The start of the Giro d'Italia has been a big marketing exercise for Israel; rumoured to have paid €10 million or even more to RCS. But not everyone is happy, given the conflict in the region. Irish cycling journalist Shane Stokes has decided not to go.
Irish cycling journalist Shane Stokes on the Giro and Israel
Well known Irish cycling journalist Shane Stokes boycotted the Giro’s three-day start in Israel.
Stokes, who has become one of the most trusted writers on the pro game down the years, outlined his reasons on CyclingTips.com, where he is a senior staffer.
He says that having considered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict he could not support the Israeli start to the race.
And so he decided to act on his convictions and not travel to Israel for the first stages of the event.
Palestinians, including reporters, have been killed in what Stokes believes was unjustifiable violence meted out by Israel.
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Demonstrations began on March 30th calling for an end to the blockade of Gaza and many protestors and journalists had been targeted by Israeli snipers.
Those snipers had fired dumdum bullets from long range; fatally wounding their targets or causing injuries that resulted in the loss of limbs.
Those attacks were unfolding less than 100km from the Giro start location; a fact that Stokes said he could not accept.
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“In the light of the recent violence, but also the bombing of Gaza in 2008-09 and 2014, my decision not to go to the Giro start felt logical,” he writes in his CyclingTips story.
“As Israel’s defenders will point out, every country has a right to defend itself: that is true, but I believe that defence must be proportional.
“The huge imbalance in casualties shows this is not the case. In the 2014 Gaza war, for example, less than 80 soldiers and civilians on the Israeli side were killed.
“However over 2,000 Palestinians lost their lives. As for the current conflict relating to the border protests, the imbalance is even more pronounced.
“There are no reports of casualties on the Israeli side; as already mentioned, at least 49 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,000 injured.”
Shane Stokes added he had also objected to other races, and sponsorship deals, on the basis of human rights.
He had, for example, always enjoyed covering the Tour of Turkey. But he has not traveled recently because of the Government “crackdown on protestors and imprisoning of academics”.
He had been critical of the Bahrain-Merida sponsorship over allegations of torture in Bahrain. And he had also voiced concern about the Worlds in Qatar two years ago because of human rights abuses.
Stokes was also very clear to point out he knew lots of Jewish people in cycling and elsewhere that he has “tremendous respect for”. His decision to boycott the Israeli stages was not based on culture or religion.
He also spoke about his reasons on a podcast published by The Irish Times; a publication he contributes to. You can hear that just below:
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