Ultimate Palestine's Response to Ceasefire
February 2025
We once again call upon the global ultimate community to join us in our efforts to demand freedom and justice for our people. While many around the world acknowledged a ceasefire agreement on January 19, 2025, we continue to grieve for our Ultimate Palestine teammates, coaches, family, and friends who have been killed, who have lost loved ones, who are suffering physical and emotional traumas, and who persist through this genocidal slaughter of our people and destruction of our lands.
We see the hypocrisy in this “ceasefire” as Israel continues to bomb Gaza and escalate attacks in the West Bank. Our coaches are returning to their homes in northern Gaza to be met with a sea of rubble. Rather than pausing a devastating 15-month genocide in Gaza, this “ceasefire” marks another day in the over 76-year occupation of our lands and systemic oppression of our people.
As Ultimate Palestine founder Daniel Bannoura wrote, “I want to celebrate this ceasefire but I can’t. I’m glad that my friends in Gaza can take a breath and collect what remains of their lives, but I continue to mourn the friends that I lost and the thousands of beautiful souls that were robbed from us. I can’t celebrate because the genocide isn’t over. It’s marked on the bodies and souls of every Palestinian.”
On November 1, 2023, Ultimate Palestine called on the global ultimate community to defend Palestinian human rights. We called on our fellow members of the international ultimate community to join us in active advocacy to affirm the humanity and dignity of the Palestinian people, to take a clear position against this genocide, and to condemn 76 long years of Israeli occupation, apartheid and brutal oppression of our families and communities. While we are ashamed by the lack of response from WFDF and USAU, we continue our advocacy. We have been uplifted by the response of ultimate communities around the world who have mobilized and expressed their rejection of this genocide.
It is with solidarity in mind that we once again call upon the global ultimate community to keep your attention on Palestine. Renew your efforts to talk about Palestine in your ultimate communities. Uplift our stories and stand strongly beside us. While we would love to center our energy on simply playing ultimate (which we do hope to get back to in 2025), it is impossible for us to ignore the realities that surround us while playing, coaching, and developing ultimate in Palestine. In Palestine, it is crystal clear to us that politics are inseparable from sports. It is clear that the fight for freedom and justice, too, is inseparable.
We see the hypocrisy in this “ceasefire” as Israel continues to bomb Gaza and escalate attacks in the West Bank. Our coaches are returning to their homes in northern Gaza to be met with a sea of rubble. Rather than pausing a devastating 15-month genocide in Gaza, this “ceasefire” marks another day in the over 76-year occupation of our lands and systemic oppression of our people.
As Ultimate Palestine founder Daniel Bannoura wrote, “I want to celebrate this ceasefire but I can’t. I’m glad that my friends in Gaza can take a breath and collect what remains of their lives, but I continue to mourn the friends that I lost and the thousands of beautiful souls that were robbed from us. I can’t celebrate because the genocide isn’t over. It’s marked on the bodies and souls of every Palestinian.”
On November 1, 2023, Ultimate Palestine called on the global ultimate community to defend Palestinian human rights. We called on our fellow members of the international ultimate community to join us in active advocacy to affirm the humanity and dignity of the Palestinian people, to take a clear position against this genocide, and to condemn 76 long years of Israeli occupation, apartheid and brutal oppression of our families and communities. While we are ashamed by the lack of response from WFDF and USAU, we continue our advocacy. We have been uplifted by the response of ultimate communities around the world who have mobilized and expressed their rejection of this genocide.
It is with solidarity in mind that we once again call upon the global ultimate community to keep your attention on Palestine. Renew your efforts to talk about Palestine in your ultimate communities. Uplift our stories and stand strongly beside us. While we would love to center our energy on simply playing ultimate (which we do hope to get back to in 2025), it is impossible for us to ignore the realities that surround us while playing, coaching, and developing ultimate in Palestine. In Palestine, it is crystal clear to us that politics are inseparable from sports. It is clear that the fight for freedom and justice, too, is inseparable.