{"id":130771,"date":"2025-09-09T17:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/130771\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T17:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:53:08","slug":"montreal-activists-seek-to-bar-israeli-cycling-team-from-major-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/130771\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Activists Seek to Bar Israeli Cycling Team From Major Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Montreal-based human rights group is pressing city officials to bar the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team from Sunday’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Montr\u00e9al, arguing the squad’s participation would whitewash Israel’s actions in Gaza, where aid agencies warn of famine after nearly a year of war.<\/p>\n

Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), which includes both Palestinian and Jewish members, sent a legal notice to Mayor Val\u00e9rie Plante demanding the exclusion of the team \u2013 co-owned by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams \u2013 from the publicly funded race. The letter warned that allowing Israel-Premier Tech to compete would risk making the city complicit in “sportswashing” alleged war crimes. <\/p>\n

The demand comes as Israel’s presence in international sports has drawn increasing backlash. In August, pro-Palestinian protesters repeatedly disrupted the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, prompting Israel-Premier Tech to alter its uniforms.<\/p>\n

Haaretz Weekly\u2018The Trump White House has outsourced all policy on Gaza to Israel\u2019<\/p>\n

play<\/p>\n

Haaretz Weekly<\/p>\n

\u2018The Trump White House has outsourced all policy on Gaza to Israel\u2019<\/p>\n

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fast forward15<\/p>\n

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Spain’s foreign minister openly backed expelling the team <\/a>after repeated demonstrations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu countered with praise, calling the cyclists “ambassadors for Israel.”<\/p>\n

In Canada, sporting ties have also become a flashpoint. In August, hundreds of athletes, including Olympic runner Moh Ahmed, urged Tennis Canada to cancel Israel’s Davis Cup tie in Halifax \u2013 a demand the federation rejected. Montreal has seen sustained pro-Palestinian protests since October 2023, including a months-long McGill University encampment and debates over public prayer at demonstrations, outside Notre-Dame Basilica, with the provincial government announcing a ban on public prayers in August.<\/p>\n

Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal spokesperson declined to comment on the PAJU letter, and Israel-Premier Tech dismissed the demand. The City of Montreal and the UCI World Tour did not respond to requests. Israel-Premier Tech said, “No response needed on our end.”<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/p>\n

The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montr\u00e9al, one of only two UCI World Tour events in North America, follows Friday’s race in Quebec City, where no exclusion demand has been made. PAJU has given the city until Tuesday afternoon to act, warning it will pursue legal action if the team is not removed.<\/p>\n

In Europe, the debate over Israel’s participation in sport has intensified. UEFA President Aleksander \u010ceferin<\/a> said he does not support banning Israeli clubs from competitions, but acknowledged it is a “legitimate question” given the civilian toll in Gaza. He emphasized that bans alone do not stop conflict and that athletes should generally be allowed to compete, while human rights concerns are addressed through other means. <\/p>\n

\"A\"AClose<\/p>\n

A sign against Israel-Premier Tech at the Tour de France last month. Credit: Valentine Chapuis\/AFP<\/p>\n

A sign against Israel-Premier Tech at the Tour de France last month. Credit: Valentine Chapuis\/AFP<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, UEFA hosted nine refugee children, including two from Gaza, at the European Super Cup match between Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain, where a banner reading “Stop killing children \u2013 stop killing civilians” was displayed on the field. <\/p>\n

\u010ceferin called the gesture a diplomatic statement highlighting civilian suffering and criticized those framing humanitarian messages as political attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Montreal-based human rights group is pressing city officials to bar the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team from Sunday’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,28346,85],"class_list":["post-130771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-israel-gaza-war","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}