Irish Sport For Palestine have issued an open letter calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

The statement, signed by over 200 members of the Irish sporting community, has called on athletic organisations in Ireland to call for an international investigation into “Israel’s violation of the Olympic charter”.

The letter also letter also advocates for sports clubs, spaces, fan groups and communities to sign up and become “Apartheid Free Zones”  and boycott Israeli products.

Irish Sport for Palestine have also called for members of the sporting community to attend the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign march in Dublin this Saturday, January 13.

“Selfishly, I toured apartheid South Africa with both the Lions and Ireland in the 1980s, and I have had to live with it ever since,” said , former Ireland and Lions rugby international John Robbie, one of the letter’s signatories.

“As such I am proud to add my name to this important project. A just settlement will free Israel from the stigma of the present, just as the new South Africa, for all its faults, has freed white South Africans.”

cool to see Kevin Moran put his name to the Irish Sport for Palestine petition pic.twitter.com/VYOMVvQmtO

— branno (@kevinbrannigans) January 10, 2024

Amongst those singing the letter are a long list of notable Irish sporting names, such as All-Ireland winner Joe Brolly, former rugby internationals Keith Earls, John E Murphy and Jerry Flannery, former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr and former internationals Kevin Moran and James McClean,boxer Tyrone McKenna and former Olympian David Gillick.

Read Irish Sport For Palestine's open letter in full below:

 “We have come together as members of the Irish sporting community to show our solidarity with the Palestinian people and to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

For over three months, we have watched in horror as over 22,330 Palestinians, more than 9,000 of them children, have been murdered, and countless thousands more catastrophically injured, while 90% of the population in Gaza have been forcibly displaced.

We ask: How many athletes, sports people, trainers, and those children aspiring to be, have been murdered or displaced by the horrific Israeli violence?

For decades, Israel has targeted Palestinian sports people, preventing them from travelling to competitions, shooting and maiming them, killing them, and destroying their facilities.

Israel continues to target Palestinian athletes, especially footballers, many of them children and youths, and has destroyed sporting facilities in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israeli occupation forces last month turned Gaza's Yarmouk Stadium into a detention centre, where Palestinian men, youths and children have been held without charge, terrorised, and abused. The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) has called on the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), international and continental confederations and all relevant bodies “to take urgent measures to end the gross violations of the Israeli occupation against the Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza, and to subject it to legal accountability.”

The PFA has appealed for an international investigation into the treatment of Palestinian athletes and sports facilities amidst reports of Israeli forces violating the Olympic charter by targeting sports clubs.

What is happening in Gaza is genocide. A system of Apartheid - a crime against humanity - is being imposed on Palestinians. Despite criticism by the UN, respected international organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, International Rescue Committee and Medecins Sans Frontieres, and many more, Israel has made clear its intention to continue to violate international law.

We encourage all sports people across the island to join our call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, for the illegal siege to be lifted, for humanitarian aid to be delivered, and for no further forced displacement of Palestinians.

We advocate for sports clubs, spaces, fan groups and communities to sign up to become Apartheid Free Zones and boycott Israeli products.

We call on Sport Ireland, the Olympic Federation of Ireland, and all relevant sporting bodies to call for an international investigation into Israel’s violation of the Olympic charter and impose sanctions.

We call on the Irish government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill. We urge them to support the investigation of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court into the situation in Palestine and submit a case of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza to the International Court of Justice, as South Africa has just done.

After 75 years of racist oppression, Palestinians deserve freedom, justice, and equality. This is a crucial moment for humanity. The time to act is now. We must stand together, and we must not fail.”