Unfortunately the Australian Friends of Palestine Association’s campaign to ensure that an Israeli team is not registered for any events in the International Cycling World Tour 2025 and especially in the South Australian Santos Tour Down Under has not met with success.
We have just been informed that the Israeli branded team, Israel-Premier Tech, will definitely be racing in the 2025 Tour Down Under in Adelaide. Our pleas to the Union Cyclist Internationale (UCI) to follow the precedent set when they sanctioned the Russian and Belarusian teams did not prompt the UCI board to take any meaningful action.
We appealed to individual members of the UCI board, their management and their Ethics committee and only received one reply. Australia’s representative, Ms Anne Gripper, wrote a polite note saying that members of the board were discussing our request informally. This was mildly encouraging as it showed the letters had been received and read however it was obvious sanctioning Israel was not going to be formally considered at a meeting. It is worth noting here that Israel’s representative, Ms Vered Deshe, is a member of the Ethics committee.
Here in Adelaide our pleas fell on deaf ears as well. The director of the TDU 2025, Stuart O’Grady, did not acknowledge receipt of a letter sent by the Chairperson of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (Afopa), Christa Christaki. South Australia’s Minister of Tourism and Multicultural Affairs, Ms Zoe Bettison, sent a short reply saying she is powerless to do anything as the UCI makes decisions about which teams will take part. This stance may please our Premier, Mr Malinauskas, who lit up, not one but four, public buildings in Adelaide, Parliament House, the Adelaide Oval, the Torrens Footbridge and Government House, in the colours of the Israeli flag in October 2023. This was at the same time Israel was raining 2000lb bombs on the trapped people of Gaza. However it will not please the people of Adelaide who do not want any sportswashing of Israel’s crimes at one of our most prestigious tourism events.
The Australian government, in granting visas to a team whose specific role is to make Israel look good and glamourous in the eyes of the world, ignores international law.
Our government has a legal responsibility to ensure that we are not complicit in enabling Israel to commit the crimes of genocide and apartheid with impunity. As I have mentioned before it is essential to recognise the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 19 July which requires member States, that is all States which nominate representatives to the UCI, to cease all ties with Israel, including sporting ties, until Israel ends the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.
In the year 2022/2023 14% of applicants for an Australian visa were denied. Here is an opportunity for the Australian government to redeem their 14 months of inaction on Gaza and cancel or deny visas to the Israeli team on character grounds. These team members have sold their talents to Israel-Premier Tech owner, Sylvan Adams, who has blatantly admitted he uses the team to create a worldwide advertising board to win hearts and minds to the Israeli cause. He neglects to mention that the Israeli cause employs ethnic cleansing and genocide to enable land theft.
Margaret Cassar
Margaret Cassar Executive Member of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association Convenor of Adelaide BDS movement
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