Campaign Demanding UEFA to Suspend Israel Continues - Press Statement - CODEPINK

PALESTINE

Campaign Demanding UEFA to Suspend Israel Continues - Press Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 21, 2025

PRESS STATEMENT: UEFA Normalises Genocide

How many more Palestinians have to die for President Čeferin to suspend Israel?

EUROPE - Genocide does not stop when a truce is agreed. Its mechanisms continue – starvation and dehydration with no food or water, life-threatening injuries and deadly illness with no medical supplies or working hospitals, the lack of shelter, sanitation, cleaning products, and toxins polluting the dust, air, and water. A genocide continues to kill, even if the bombs and bullets stop.

“The Israeli regime is committing a genocide. It has destroyed essentially all of Gaza, is terrorizing communities across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and has broken new records for the murder of civilians, medical workers, journalists, and aid workers. Is this the legacy President Čeferin wants? This is no time to relent in holding them accountable and no time to normalise horror. Israel must be suspended from UEFA now.” – Craig Mokhiber, International Human Rights Lawyers and former UN Human Rights Director

The Israeli occupation has committed 80 violations since the ceasefire decision in Gaza, resulting in the killing of 97 Palestinians and the wounding of 230. 21 violations took place on Sunday, October 19, in response to an alleged attack by Hamas, which was known to be false by both Israel and the United States.

These violations included crimes of direct gunfire at civilians, deliberate bombardment and targeting, the execution of “fire belts,” and the arrest of a number of civilian citizens. These actions are in blatant and flagrant violation of the ceasefire decision and the principles of international humanitarian law.

It is reported that these assaults were carried out by the occupation using military vehicles and tanks stationed on the outskirts of residential neighborhoods, as well as electronic cranes equipped with remote sensing and targeting systems. Additionally, combat aircraft and drone quadcopters fly daily over populated areas, conducting direct shooting and targeting operations against civilians.

These violations have been documented across all governorates of the Gaza Strip without exception, confirming that the occupation has not adhered to the ceasefire

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordination, Tom Fletcher, drove through Gaza City Monday morning, October 20, observing: “For the last 25 or 32 minutes we’ve driven through twisted concrete, broken buildings, rubble, dust. Today is the first day we can get up this road because we’ve cleared extra sections of it of the bodies and the broken buildings and broken lives that are scattered around us.”

“What is it that people need at this point that will cut through. It’s too late. We should’ve stopped this.”

Meanwhile, Israel extended the complete closure of the Rafah crossing, leaving hundreds of aid trucks unable to enter southern Gaza. Speaking to Al Jazeera from the al-Mawasi area in the south of the Gaza Strip, Tess Ingram, UNICEF Spokesperson, stated that to scale up humanitarian aid deliveries, multiple crossings into the enclave must be opened:

“The stakes are really high,” she said. “There are 28,000 children who were diagnosed with malnutrition in July and August alone, and thousands more since then. So, we need to make sure it’s not just food coming in, but malnutrition treatments, as well.”

UNRWA confirmed it has thousands of truckloads of humanitarian aid ready to enter Gaza – enough food to meet Gaza’s needs for three months, and shelter materials for 1.3 million displaced people, but Israel continues to block their entry. The blockade also prevents the entry of sanitation supplies, heavy machinery to clear rubble, hospital equipment and clean water. The Gaza Centre for Human Rights reported that only 173 trucks entered Gaza between October 10 and 15, when about 1,800 aid trucks should have entered the Strip.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor noted that “...any attempt to link food or medicine to political or security conditions constitutes a flagrant violation of fundamental rights, including the right to life, dignity, personal safety, health, food and water.”\

“What future are we building for our children and grandchildren if we pretend a ‘ceasefire’ can wash away the crime of genociding hundreds of thousands of people and stealing their land? UEFA cannot hide behind the ‘peace plan’ designed by the genociders and their accomplices, they must suspend Israel from football now.” – Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice, Emeritus at Princeton University, US and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (2008-2014).

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#GameOverIsrael: This campaign launched on September 16 with a billboard in Times Square (FT, Reuters), calling on the football federations to boycott Israel. The campaign is powered by a coalition of ordinary people - organizers, activists, humanitarians, and football fans - fighting for justice, accountability, and freedom for Palestine.

The campaign is advised by Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, British-Palestinian Plastic Surgeon and founder of the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund; Abed Ayoub, director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied and President of the Gaza Tribunal; and

Craig Mokhiber, former UN human rights official, and supported by a growing list of organizations, including ADC, CODEPINK, The Gaza Tribunal, Health Workers 4 Palestine, the Hind Rajab Foundation, and Tech for Palestine.