WJC at UNHRC | WJC Calls for Global Action to Combat Antisemitism in Sport

At the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, WJC's International Relations Officer Damon Biesold delivered a statement under Item 9 on the forms of hatred and exclusion experienced in the world of sports.

Read the full statement below:

Mr. President, 

The Special Rapporteur’s timely report on the forms of hatred and exclusion experienced in the world of sports sheds light on the urgent need for a coordinated and comprehensive response. 

As stated in the report, sport is meant to unite. Yet Jewish athletes, including children, are being targeted for who they are, part of an alarming surge of antisemitism around the globe that warrants urgent consideration from this council.  

In May, at a girls' under 12 netball match in Sydney, a woman allegedly told Jewish players and parents that they should have been “eradicated.” That same week, testimony before Australia's Royal Commission on Antisemitism described an "unprecedented" rise in antisemitic incidents in community sport, including a young player being told “Hitler should have finished the job.” 

Similar chants were heard in Zurich directed to 10-year-old Jewish players. Parents from adversary teams shouted “break the Jew’s leg.” Jewish young athletes are advised not to wear the Star of David on their way to the pitch, in order to hide their identity. 

In England, Jewish schoolboys as young as fourteen were subjected to chants of "go back to the gas chambers" during a national schools' football match this year. 

That is why the World Jewish Congress built Together Through Sport, an initiative that arms clubs, federations, and athletes with the tools to confront antisemitism and every form of discrimination head on. 

We call on the Special Rapporteur to stand with us and confront antisemitism that has been poisoning societies for millennia. 

Thank you.