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American football players boycott ‘propaganda’ trip to Israel

February 18, 2017 at 2:30 am

NFL player Michael Bennett [Jeffrey Beall/Wikimedia]

More than half of US National Football League (NFL) players due to head to Israel on a “propaganda” trip are not going.

One of the NFL players, Michael Bennett, tweeted a statement saying that he won’t be “used” by Israel and explained that: “One of my heroes has always been Muhammad Ali. I know that Ali always stood strongly with the Palestinian people…and always willing to be a ‘voice for the voiceless’. I want to be a ‘voice for the voiceless’ and I cannot do that by going on this kind of trip to Israel.” Bennett’s statement has been “liked” over 16,000 times on Twitter.

In the statement Bennett explained: “I was scheduled to make a visit to Israel… I was excited to see this remarkable and historic part of the world… I was not aware that my itinerary was being constructed by the Israeli government for the purposes of making me… an ‘influencer and opinion-former’.”

“I will not be used in such a manner.”

The propaganda trip was organised in part by Israeli Minister Gildan Erdan who explained that: “The ministry I lead is spearheading an intensive fight …against BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] campaigns against Israel, and part of this struggle includes hosting influencers and opinion-formers of international standing in different fields, including sport.”