Stop making an exception for Israel


May 22, 2015
Sarah Benton

In this posting, 1) Jibril Rajoub becomes national hero amongst Palestinians, Times of Israel; 2) Seb Blatter tried to mediate in this symbolic conflict between Palestinians and Israel, Washington Post; 3) Rajoub writes “We need actions in order to foster what football should be: a vehicle of peace, not a tool to whitewash occupation and apartheid.” The Guardian.


Israeli Palestinian children hold up red cards during a protest held upon the arrival of FIFA president Sepp Blatter to his hotel in Jerusalem on May 19. Photo by Reuters.

PA soccer chief looks to outmanoeuvre Israel on diplomatic field

FIFA vote on booting Jewish state may not succeed, but it’s already boosted the political standing of former Palestinian security head Jibril Rajoub

By Avi Issacharoff, Times of Israel
May 20, 2015

RAMALLAH — Jibril Rajoub has been the man of the hour in Ramallah since he began his efforts to have Israel suspended from the International Federation of Soccer (FIFA).

A vote is to be held next week in the FIFA Congress, the federation’s supreme body, which comprises representatives from each affiliated member association, and Rajoub says that a large majority will support the Palestinian request to suspend all Israeli teams from FIFA soccer activities. While Rajoub’s campaign has cast him as an enemy of the State of Israel, it has gained him quite a few points in Palestinian public opinion, particularly among supporters of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter visited Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas. Blatter has said the Palestinian bid to expel Israel is his “challenge number one” ahead of the May 29 FIFA Congress, at which he will also be seeking reelection. The motion will need a three quarters majority to be passed at the FIFA Congress in Zurich. He said last week that a successful vote on the Palestinian motion would be a “dangerous” precedent that could get FIFA involved in other political and diplomatic battles. But he said that Israel would need to “concede something” in return for the motion being rejected.

For many years Israelis knew Rajoub, who is also known by his nom de guerre Abu Rami, as the strongman of the West Bank by virtue of his position as the commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security Force, at least during Yasser Arafat’s reign in the PA. Subsequent events, such as Operation Defensive Shield, the major 2002 anti-terror campaign in the West Bank; the collapse of the organization he led; and a falling-out with his Fatah rival Mohammed Dahlan — weakened him considerably. But that was many years ago.

More recently, Rajoub became chairman of the Palestinian Football Association and of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. While it seemed like an odd career move at first, it helped him reestablish his status in Fatah and on the Palestinian street.

Anyone familiar with Palestinian politics knows that Rajoub has become one of the strongest people in the local political arena in recent years. He is a close associate of Abbas, is intimately involved in talks with Hamas and with Israel, and is beloved of Fatah’s field operatives. He holds Fatah’s third-highest position (Mohammed Gheim, also known as Abu Maher, who officially holds Fatah’s second-highest position as secretary-general of its central committee, has retired), and many governors of the various West Bank cities and commanders of security agencies were once officers under his command.

‘Suspension from FIFA does not kill people,’ Rajoub says. ‘It is a non-violent resistance measure’

So after having lost his power in the West Bank, as the Israelis thought, Rajoub is once again in the headlines here.

Rajoub says that the Palestinians are determined to keep up their efforts to get Israel suspended from FIFA. In an interview with The Times of Israel in his Ramallah office on Tuesday, Rajoub says he expects sweeping support in the vote that is to take place in the FIFA Congress eight days from now.

“We will go to a vote, and we will suspend Israel’s activity as long it does not agree to allow the Palestinian Football Association to act freely, and as long as it keeps persecuting Palestinian athletes and continues to maintain the five soccer clubs in the settlements,” he said, referring to Israeli teams in West Bank towns.

He is not encouraging violence, nor is he calling for an intifada. On the contrary. “Resistance is not violence,” he says.

“Suspension from FIFA does not kill people,” Rajoub says. “It is a non-violent resistance measure. What would the Israelis rather do — promote the ethics and values of the game among young people, or promote the values of a submachine gun? The Israelis must realize that they should be joining our effort to end the Palestinian athletes’ suffering.”

He recalls quite a few cases in which Israeli security forces used force against Palestinian athletes and soccer clubs. He shows photographs and videos of a raid by IDF soldiers on the Palestinian Football Association, the arrest of a soccer referee and a police raid on a Palestinian soccer game in East Jerusalem.

“These are kids under 14,” he says. “Why was it so urgent to go in and stop the game in the middle? I don’t want to make anybody suffer. I want to save my athletes from suffering. I wouldn’t wish that kind of suffering on anyone, including Israeli athletes. And I suggest that Israeli soccer fans not complain to me. Instead, they should complain to their own government, which is responsible for this situation. We have been under a cruel and hurtful occupation for 48 years, and the time has come to say ‘Enough.’”

But what do you stand to gain from doing this?

We have been talking to the Israelis about this for years and trying to convince them to keep sports and politics separate. Unfortunately, no positive response has come from the Israeli side. We contacted FIFA two years ago, asking them to resolve the issue. Blatter [the FIFA president] was authorized by the FIFA Congress to come and persuade the Israelis not to restrict freedom of movement for Palestinian soccer players and athletes, but they did not take him seriously and kept on offending them and me personally.

“I visited former president Shimon Peres together with [senior PA official] Hussein A-Sheikh and explained the situation to him, telling him that he had to stop the humiliation and insulting of Palestinian athletes. But nothing helped, and the Israeli side is not willing to change its behavior. We have asked that they allow us to run our athletic affairs freely, and it’s in the Israelis’ hands now. The ball is in the Israeli prime minister’s court.

On Rajoub’s desk is a soccer ball autographed by Sepp Blatter, “to my friend, General Rajoub.”

Netanyahu said he would tell Blatter about racist, anti-Jewish statements that you made.

Bibi does not exactly have a silver tongue. Instead, he makes racist statements. It takes one to know one. I suggest that Mr. Netanyahu take a look at himself and see how racist he is, how he is leading whole segments of Israeli society toward racism and fascism. That’s why you deserve to be suspended from FIFA.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with FIFA President Sepp Blatter, May 19, 2015 (screen capture: YouTube/IsraeliPM)

If Rajoub and the Palestinian Authority succeed in getting Israel suspended, it could lead to a wave of anti-Israel activity on the international diplomatic arena, with no use of violence on their part. Rajoub knows very well that this method works and brings the Israeli public out of its apathy over the occupation. “I tell you, the FIFA Congress is definitely with us,” he says. “There is a consensus there against discrimination and racism. To a young [Palestinian] person, that’s what characterizes Israeli society right now.”

At 2 p.m., around the same time of Blatter’s arrival in Israel on Tuesday, dozens of protesters gathered in Ramallah’s Manara Square to call for Israel’s suspension from FIFA. Some carried signs calling to for Israeli soccer clubs in the settlements to be barred from taking part in FIFA activities. Others carried signs bearing Rajoub’s photograph.

Blatter met with Netanyahu on Tuesday. On Wednesday he met with Rajoub and with Abbas, and conveyed Israel’s proposals. But Rajoub, who has already gotten threats from Israel regarding his request to FIFA, says that he will accept no compromise.

AFP contributed to this report.



FIFA president Sepp Blatter, centre, sits with Ofer Eini, left, chairman of the Israel Football Association, in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Photo by Ammar Awad/Reuters

The latest mediator between Israel and Palestinians: The head of world soccer

By Ruth Eglash, Washington Post
May 19, 2015

JERUSALEM — The head of the world soccer association arrived in Israel on Tuesday in an attempt to avoid what could become a new frontier in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, said he was trying to find a solution to a motion submitted by the Palestinian Football Association to suspend Israel from the international body. The motion is scheduled to be voted on at a meeting of the organization next week in Zurich.

If approved by two-thirds of the 209 FIFA members, the motion could mark a success in what some are calling a “diplomatic intifada” by the Palestinians, the aim of which is to embarrass and isolate Israel in international forums, thereby pressuring ordinary Israelis to push their government to make a peace deal with the Palestinians.

U.S.-led peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians broke down a year ago and seem unlikely to restart anytime soon. In the meantime, Palestinians have taken steps to join a variety of international organizations and have sought support for resolutions at the United Nations and the European Union in a bid to build support for Palestinian statehood.

Palestinians say Israeli restrictions on their movement, as well as military action in the occupied West Bank, have prevented their teams from playing soccer. They also say that the Israel Football Association has done little to combat anti-Arab racism inside Israeli soccer stadiums, and they decry the existence of five Israeli teams from Jewish settlements in the West Bank, developments most of the world’s governments view as illegal.

Blatter, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu early Tuesday, told reporters in Jerusalem that he hoped to find a resolution to the problems raised by Palestinians before next week’s vote at the FIFA congress.

“One thing I can say is that football is more than a game. It has the power to connect people and construct bridges,” Blatter said. “I am here to construct bridges and make sure football is not dividing but is uniting.”

He declined to give details about his meeting with Netanyahu but said he would pass along a message from the Israeli premier to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whom he will meet with Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Palestinian Football Association chief Jibril Rajoub said that he had no plans to back down from the resolution and that he believed he would be able to secure sufficient support for it among FIFA members.

“The Israeli Football Association has tried to cover its ugly face with plastic surgery for its government,” he said.

Rajoub noted that there are precedents for FIFA suspensions. The association suspended, and later expelled, South Africa for three decades because of its discriminatory policies against blacks during the apartheid era. Yugoslavia was suspended in the early 1990s because of U.N. sanctions stemming from the Balkan wars.

“Blatter is optimistic there will be a solution, but the ball is in Netanyahu’s court; he is the one that calls the shots,” Rajoub said.

Rotem Kemer, chief executive of the Israel Football Association, said the Palestinians were holding the association hostage for acts committed by the Israeli government.

Kemer said the Palestinians were mixing politics and soccer and argued that his association had taken measures to support Palestinian soccer and fight racism. But security restrictions by the Israeli authorities were out of its control, he said.

“There are many conflicts around the world: Ukraine and Russia, Iraq, Syria, in Africa. Do we want every association to use its FIFA status to go against other federations?” he asked. “I am not sure FIFA really wants this. It is a sports organization that tries to stay away from politics.”

Ruth Eglash is a reporter for The Washington Post based in Jerusalem. She was formerly a reporter and senior editor at the Jerusalem Post and freelanced for international media. Sufian Taha in Ramallah contributed to this report.



Jibril Rajoub, 2013. Photo by Foto-net.

Israeli football cannot continue as a vehicle to legitimise racism

By Jibril Rajoub, CiF, The Guardian
May 19, 2015

Just over a year ago, the world watched as AC Milan footballer Mario Balotelli shed tears during a match, following repeated racist insults. The photographs were published by newspapers worldwide and Fifa was caught between club rivalry and race relations. Balotelli’s experience, however, sparked Fifa into delving deeper into sanctions regarding racism in football – but even such willingness to tackle one of the core issues facing Fifa today has been exclusionary in and of itself.

Not long ago, Fifa president Sepp Blatter – who is on a visit to Israel/Palestine today and tomorrow – called for tougher sanctions in regard to racism within football. “We have to use our rules to suspend teams, to take away their points or even to relegate them if racism continues,” he said. He added that individual sanctions weren’t enough – that it is necessary to ban football clubs in violation of racism and discrimination from competitions altogether, as a way to ensure their adherence to Fifa standards.

We need actions in order to foster what football should be: a vehicle of peace, not a tool to whitewash occupation
One Fifa statute specifically comes to mind: “Discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.”

While Israel continues to participate in Fifa matches internationally with impunity, Palestinian football players have been shot and arrested, our football association raided by Israeli army forces, our clubs more often than not forbidden from bringing players, coaches or even materials from abroad, just as the restriction of movement imposed on our players and technical staff, within, from and to Palestine have turned the game into a real act of resistance.

Participation of a Palestinian or Muslim during a match against Beitar Jerusalem has been met with chants of “Death to Arabs” from the stands, the crowd encouraged by the failure of the Israel Football Association to properly sanction the club for its fans’ behaviour. This failure has enabled Beitar to remain a sanctuary for racism in Israel. Its fans raise banners such as “Beitar forever pure” against the hiring of any Arab players (20% of Israel’s citizens are Palestinians), and beat up Palestinians, including women and children, with neither the Israel FA or Uefa taking adequate steps to end racism in the Israeli league. On the contrary, Uefa rewarded Israel with the U21 European championship – a move Palestinians believe is a political tool to whitewash the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

If Fifa is willing to follow its own norms, there can be no question that Palestinians have the right to play. When the Israel FA could no longer exclude us from joining Fifa, they simply continued their policy to fully align with their government’s position against the right of the Palestinian people of self-determination. “[T]he Palestine Football Association must operate through the formal channels of the state of Israel,” a letter from the Israel FA to Fifa stated in 2013. Palestine’s response: “Each member shall manage its affairs independently and with no influence from third parties [article 17-1, Fifa statute].”

The Israel FA not only remains silent when attacks against Palestinian sports are committed, but is complicit with the occupation, having accepted five teams from Israeli settlements internationally recognised as illegal under international law. This is also illegal under the Fifa charter, though Israel continues to be treated differently.

We don’t need any more promises, committees or postponements that only serve to prolong our footballers’ suffering. We need actions in order to foster what football should be: a vehicle of peace, not a tool to whitewash occupation and apartheid.

As head of the Palestine FA, I have faced my share of restrictions and attacks at the hands of Israel, the settler-colonial occupying power determined to strip Palestinians of even our basic right to play. Everyone involved knows full well that, despite everything, we have been willing to resolve this issue without having to go to Fifa’s general assembly. We have asked other confederations to interfere just as we gave a chance to the Israeli federation to solve the matter bilaterally, but nothing was solved. The Israeli federation has chosen to be a vehicle to legitimise racism and colonisation rather than one representing Fifa values.

In response to President Blatter’s recent remarks to the Confederation of African Football Congress, we ask Fifa to act accordingly by suspending Israel’s membership from Fifa until it respects the values and principles that Fifa promotes and stands for.

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