March 1, 2024
To motivate others, we need to safeguard and commemorate the very first wave of signatories to the Athletes for Ceasefire declaration.
A number of hundred members of the sports world registered for the brand-new company Professional athletes for CeasefireSome are popular, like retired NFL receiver Kenny Stills (who is an organizer of the task), 1968 Olympian John Carlos, WNBA stalwart Layshia Clarendon, and retired NBA gamer Etan Thomas. Others are Olympic-level runners, cricketeers, and soccer gamers: individuals whom the common American sports fan might not understand. What unifies them is the belief that the overall war on the civilian population of Gaza should end which professional athletes can contribute in magnifying this message. Their declaration checks out in part:
In the wake of an unfolding genocide in Gaza, as explained by many legal scholars, human rights professionals and worldwide companies throughout the world. We, as professional athletes, acknowledge our ethical obligation to use our platform for a greater function: to conserve human lives and to raise awareness about this continuous disaster. We acknowledge the right of the Palestinian individuals to reside in peace and security. As expert athletes, we highlight our shared humankind, and supporter for a course that appreciates all human life, despite faith or ethnic background. In signing this letter, we continue a long tradition of professional athletes defending the human rights of all individuals, such as Olympians John Carlos and Tommie Smith who raised their fists at the 1968 video games in part to require that apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia be held to account. We stand in the happy custom of “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali who meant Palestinian liberty throughout his life both in word and deed. WE STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF THESE GIANTS IN OUR EFFORTS TO KEEP THIS TRADITION OF ATHLETE OF CONSCIENCE ALIVE.
As remarkable as the Athletes for Ceasefire declaration is, there is a concern about why the variety of signatures remains in the hundreds, and not in the thousands or 10s of thousands. What it boils down to, to paraphrase Daniel Denvir, host of the podcast The Digis that while criticism of Israel has nev