The Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s website (www.palestinecampaign.org) notes that: “Arsenal Football Club has just signed a sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination from next season. The £350,000 agreement makes Israel Arsenal’s ‘official and exclusive travel destination.’” Under the terms of the agreement, Arsenal’s pitch-side billboards and TV screens will be used to “broaden Israel’s appeal to sun and fun-seekers” , in the words of Israeli tourism ministry spokesman Jonathan Pulik. (BBC News Online, 26 February 2006)
The PSC have launched, along with other organisations, a campaign to stop Arsenal supporting Israeli apartheid, pointing out that “Arsenal FC and individual players have been in the forefront of the ‘Kick Racism Out of Football Campaign’. For Arsenal to sign a deal to promote Israel which denies Palestinians human rights and is illegally occupying Palestinian territory is to go against the very principles of anti-racism.”
More information: www.palestinecampaign.org
