The campaign is supported by the Islamic Times, Palestinian Return Center, Innovative Minds, Friends of al Aqsa, the British Muslim Initiative, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain and the Scottish-Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

Arsenal Football Club has just signed a sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination from next season. The 350,000 pound agreement makes Israel Arsenal's "official and exclusive travel destination," the IHRC said. Based on the deal, Israel will be featured on digital perimeter boards and 450 high-definition LCD screens at the stadium on game days and it will feature on the team's website and in its magazine. The televised ads will reach audiences in an estimated 198 countries and the Zionist Tourism Ministry will receive intellectual property rights, the use of the team logo and the right to use photos of the team and its players in ads.

The ministry will be allowed to use the stadium banqueting hall twice a year and organise an exhibition at the end of the playing season. The stadium will hold permanent sale tables for Israel t-shirt. The financial advisers Ernst & Young were employed to draft this proposal with the aim of bringing an extra 2 million tourists to Israel annually. "Israel is a racist apartheid state built upon the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Arab population from Palestine. It has been so recognized by none other than antiapartheid campaigners such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has called for a complete boycott of Israel similar to that which ultimately resulted in the toppling of the apartheid South African regime," an IHRC statement added.

Israel's apartheid policies include the segregation of West Bank roads by the military and the construction of a vast steel and concrete barrier through the West Bank and al-Quds. Dubbed the "apartheid wall" by human rights activists, because it forces communities apart and grabs land, it has been held to be in violation of international law by the International Court of Justice. Critics of plan to carve up the West Bank, apportioning pieces of territory to the Palestinians, draw comparisons with South Africa's "bantustans" - the nominally independent homelands into which millions of black men and women were herded. Israel's racial discrimination is daily life for most Palestinians, accruing special rights for Israeli Jews which are not available to non-Jews. Palestinian Arabs have no place in this "Jewish" state.

Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law and has, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children. For Arsenal to sign a deal to promote such a state is to go against the very principles of `Kicking Racism out of Football', the London- based commission stressed.

"Amazingly, Arsenal's Managing Director who signed the deal, Keith Edelman stated after the deal was signed, "We are in the forefront of the anti-racism campaign in England", the IHRC said, "This deal will no doubt put this reputation into serious question". IHRC urged all campaigners to contact Arsenal Football Club reminding them that Israel is a racist apartheid state which is consistently in breach of international law in its human rights abuses; and that such a deal endangers Arsenal's anti-racist reputation. "Contact the Football Associations' "Kick Racism out of Football" campaign reminding them that Israel is a racist apartheid state which is consistently in breach of international law in its human rights abuses; and that such a deal endangers the FA's anti-racist reputation and the Kick it Out campaign itself." "Ask the FA to use its influence to prevent the deal going ahead," the statement read.