Following local pressure, Adidas reconsiders sponsorship of Jerusalem marathon

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12-12-2010
This Maariv article [full translation below] from Friday is particularly badly written and repetitive, so I’ll summarize.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat decides to hold the first Jerusalem International Marathon in March 2011. He gets Adidas to sponsor the event. An Israeli runner registers and then discovers that the route runs through some of the most egregious examples of discrimination and dispossession in East Jerusalem: Sheikh Jarrah, Issawiya, the Shufat Refugee Camp, Jabel Mukaber and Sur Baher.

He approaches the Meretz representatives on the Jerusalem city council and they, with international human rights organizations, approach Adidas. Adidas smells a possible consumer boycott and gets cold feet. The company demands “clarifications” from the Jerusalem municipality. What does that mean? Time (and persistence) will tell.


    Adidas considers withdrawing sponsorship of Jerusalem marathon

    Yosi Eli, Maariv, December 10 2010 [Hebrew original here and at the bottom of this post]

    The sports giant Adidas, which is sponsoring the Jerusalem International Marathon, requested clarifications from the Jerusalem Municipality about the manner in which the event would be conducted [sic]. Sources in the company [say they] are even considering withdrawing the sponsorship because of fears of a consumer boycott, after it became clear that the route also runs through neighborhoods beyond the Green Line.

    The company’s communication with the Jerusalem Municipality follows a series of protests it received from human rights organizations across the world, demanding that the company cancel its sponsorship of the marathon, which is scheduled for March 2011.

    The calls for a boycott came after a left-wing activist, who will be participating in the marathon, complained to the Meretz faction in Jerusalem. He said that it was not proper that the route run through neighborhoods beyond the Green Line. Among other things, the organizations are threating to start a consumer boycott of it does not withdraw its support of the race.

    In their letter to the Mayor Nir Barkat, which was communicated with the help of the Meretz faction in the Jerusalem City Council, headed by Councillor Pepe Alalou and Dr. Meir Margalit, the [company's] managers clarification over the planned route. A source in the Jerusalem Municipality said that following the approaches to the company, some of the Adidas management and its board, requested explicit clarifications regarding the event, which will be held for the first time in Jerusalem.

Source

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	Reactie van Aart van Wijngaarden	datum: 2010-12-14 12:19:12
Als ik Adidas was, zou ik maar terdege overwegen of je nou wel iets in Israël moet sponsoren. Zeker als je kennis neemt van deze Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSlFR541Uoo Misschien kan het Malafide Discriminatie Instituut (MDI) zich erover buigen of ze hiertegen gerechtelijke vervolging in moeten dienen, want is dit ook geen antisemitisme?