The Palestinian Authority is seeking to have Israel suspended from FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, global soccer’s governing body. If the motion passes on May 29, 2015, Israel would become the world’s only nation to be banned from FIFA matches around the world.
“We will never, ever accept any compromise, any agreement or deal,” Palestinian Football Association chief Jibril Rajoub has explained. A former security official in the PLO’s feared security apparatus, Rajoub regards sports as a tool to help the Palestinian Unity Government between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority achieve statehood without taking concrete steps to negotiate with Israel.
Rajoub’s complaint to FIFA has three main components, each of which is strongly refuted by Israel as grounds for their suspension: that Israel restricts the movement of Palestinian players, particularly between Gaza and the West Bank; five of Israel’s soccer teams are located outside of Israel’s 1967 cease-fire lines with Jordan; and that Israel’s Football Association turns a blind eye to racism.
Israel refutes Rajoub’s three complaints to FIFA.
The reality is different. Far from ignoring racism among fans, the Israeli Football Association is the only Middle Eastern soccer association with an anti-racism program, and it hasn’t been afraid to censure those Israeli teams that have violated antidiscrimination standards.
(Unfortunately, nasty chants by fans are a fixture of soccer matches, and not only in the Middle East. April 2015 saw Bosnian fans at a soccer match in Vienna shouting first “Fee Palestine” which quickly mutated into calls to “Kill the Jews”, while Dutch police are currently investigating fans who chanted anti-Semitic slogans at a game there a few days later. Crowds sang and clapped as they chanted such slogans as “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas”, “Jews burn the best” and that Jews should be sent “to the gas chambers”.) Only in Israel – alone among Middle Eastern nations – would any offensive statements by fans at soccer matches be cause for official action.
Complaints that Israel restricts the free movement of Palestinian players don’t stand up to scrutiny either. Rotem Kemer, Chief Executive of the Israeli Football Association, told The New York Times “more than 95% of Palestinian requests for player movement had been approved so far this year, and that those rejected ‘probably had some background involving terrorism’”. Israeli soccer authorities also point out that they have no control over the security situation. “We have found ourselves in the last two months in a political conflict that has nothing to do with football in the region” – yet they are being held accountable for security needs that the Palestinian Unity Government themselves helps create.
The fact that five of Israel’s associated soccer teams play outside of Israel’s 1967 borders isn’t unusual within FIFA, either. FIFA, which proudly calls itself the “United Nations of Football”, has refused to take sides during recent conflicts. As Simon Johnson, a former British Football Association official points out, “During the Balkan conflict, the Afghan and Iraq wars, the Somalia conflict, the civil wars in Sudan and in the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, FIFA has kept itself above politics and has not taken steps that might favor one side or another in a political conflict.”
With 209 members – more than the number of nation-states – FIFA admits regions and contested territories as members. It currently lists human-rights disasters like Saudi Arabia – which this month publicly advertised for eight new public executioners to keep pace with its massive rate of public beheadings and limb amputations – and Burundi, which this month suffered a violent attempted coup, resulting in 50,000 refugees fleeing to neighboring Rwanda – as members, among others.
It also tolerates non-nation states as members. FIFA was the first international organization to recognize Palestine, admitting the Palestinian Football Association in 1998 – where it joined Scotland, Wales, England, Northern Ireland, Hong Kong, and other regions as members that are not internationally recognized as sovereign states.
Since its founding in 1904, FIFA has banned only two members: apartheid-era South Africa in 1964, and Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milosevic in 1994. This is the precedent that Jibril Rajoub and his Palestinian Football Association are hoping to follow. Jibril Rajoub first filed a formal complaint with FIFA in 2013, asking for Israel’s ouster. FIFA President Sepp Blatter responded by setting up a liaison mechanism to work with Israeli and Palestinian footballers, but resolving real issues has never seemed to be Rajoub’s actual goal; using soccer to help demonize the Jewish State is.
Rajoub insists there has been no improvement in conditions for Palestinian soccer players and has warned that if the upcoming vote doesn’t go his way, he’ll take his drive to ban Israel from world soccer to the Swiss-based Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) next.
In his book, "Catch the Jew," the German-based Israeli journalist Tuvia Tenenbom recounts his interview with Jibril Rajoub in 2014: “At present he is heading the Palestinian Football Federation and the Palestine Olympic Committee, but don’t kid yourself. Among his list of previous jobs is being the leader of the Palestinian Preventative Security Force, a fearsome intelligence and security apparatus. This man is a master fighter, a master spy, and a master manipulator,” he wrote. As Tenenbom took Rajoub’s business card – it’s gold-plated and describes Rajoub as “Major General” – Tenenbom asked how such a senior figure could be satisfied running a soccer body. “Resistance does not mean only military resistance,” Rajoub replied. “I started to understand that our aspirations could be achieved through other tools.” Sport, he explained, “is an effective tool to achieve our national aspirations.”
Make Your Voice Heard
Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president isn’t happy about this abuse of his organization for political goals, calling it “inappropriate” and an abuse of FIFA’s statutes. “I believe football should be a bridge that shows governments that football brings people together, not be a weapon,” Blatter said of the Palestinians’ resolution.
With a little more than a week to go before the vote, Blatter flew to the Middle East to engage in a furious round of shuttle diplomacy. After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blatter said he was confident that a “peace match” between Israelis and Palestinians could be arranged – but was far from certain that he could broker a compromise with the Palestinian Unity Government.
In the run-up to the FIFA vote, people around the world have had their say – in many cases, advocating against Israel. A global petition to support Israel’s ban (and to boycott it culturally and commercially) as of May 20, 2015 had over 20,000 signatories; no comparable petition in support of the Jewish State yet seemed to exist.
As world soccer associations prepare to vote, Israel’s supporters around the world must make their voices heard as well. Contact your local soccer teams and (politely) urge them to vote against the Palestinian Football Association’s proposed ban. Write letters to the editor, and don’t be afraid to state Israel’s case with friends and colleagues. Contact FIFA (their website is http://www.fifa.com/associations/index.html) and let them you want Israel to remain a member in good standing.
(6) William, May 30, 2015 1:31 AM
REALLY?
Sorry, but I don't see this action as "diplomacy". In my book, this is first line of bullying! Are people so stupid these days, that they can not see how they are being led by their noses? And yet, I believe, not long ago, Israeli soccer team played a Palestinian team. Any problems on the field? I haven't heard of any! So much of the idea of "politics should not affect sport or music". Are we next going to see the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra banned from European venues? Because of what? For being Israelis, or for being Jewish? Which ever, same result! One day, and we can only hope not too long in the future, the Europeans, and the world at large, will wake up to themselves and realise the pain they inflicted on the only democratic nation in the war-torn Middle East. But, I am afraid, that takes leadership with guts; something lacking in all countries, especially in Europe. People still scream "Free Palestine" without realising or knowing, that there was never a Palestinian state, nor Palestinian people. It's a myth developed by Yasser Arafat in late 1960 - early 1970's. And, unfortunately, people of Europe bought that nonsense. I, personally, think the Europeans beginning to suffer the consequences of turning their backs against Israel and accepting this "Palestinian" propaganda. But that's another story for another time.
(5) Lisa, May 27, 2015 2:22 PM
No Goal!! Penalty!! Foul!!
Here's the kicker: FIFA made the headlines....not for good....for their reputation for corruption!
Maybe it's all good that Israel is out....just maybe!!
Zsolt, May 28, 2015 11:04 PM
better out than in
I fully agree with you.
Perhaps it is much better for Israel to be out of one of the most corrupt organizations in the world.
We are so desperate to "belong", we desperately want to be accepted everywhere and in the process many times we would be ready give away our principles, the very basics of "being Jewish".
The fact is Jews were not born to assimilate, to become "like others", to settle for fake, "politically correct" systems, false liberalism or false democracy.
We are supposed to be "Light onto the nations", showing them without any compromise what "being a Mensch", a "tzadik" means.
We have to show everybody else through our own positive example how to unite, live in mutual solidarity above and despite our self-serving, egoistic nature that distorts, corrupts even the best laid plans, most optimal systems.
The world needs us being unique, being "truly, uncompromisingly Jewish".
Anonymous, May 28, 2015 11:59 PM
I agree 100%
whoever reads this, keep in mind; Hashem (g-d) does what is good for us. Don't think twice; if Israel is allowed to continue to participate in world football against the insistence of the palestinians, So don't worry; whatever happens is only for our good.
(4) Mable Cole, May 26, 2015 7:22 PM
Do not ban Israel
This is outrageous!
Let Israel remain in good standing with the FIFA.
Let's see some good sportsmanship instead of using childish attics.
(3) Fiona CAPSTICK, May 26, 2015 2:56 PM
no solution with exclusion
There can never be any meaningful and enduring solution to any problem if there is a mood of hateful exclusion and banning - be in in sport or in the political arena. Israel will never kow-tow to intimidation of any sort from any source whatsoever. Fiona CAPSTICK in South Africa
(2) Anonymous, May 26, 2015 2:42 PM
The ultimate bully
The PA is the worlds ultimate bully. it is always I want everything my way and everything that Israel does is bad. It is time for some organization to stand up too them and say "NO!" yo cannot dictate policy here. this is a peace organization and representation from all countries and all peoples is welcomed and encouraged. IF you cannot play nice in sports how can anyone expect there to be peace between peoples. Not it is not the Israeli's who are making any claims about PA obstinacy in even refusing the right of Israel to exist. IT is the PA through a systematic approach trying to eliminate the existence of Israel. An intelligent person might wonder why everything the PA says is not in a form of a request as civil people speak but in the form a of a demand.
I wonder what happened to all the intelligent people. And where will they be when the Islamist turn their eye on them for not aceding to their demands.
(1) Beverly Margolis-Kurtin, May 25, 2015 11:22 PM
The Big Lies of Arabs
What is the difference between Fascist Germany and the Arabs? Zero. They are pretty much the same.
The propaganda tool called the Big Lie is what both the Nazis and the Arabs use to the fullest.
How otherwise intelligent people can accept the unacceptable makes me ill.
It outrageous me that people who want to kill us have no concept of why they want us dead, they just want it.
I'm in the midst of writing a booklet that hopefully will get through to some people's minds.
I ask Jew haters if they are for terrorism, do they approve of apartheid rule, do they hate democracy?
"Free Palestine?" From WHAT? Israel? So they would rather live in, a dictatorship or a democracy?
They squirm because they never bothered to learn what the Arabs are and what Israel and the United States are.
I know that we will always be on the outs with most of the world, that is something Hashem told us we would be.
It has been just 70 years since the worst catastrophe in human history and it is being totally denied already.
Eisenhower knew what was going to happen, that people would reject the fact that the Shoah happened, that is why he had so many pictures taken of the living and the living dead.
I do not keep my Jewish background a secret. Nor do I hold my love of Israel a secret. I wear a large pin on my hat that has the flags of the United States and Israel. When people ask me if I'm a Jew I always answer YES, keep in mind that we're the people who taught the world about the ONE and only God and gave y'all the bible. It is interesting to see their faces when they know they have nothing further to say.
Devasahayam, May 26, 2015 2:41 PM
Not only Arabs, just about cent-percent of Muslims west of Ayodhya
On your initial question Beverly, you do understand that "Palestinian" (1) Arabs under Haj-amin Husseini (who mentored Egyptian rubbish Arafat and selected him as head of PLO in 1964) arch-collaborated with the Nazis -- and unlike many of the European collaborators, haven't to this day even shown the remorse of being caught let-alone repented?
On the rest of your post, we are almost 10,000,000 percent in agreement. One later group aped "Palestinians" later in 1971, the "biharis" of Bangladesh, who supported Pakistan's military thugocracy against the country's then-majority community, Bengalis abbetting in the murders of over 2,000,000 Bengali Muslims, 900,000 Bengali non-Muslims and 200,000 non-Bengali largely Buddhist southeastern tribals. Afterwards, even "biharis" showed at least same remorse as European collaborators (and Pakistan, which was supposed to take them back, reneged after 1976 leaving behind about 300,000 of them -- since increased to about 1,500,000). As a side-note, a regiment of Pakistani army, led by then-future dictator Zia ul-Haq had evicted Arafat and PLO from Jordan (at king Hussein's request) and killed over 10,000 of the bakvaastinians (about half of all bakvaastinian casualties 1945 - 2015) between September 1970 (about sixmonths before they started the Naziesque atrocities in their own country's then eastern wing -- irrevocably splitting it off as Bangladesh, for which they continue to blame India despite of proof to the contrary (2)) and June 1971
(1) even Arafat and Shukari, the fist two heads of PLO admitted "palestinians" invented by Haj-amin Husseini (note, it's only group name NOT pronounceable in native tongue, Arabic which has NO "p" sound -- sourced 1982 shill quote by erstwhile Pakistani diplomat Akbar Ahmed "...arabs call us 'Bakistan'....").
(2) Stranger in my own country...1969-1971", authored by Khadim Raja (first commander of B'desh atrocities by Pak), published 2012
Deborah, May 26, 2015 3:33 PM
Your Comment Sounds Like Propaganda Itself
So what is the conclusion you are making? That Arabs are like Nazi's? Isn't that racist? And I would hesitate before concluding that all Israeli policies towards the Palestinians can be seen as democratic.
Anonymous, May 26, 2015 6:22 PM
Palestinian liars.
Amazing that the Palestinians are allowed to send teams to the Olypic games.
Yet, it was Palestinian terrorists who slaughtered the Israweli athletes in Munich 1972 Olympics.
The soccer world must not allowed the terrorists to hold FIFA at rnasom.
I hope that the "civilized" world will brinmg up the 1972 Olymics massacre and tell these haters to shut up.
THE pALESTINIANS ARE TERRORIRIOSTS.
They make heroes of murderes of Israelis.
What does thet tell the world?
They name schools, parks, roads etc after murderers.
They pays trhe families of murderers al living wage.
ISRAEL MUST REMAIN IN FDIFA. THE PALESTINIANS SHOULD BE OUSTED.
William, May 30, 2015 2:37 AM
Big Lie
NICE COMMENT! But I'd rather you did not mention the USA in this context, although the USA is only one of the very few countries friendly towards Israel. LIES? This whole debate, re. Israel, for the past 60 years, has been based on lies. And the longer this debate goes on, the more lies will be produced. So, why stop at soccer (football)? The true perpetrators of this whole M/E mess is for everyone to see, that is for those who want to see it or want to use their "grey cells", as Hercule Poirot would have said. Unfortunately, not many people want use their brains; instead they will sit on them. Sorry, but that's how I see it!