Israel’s netball team is coming to Wales amid its genocide of more than 52,000 Palestinians

In May, the Israel netball team will be coming to Cardiff to participate in the Europe Netball Open. So, a coalition of groups and individuals have exposed the genocidal settler state for its blatant sportswashing.

Notably, the coalition has called on the national governing body Wales Netball to seek Israel’s removal from the competition.

Europe Netball Open: Israel team not welcome in Wales

The coalition has written to Wales Netball. It is asking that they join with it in making a public statement calling for the Europe Netball competition to bar Israel from the event. Additionally, it demands that the governing body calls on Europe Netball to ban Israel from any potential future competitions.

It has sent a copy of the letter to Welsh government sports minister Jack Sargeant MS, and chair of the Sports Committee in the Senedd, Delyth Jewell MS. A letter has also been written to Sport Wales, and to the venue that will host the tournament, the House of Sports, run by Cardiff City FC.

Campaigners were shocked to learn that Wales plans to welcome the Israeli Netball team amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza. The team is set to play at the Cardiff City House of Sport for the Europe Netball Open event, between the 7 and 11 of May 2025.

Zahid Noor from Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Cymru called it out for what it is – sportswashing genocide:

Hosting Israel’s team sportswashes apartheid, illegal occupation and genocide. Netball Israel includes players from illegal settlements – built on stolen Palestinian land.

Israel’s leaders have had arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s military conduct in Gaza is plausibly a genocide. Netball cannot be complicit in war crimes.

The matches must be cancelled, and Israel’s team must be suspended. Wales Netball has told us they are not the organisers of the event, and that they will keep a watch on any decision Euro Netball makes, but this is not good enough. They need to remove themselves from this tournament. Nothing about this complies with the Future Generations Act, which these bodies are bound by, and are signed up to supporting.

The Welsh Government and MSs must act decisively and without delay. They must call for the suspension of the Israeli national netball team. Upholding international law is non-negotiable. Ending foreign military occupation, dismantling racial segregation and rejecting illegal settlements are non-negotiable.

Sumayya Ahmed from the Welsh chapter of the Muslim Association of Britain underscored the fact that some of the players may even have been members of the IDF deployed in Gaza:

The unfortunate reality is that Israel’s mandatory military service for both men and women increases the likelihood that members of the team scheduled to play in Cardiff may have participated in actions tantamount to apartheid or, more grievously, crimes against humanity. These actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that the Welsh players uphold and would inherently seek to distance themselves from.

Suspend Israel from international sporting events

Since October 2023, Israel has murdered more than 52,200 Palestinians in its brutal genocide in Gaza. In January, the Palestinian Sports Media Association stated that among those it had massacred, were more than 700 Palestinian athletes.

Its amid these atrocities that the Euro Netball Open, and Wales Netball, is planning to host the Israeli netball team at the upcoming event.

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said on this that:

Plaid Cymru believes that suspension from international sporting competitions is a legitimate way to apply diplomatic pressure to states which violate international humanitarian law. This was the case when organisations such as FIFA, UEFA and the International Olympic Committee suspended Russia from their competitions, following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Other countries which have previously been suspended from international sporting competitions for breaching human rights include South Africa, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan.

Given Israel’s refusal to listen to the calls of the international community to protect the human rights and lives of Palestinians in Gaza, it is right that the same process is followed and that Israel’s participation in major international sporting events is reviewed.

A team embedded in apartheid and crimes against humanity

Co-chair of Cardiff PSC Clive Haswell highlighted that Israel’s apartheid regime also discriminates against Palestinians participating in sport. He noted that the state segregates them makes it so they are

not allowed to participate in normal life, including sport.

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the Palestinian-led BDS movement, said:

Israel Netball is directly involved in Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. Nearly half of its teams are based in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land, a war crime under international law. Last year the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel is violating the prohibition against apartheid, a crime against humanity, that its entire military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, is illegal, and that it is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza. The ICJ rulings come with the legal obligation not to recognize or assist Israel’s grave crimes. Sporting values and common morality demand the same.

Europe Netball must ban Israel from its membership and all tournaments, starting with the Europe Netball Open Event 2025 in Wales from 7-11 May 2025. A team so directly involved in a war crime and a crime against humanity, representing a state committing genocide, cannot be welcomed to any international sporting event. Should Europe Netball fail to abide by its legal obligations, it risks criminal liability.

Featured image via screengrab