To the International Olympics Committee: 

We are athletes, proud to represent our countries at the Olympic Games.
But we are also citizens, bound by common humanity and conscience.

We take seriously the Olympic values of equality, humanitarianism, solidarity, respect and friendship — and the mission of the Olympic Movement to help build a better world.

That’s why we can’t look away from Gaza, where children are killed every day, by enforced starvation or bombs and bullets.

More than 37,000 people have been killed by Israel’s ongoing war, many of them athletes, and many more will die in the weeks when we are expected to compete in Paris as if none of this were happening.

If we uphold the sanctity and equality of all human life, we cannot silently accept as normal Israel’s involvement in the Paris Olympiad.

Welcoming Israel’s flag in Paris normalizes apartheid and genocide, violating the Olympic spirit and forsaking our moral obligations. There can be no normal sport with a state engaged in genocide, and to pretend otherwise is to normalize that genocide.

We demand that the International Olympic Committee act now to prevent the Games becoming a vehicle for legitimizing the war on Gaza’s children.

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More information:

Under a ban, Israeli athletes would still be able to compete in the Olympics as "neutral athletes", unaffiliated with Israel.
A guide to Olympic athletes' rights to freedom of expression can be found here. 

This letter is an independent grassroots initiative by several Olympic athletes. The webpage is merely hosted by Avaaz, the organisation is not otherwise affiliated with the content of this letter