To Adidas International Headquarters (Global_Public_Relations@adidas.com),
We are a group of Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian 2005 Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights. We have noticed the mounting campaign [1] against your company's sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon scheduled to be held in March, 2011. Going through the settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in occupied East Jerusalem, to the background view of the illegal apartheid and annexation wall, and circling the Hebrew University, which is built on land belonging to the East Jerusalem neighborhood Issawiyah - this marathon boasts of the Israeli illegal control and occupation of the oppressed indigenous Palestinian population of East Jerusalem. Indeed, as the campaigners noted, the marathon aids and abets a violation of international law, namely the war crime described by article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.
We would like to inform you that Adidas' sponsorship of this marathon, in its current route or a revised one, also undermines the Palestinian Call for a cultural, including sports, boycott of Israel. The marathon is organized by the same municipality that routinely organizes house evictions and demolitions in East Jerusalem. It signals an international 'business as usual' message to apartheid and occupation, perpetuated by Israel, on behalf of Adidas.
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