Pressure grows on FIFA to suspend Israel
1) Letter from 19 people well-known for their concern for dispossessed minorities; 2) Ben White, MEMO; 3) Dave Zirin The Nation
Palestinian children play football in front of the Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank on the outskirts of Jerusalem. ‘Two years of diplomacy have failed to secure change, and Fifa must now take punitive action in defence of its humanitarian ethos.’ Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/Getty
We call on Fifa to suspend the Israel Football Association
Letter, The Guardian
May 15/16, 2015
The Palestinian Football Association will present a motion to Fifa’s annual congress on 28-29 May, calling for the suspension of the Israel FA. We urge delegates to pass the motion. Palestine took to the pitch at January’s Asian Cup to standing ovations from football fans of all nations. Their very appearance at the tournament was a heroic achievement in light of the obstacles faced by the team. No thanks are due to the IFA. It has stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel’s murderous regime while Palestinian footballers have been shot, beaten, bombed, and incarcerated along with their fellow citizens. And its only response to the day-to-day obstruction of travel, tournaments and the development of facilities has been to repeat the much-abused mantra of “security concerns”.
The IFA welcomes teams from illegal settlements into its leagues and competitions. It has racially segregated part of its national children’s league, incurring legal action. It has never once disciplined Beitar Jerusalem FC for that club’s longstanding apparent ban on the hiring of Arab players, or taken serious action to curb the notorious anti-Arab violence of its supporters. Two years of diplomacy have failed to secure change, and Fifa must now take punitive action in defence of its humanitarian ethos. Its 30-year exclusion of South Africa from its ranks provides a precedent for the action that is required. The lesson, surely, is that there can be no “positive engagement” with apartheid – only principled opposition.
Fifa owes it to all Palestinians to uphold their right to fully access football by supporting the call from the Palestinian FA for suspension of the IFA.
John Berger, Rodney Bickerstaffe, Breyten Breytenbach, Noam Chomsky, Richard Falk, Pat Gaffney, Rev Garth Hewitt, Ronnie Kasrils, Aki Kaurismaki, Bruce Kent, Ken Loach, Michael Mansfield, Miriam Margolyes, John Pilger, Bob Russell, Salman Abu Sita, Ahdaf Soueif, Jenny Tonge, Benjamin Zephaniah
Israel fears FIFA red card, as Palestinians’ campaign gains momentum
By Ben White, MEMO
May 13, 2015
In just over two weeks, the annual FIFA Congress will convene in Zurich. On the agenda – a “proposal by the Palestinian Football Association for the suspension of the Israel Football Association.” The Palestinian drive to get Israel shown the red card, supported by global solidarity activists, has been gathering momentum, and the Israeli government is worried.
According to a report today in Ha’aretz, Israel’s Foreign Ministry is “waging a worldwide campaign” aimed at thwarting the Palestinians’ initiative. Israel’s hasbara offensive has involved “talks with sports ministers and heads of soccer federations in more than 100 countries.”
As attempts to dissuade the Palestinians from pressing ahead, so Israel’s anxieties have increased. On Sunday, FIFA president Sepp Blatter met with the Israel Football Association (IFA)’s president Ofer Eini, and his counterpart in the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), Jibril Rajoub.
In a subsequent statement, Rajoub expressed his determination to “continue our path to suspend the Israeli Football Association”, and accusing the IFA of being unwilling “to recognize the PFA as a federation with equal rights and obligations.” Blatter now plans to “travel to Israel and Palestine to meet their respective FA Presidents and Heads of State ahead of the FIFA Congress.”
The PFA’s request for suspension is based on Israeli-imposed restrictions on freedom of movement and access under occupation, the participation in Israeli national championships of clubs located in illegal West Bank settlements, and anti-Arab racism amongst fans in Israeli stadiums.
For the proposal to pass, it would require the support of 75 percent of FIFA’s 209 member federations in a vote on May 29. Suspension would bar all of Israel’s teams from competing in international competitions.
Israel’s belated diplomatic offensive was kick-started on March 31, at a Ministry of Foreign Affairs-convened meeting with the IFA and military officials. After the meeting, “a classified message was sent to all Israeli ambassadors, calling for total mobilization”, with diplomats urged to “use their connections, and personal and professional skills in order to draw a line in the sand.”
The sense of panic has meant weekly government meetings “to review progress”, with “hundreds of diplomats at the ministry’s headquarters in Jerusalem and abroad” devoting time to the issue. On April 2, another classified message told Israeli diplomats “to meet with or talk by phone to government sports ministers and the respective heads of soccer federations.”
Israel’s PR messages are that the Palestinians are seeking to ‘politicise’ sport, as well as implicating Palestinian football players in ‘terrorism’, and attempts to smear Jibril Rajoub. Interestingly, Israel’s response has also included steps to address the Palestinians’ complaints, such as easing “as much as possible” the travel of players between Gaza and the West Bank.
FIFA has a history of suspending a number of members for various reasons, including South Africa in 1961, part of what became a widespread boycott of the apartheid regime until its collapse. Israel is now worried that suspension “could set a precedent that might encourage similar moves at other international organizations, accelerating the imposition of boycotts on Israel.”
With some in Israel describing the mere presence of the suspension request on the FIFA congress agenda as “an unprecedented Palestinian victory”, it is clear that whatever the result in Zurich – and Israel is certainly pulling out all the stops in its fightback – moves to hold Israel to account for its occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands are gaining in frequency and prominence.
Israel and Palestine Agree: Keep Politics Out of Soccer
By Dave Zirin, The Nation
May 11, 2015
We have before us a point of agreement between Netanyahu’s Israel and the militarily vivisected area of land at times referred to as the Palestinian territories: the idea that sports and politics should not mix. Tragically—not unlike words such as “life,” “liberty,” and that whole “pursuing happiness” thing—the phrase means far less as it journeys from abstraction to reality. Israeli Football Association Chairman Ofer Eini and Chief Executive Rotem Kamer traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, last week to meet with reptilian FIFA chief (and self-described women’s soccer “godfather”) Sepp Blatter. Their mission? To change a meeting agenda item. The Palestinian Football Authority is scheduled to propose having Israel banned as a FIFA member country at the May 29 meeting of the organization’s global congress. Eini and Kamer want to get that proposal and all debate on the subject removed, with Eini describing the vote as “a flagrant move that seeks to mix politics with sport—something that is completely contrary to FIFA’s vision.” (For brevity’s sake, we will leave aside unpacking how “not mixing politics with sport” has about as much in common with “FIFA’s vision” as a KFC bucket of extra crispy has with “PETA’s vision.”)
Then there is Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Football Authority. Rajoub says that he is pushing this proposal for the same reason that Israel is trying to prevent it from coming forward. “What I am trying to do is separate completely football and politics,” said Rajoub in an interview with Middle East Eye. “Sport is a tool to bridge gaps, to build bridges with all people all over the world.”
Rajoub wants Israel sanctioned because he believes that the travel restrictions and checkpoints, imposed by the Israeli government on the Palestinian Territories—not to mention the militarized separation of the West Bank and Gaza—has made the development of Palestinian soccer nearly impossible (this despite their recent historic qualification for the 2015 Asian Cup). Rajoub also plans on citing the detention and mistreatment of Palestinian national players by the Israeli Defense Forces, as well as the recent comments by Beitar Jerusalem coach Guy Levi, who said on the radio last month that their team would “never” sign an Arab player.
“The Israelis are enjoying the status afforded by being part of FIFA, while depriving a neighbouring administration of their rights to play football,” said Rajoub. “For years we have asked confederations in Asia and Europe to interfere and stop the suffering of Palestinian footballers…. When that didn’t work, we decided to go directly to FIFA’s general assembly.”
The PA would need 75 percent of the 209 global associations, which is unlikely, but if it passes, Israel, in the words of Kamer, would see “all its international activities…come to a halt,” It would also be an isolating public relations nightmare for Netanyahu’s already beleaguered government. Just as the prime minister has been trying to get the stink of a highly racialized re-election campaign off his body, he has been under fire for the treatment by Israeli troops of Ethiopian Jews staging their own unprecedented #BlackLivesMatter protests against state violence. Israel and Netanyahu have also been waging a furious public relations campaign against the accusations of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement that they are an apartheid country not unlike South Africa. If FIFA suspends Israel, it would become the first country banned by the soccer federation since—yikes!—apartheid South Africa.
Both sides want to keep sports and politics separate, which makes this a fascinating look at what people mean when they make that kind of a plea. In sports it is very common to hear this sentiment from owners, media, and fans but it is rarely if ever used to critique the hyper-militarization of sporting events or the use of public funds to build stadiums (or, in a recently exposed synthesis, the use of public funds to celebrate the military). In other words, it is not sports and politics that they want to keep separate but sports and a certain kind of politics. “Keep sports and politics separate” morphs into code for ‘just shut up and play.'”
In this case, the Israeli Football Association is saying, “Do not use sports as a way to argue for statehood. Sports is not the place for that kind of rhetoric.” The Palestinian FA is saying, “We can’t compete because the politics of the Israeli occupation makes developing soccer a near-impossibility.” This is a very tough argument for the Israeli FA to win. If sports and politics were truly kept separate, then the Palestinian Football Authority would be able to travel freely, receive foreign visitors, and enter international tournaments without the fear of not being able to show up. As I’ve argued here many times, attacking the ability of Palestinian soccer to develop is also about attacking fun, play, and hope. While the Palestinian FA has facts on their side, no observer expects them to win 75 percent of the vote. But if Blatter even prevents this from even being raised on May 29, it would be an ugly gesture from an ugly individual. FIFA is hardly a moral force in this world, but soccer certainly can be. It is the closest thing we have to a united global obsession that links every country. FIFA’s sole organizational obligation is to make sure that everyone has a chance to play. What worries Netanyahu is that discussing this issue in soccer then becomes like pulling a thread on a sweater. If soccer is warped by occupation, then what about education, healthcare, or basic staples of civil society? That’s a question the Israeli FA is now scrambling to see unasked.