THE PSA CALLS FOR THE IMMEDIATE SUSPENSION OF DAVID TEEGER FROM THE SOUTH AFRICAN UNDER NINETEEN NATIONAL CRICKET TEAM FOR HIS PREJUDICED COMMENTS UNBECOMMING OF A NATIONAL TEAM CAPTAIN.

PRESS RELEASE

The Palestine Solidarity Alliance has raised an official complaint with SASCOC, Cricket South Africa
and the Gauteng Lions Cricket, regarding the provocative, biased, and inflammatory remarks made
by David Teeger, the U19 Captain of the South African Team.

The South African Jewish Report article authored by Hanna Resnick published an article on 26
October 20231 about David Teeger receiving the Absa Jewish Achiever award, in which he is
reported to have said, “Yes, I’ve been [given] this award, and yes, I’m now the Rising Star, but the
true rising stars are the young soldiers in Israel.” He added, “And I`d like to dedicate it to the state
of Israel and every single soldier fighting so that we can love and thrive in the diaspora.”

In this regard we have articulated the following in our letter:

1. That David Teeger’s comments are clearly a provocative and inflamatory political statement,
worsened by the fact that he made it at a time when thousands of innocent Palestinian
people, men, women, children and babies were being killed by the Israeli army.

2. That it is alarming that David Teeger, the selected captain of the South African undernineteen cricket team, can see it fit to honour those partaking in the genocidal war against
the Palestinian people. His unambiguous blind support for war and the bellicose side at that,
demonstrates an indifference to the suffering of innocent civilians of Gaza who have lost their
homes, livelihood, family members and lives as a direct result of the actions of those soldiers
that he admires. It is atrocious that someone chosen to lead a national sports team can be so
callous and prejudiced, especially given our history of struggle against racism and inequality
in all aspects of our lives, including sport.

3. That we are concerned that his comments are subversive as he openly contradicts the
position of the South African government, which has sided with justice and in turn the victims
of this decades-long colonial occupation of Palestine by the Jewish Zionist state.

4. That David Teeger can so brazenly heroize soldiers that are liable for gross war crimes is
disturbing especially coming from someone assigned to captain the South African national
under-nineteen cricket team.

5. That David Teeger has pinned his allegiance with those who are responsible for and those
who defend the war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide that are being
committed by Israel. We note with condemnation that he has aligned himself with the
apartheid state of Israel and its military and raise concern that this political positioning places
him in direct opposition to our government who have referred those very persons that he
honours to the International Criminal Court of Justice for prosecution.

6. That we as South Africans have overcome a brutal system of racial segregation and white
privilege, including racial discrimination in sports and cricket in particular, we strongly
condemn the appointed national under-nineteen team captain David Teeger for his inciteful
political declarations. We add that his statements beg the question of whether his allegiances
are firstly with South Africa and the national team or with apartheid Israel and its army.

As the PSA we have called on the boards of Gauteng Lions Cricket and Cricket South Africa to
establish an inquiry into David Teeger’s misuse of his position as a CSA captain to make common
purpose with the Israeli military when he made the following public statements;

“the true rising stars are the young soldiers in Israel.” and

“I`d like to dedicate it [his award] to the state of Israel and every single soldier fighting so that we
can love and thrive in the diaspora.”

Furthermore, we have demanded that David Teeger to be immediately suspended from
representing the Gauteng Lions at the and from representing the South African under-nineteen
cricket team at the World Cup in Sri Lanka.

We have taken the opportunity to remind our sports leaders that:

a. Amnesty International2
, and Human Rights Watch3
two reputable international human rights
organizations, as well as the Israeli human rights organization Btselem4 have all declared
Israel to be an apartheid state practicing racial discrimination that privileges Jews over
Palestinians, and

b. Given that the Sports Boycott against Apartheid South Africa played a significant role in our
liberation, we call on all sports federations to lead a similar boycott of apartheid Israel and
those like David Teeger who support the belligerent state.

c. We are also reminded of the wisdom of Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu who declared, “If you are
neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor,” and that failure
by Cricket South Africa to suspend David Teeger will signal support for the enablers of
genocide and will promote discord amongst South Africans.

We await a response from SASCOC, Cricket South Africa and the Gauteng Lions Cricket.

Issued by:

Palestine Solidarity Alliance

Johannesburg – South Africa

7 October 2023

info@palestinesa.co.za

1. www.sajr.co.za/rising-star-teeger-shines-in-sport-and-religion/
2. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/
3. https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimesapartheid-and-persecution
4. https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid
PS. Note that we add screenshots of the Jewish Report article referred to in this letter as we have learnt that
they have removed this edition of the report from their website.