Race to Reject Israel: The Problematic Palestine Marathon
A man walks past closed shops as preventive measures are taken against the coronavirus, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, March 6, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Mussa Qawasma.
Sports have the unique power to foster inclusion and bridge gaps in increasingly divided societies around the world.
But not, it seems, in areas where the Palestinian Authority (PA) is in charge.
The annual Palestine Marathon, held on March 18 this year, was ostensibly created so that people from around the world could gather in Bethlehem for one of the city’s social and cultural highlights.
However, the race was used by its organizers — various branches of the PA — to target Israel.
Palestine Marathon Logo Is Map of Israel
For a supposedly apolitical event like a sports race, this year’s Palestine Marathon was noteworthy for its political agenda. For one thing, the official logo of the marathon was a map — but not of Bethlehem or various parts of the West Bank. Rather, the entirety of Israel was subsumed under the “Palestine” moniker.
Furthermore, terms such as “country,” “Palestine,” and “State of Palestine” were frequently used on the event’s official website.
For the record, there has never been a Palestinian state. While the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 voted to accept the PA as a “non-member observer state,” this did not confer full sovereignty upon the government in Ramallah. In fact, the PA does not meet the requirements for statehood as defined in international law.
To date, the Palestinian leadership has failed to live up to its obligations under the Oslo Accords that lay out a path to possibly establishing an independent Palestinian state.
The Palestine Marathon was held in the city of Bethlehem. Ironically, a race whose motto is “freedom of movement” was organized by the same PA that for years has made life virtually unliveable for the city’s Christian residents.
In addition to PA-sanctioned discrimination, local Christians have faced attacks by Palestinian gangs. For instance, on January 28, a large group of Palestinian masked men assaulted a Christian family just south of Bethlehem with sticks and iron bars.
The result has been mass emigration. In 1947, Christians comprised about 85% of Bethlehem’s population. That figure has plunged to approximately 16%.
Also notice how casually the Palestine Marathon website works in the apartheid libel against Israel:
Starting at the Church of the Nativity, in the center of Bethlehem’s Old City, its route takes runners through the town, two refugee camps (Aida and Dheisheh), and along the apartheid Wall.
Ever since its construction, the West Bank security barrier has been incorrectly depicted by Israel’s most vehement critics as an “apartheid” wall. In fact, it was built in 2002 in response to the Second Intifada, during which Palestinian terrorists killed more than 1,000 Israelis. Some 7,000 more were injured during this period of suicide bombings and shootings.
The Israeli government approved and began construction of the security fence — only about 10% is a concrete wall — in 2002, in an attempt to stop Palestinian terrorist infiltration. As a result, the number of terror attacks originating from the West Bank has decreased by more than 90%.
Yet the claim that Israel is an “apartheid state” is intensifying worldwide. PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh in November of last year said that Israel risked perpetuating a system of “apartheid.” His remarks were parroted by many news outlets, which failed to even mention repeated Israeli peace overtures that have been rejected by the PA.
In reality, apartheid refers to the policy of racial segregation in pre-1990s South Africa — a construct that does not remotely apply to Israel, as HonestReporting has outlined in numerous articles (see for example here and here).
Specifically, since the signing of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, the vast majority of Palestinians have been governed by either the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank or Hamas.
Meanwhile, in Israel, the legal, state-sanctioned discrimination that is the very definition of apartheid is not only absent, but it is combated by the country’s laws and court system.
Equal rights for all groups, including ethnic and religious minorities, are safeguarded in Israel – forming the basis of the Middle East’s only functioning democracy.
By infusing an event meant to bring people together with such divisive rhetoric, the PA is serving notice that it will continue to incite Palestinians to reject coexistence with Israel — hurting peace-seeking Palestinians in the process.
With the PA rejecting Israel’s existence, an obvious barrier to any peace agreement, what kind of life can Palestinians in the West Bank expect to live?