It seems that football fans might be able to do what Arab governments have miserably failed to achieve or even address: lifting the illegal inhuman Israeli siege off Gaza!

Players line up before a football match on the first day of Gaza's version of the World Cup, in Gaza City, on May 2, 2010. Photo Xinhua/Wissam Nassar

Get involved!

Efforts like the Gaza World Cup, as cliché as it sounds, are only as strong as those who choose to seize the opportunity and get involved. Some have joined because they live in Gaza and know what the siege is doing to the long-term hope for peace. Yet so have many foreigners, as, whether they live in Gaza or have never been here, they can identify with what it feels like to suffer. Many others of varying religions are getting involved because they believe that faith should steer us towards respecting each other's humanity, not discourage it. And finally, a lot of newcomers to the Middle East are taking an interest simply because they're dumbfounded that none of the traditional powers have made any progress in the region over the last 60 years - and they want to help try something new - anything new - in the hopes that we can finally start to change direction in the Middle East. So for whatever reasons you're interested in supporting the Gaza World Cup, your involvement is warmly welcomed.

BRIDGING THE GLOBAL GAPS

Forming the core of the Gaza World Cup will be a partnership between 16 professional football clubs in Gaza and an equal number of foreigner amateurs residing in Gaza for various humanitarian purposes. The 16 Gazan clubs include each of the 14 first-level teams, and, if needed, the two highest ranking second-level teams. The availability of these 352 players will provide the backbone to ensure that the tournament is successful in both the caliber of play, as well as ensuring the event retains a strong local character.

Balancing out the teams begins with 250 international humanitarian workers and journalists from primarily Western countries currently residing in Gaza. Non-regional internationals currently based in Gaza and participating in the tournament include citizens of Britain, France, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Including these 125 potential players, along with encouraging outside journalists and other professionals with travel coordination residing abroad to journey to Gaza specifically to participate, the non-Arab participation goal is 100 players.

Regional participation will add a further layer of international solidarity to the tournament. With considerable numbers of Algerians, Egyptians, Jordanians, and Turks living in Gaza, a further six teams will play alongside the Palestinian team. The goal for regional participation, beyond Gazans, is 100 players.

In total, 400 players comprising 16 teams are planned, with 200 holding Palestinian nationality and 200 from other countries. And while a non-political event, it should be noted that a wide variety of Palestinian political factions are expected to join together and contribute players within the Palestinian half, promoting national unity over their own political agendas.

The teams involved are Algeria, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Palestine, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and the USA.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Beyond direct player participation, the tournament will also extensively involve and unite many unique communities within the larger Gazan society. First off, each of the 15 matches will be free and open to the public, welcoming both men and women. And while all events will be confined to Gaza City for logistical reasons, it is widely believed that each of the 16 club teams from throughout Gaza will attract their own local fan base to the events.

A second goal of the tournament is to highlight the resilient strength and culture of Gaza, with a special focus on partnering art and technology with sport. Each aspect of the project, from designing logos, to billboards, to each of the 16 "national" jerseys, will be supported by local artists and graphic designers. And the winning team members will find themselves honored by a trophy hand-crafted from the reclaimed iron of Gazan wreckage, as well as intentionally celebrated by the skilled local tradition of urban graffiti. Each step will then subsequently be featured technologically, with a considerable effort to promote all aspects of the tournament online and in the media, supported extensively behind the scenes by local university students and recent technological graduates.

http://gazaworldcup.org/

Players of Palestine and a foreign team compete during the opening football match on the first day of Gazas version of the World Cup, in Gaza City, on May 2, 2010. The Gaza Strip kicked off its own version of the World Cup with teams of Palestinian footballers and foreigners representing foreign countries on Sunday. The trophy is made out of twisted metal and rubble from last year war with Israel. Photo Xinhua/Wissam Nassar

Bathrobe brigades in Amsterdam informing people about the dirty secrets of Ahava beauty products in front of a store that sells the product. (Cris Toala Olivares)

By Adri Nieuwhof* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

The international campaign to boycott Ahava beauty products has recently won the support of a Dutch parliamentarian and an Israeli peace group. During the past few months, activists in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Israel, the United States and the Netherlands have campaigned against the sale of Ahava products because of the company's complicity in the Israeli occupation.

The Stolen Beauty campaign has included protest actions by "bikini brigades" around the United States organized by the American peace group CODEPINK, and allied actions have taken place in London, Paris, Vienna, Montreal and Amsterdam. The Dutch "bathrobe brigades" that appeared in shopping centers in Amsterdam and Haarlem, not only caught the eye of the press, but also that of Dutch parliamentarian Harry van Bommel.

Ahava manufactures its cosmetics in a factory in the illegal Mitzpe Shalem settlement in the occupied West Bank. However, Ahava labels its skin care products imported into the EU as originating from "The Dead Sea, Israel." Van Bommel, concerned about this misleading labeling, asked Dutch minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen to investigate the origin of Ahava cosmetics, and Verhagen agreed.

The settlements Mitzpe Shalem and Kalia, located deep within the Israeli-occupied West Bank, own 44 percent of the shares of the company. Before the June 1967 war, Palestinians lived on some of the lands that are now part of the two settlements; there were Palestinian communities in Nabi Musa where Kalia is now located and in Arab al-Taamira next to Mitzpe Shalem.

According to the Israeli group Who Profits From the Occupation? (www.whoprofits.org), the mud used in Ahava products is taken from a site on the shores of the Dead Sea inside the occupied territory, next to Kalia. Ahava uses Palestinian natural resources without the permission of or compensation to the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israel denies Palestinians access to the shores of the Dead Sea and its resources, although one-third of the western shore of the Dead Sea lies in the occupied West Bank.

This week Palestinian tourism minister Khouloud Daibes voiced her disagreement with Ahava's practices in the West Bank. In protest of Israel's aspirations to nominate the Dead Sea for the Seven Natural Wonders of the World competition, Daibes wrote her Israeli counterpart a letter to express her objection to "promoting the Dead Sea in the competition, alongside products like Ahava, which are produced illegally in the Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian lands."

Recently, the international campaign to boycott Ahava beauty products received support from the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, which sent an open letter on 17 November to Ahava's management, urging the company to move its operations out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Gush Shalom stated: "Your decision to locate in Occupied Territory and make use of natural resources which do not belong to Israel was a mistaken gamble which already harmed your interests and might harm them even much further. Sooner or later you will have to get out of this damaging and illegal location -- and the sooner, the better."

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, parliamentarian Van Bommel told The Electronic Intifada he welcomes the international Ahava campaign. "It might appear a minor issue, but it is important as an example of [Israel] economically hampering the realization of a Palestinian state." He added that he would welcome initiatives in other EU countries to raise the issue in their parliaments. "Subsequently, the pressure on Israel will increase and more importantly, we can engage the public in the debate."

* Adri Nieuwhof is an independent consultant based in Switzerland.

Source: Electronic Intifada