Further calls to stop Ireland – Israel game in Wheelchair Basketball Championships

Calls are mounting for the Irish Wheelchair Association to cancel their game against Israel on Wednesday.

First reported by JOE in August, it has since emerged the IWBF granted Israel exceptional permission to include a non-Israeli player in its team.

The team will be allowed to compete despite being unable to field a full squad of classified eligible Israeli players. 

The board on the IWA say they have made a unanimous decision, after a robust process, to accept the invitation to play Israel.

Israeli authorities recently stopped the entry of over 900 wheelchairs provided by the Australian charities Kids on Wheels Alliance and Wheelchairs for Kids, via the Palestinian-Australian New Zealand Medical Association.

Children with amputations in Gaza have no wheelchairs.

George Little from Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine has said: "It is unconscionable that any Irish women’s wheelchair basketball team would play Israel. The IWA board knows that Irish medics have been
demanding international communities boycott Israel that includes the IWA.

"Israel has destroyed all healthcare in Gaza, prevents Gazans from receiving any medical treatment,
maims thousands of children with impunity. It is an unethical decision by IWA and needs to
be challenged."

Three years of Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed at least 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children. One in every 30 people, or 3 percent of the pre-war population.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health counts only deaths recorded at hospitals or officially registered. The true toll is likely much higher, as it excludes the thousands still buried under rubble or missing.