fans don’t want this match to go ahead.”
Highlighting in her speech that “Israel has murdered at least 420 footballers in Palestine”, Deputy Byrne added that “people all over this country, every week in their tens of thousands, proudly play and watch football in their communities, and treasure every moment of it, yet this is denied on a daily basis to those in Palestine and Gaza.”
She went on to say that Israel “should not even be in the Nations League competition. UEFA should have expelled them as soon as Israel went into Gaza on a genocidal, ethnic-cleansing mission that has seen tens of thousands of innocents murdered, including hundreds of sports men and women.
“They should have been sanctioned long before that for their breaches on clubs in illegal settlements built on land stolen from Palestinians.
“Despite UEFA and FIFA being in contravention of their own rules, still there are no sanctions - no expulsion - for Israel because UEFA and FIFA are serving their own political interests, cosying up to US and Israeli governments.
“Sport cannot be separated from justice and humanity, we have an opportunity now to take a stand. Activists, civil society and politicians alike.”
The Sinn Féin TD added: “And anybody who says there is no place for politics in sport, neither understands politics nor do they understand sport.
“Not only do we have an opportunity to take a stand, we have an obligation as politicians, as community leaders, to make a stand, because we are elected to act with morality.”