Pro-Palestinian groups and UN experts say Israel must be suspended from all international football

 

Pressure is growing on FIFA and UEFA to suspend the Israeli FA (IFA) from international football, including the ongoing 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Pro-Palestinian communities on X have increased their lobbying while a group of UN experts said a ban was “a necessary response to address the ongoing genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

The recent death of the 41-year-old Palestinian international Suleiman Al-Obeid who was shot dead in Gaza at the hands of Israeli military forces, has triggered renewed calls for Israel’s suspension from international football.

Multi-national activists on X including FLCapatalist from the US, Liberatus of Bosnia, Arya Warrior, originally from Pakistan, and the Palestinian thought leader Ziad Abu Ziad, along with dozens of pro-Palestine communities, have contacted insideworldfootball.com saying that more pressure needs to be brought on FIFA and UEFA to sanction the IFA.

The pro-Palestinian groups are particularly focused on UEFA to take action with reports suggesting that UEFA’s executive committee may discuss recommending a ban for the IFA at its next meeting.

Their campaign continually refers to the joint statement made when UEFA and FIFA announced on Monday 28 February 2022, that all Russian teams had been suspended from playing internationally with immediate effect. The anti-Russia joint statement was merely four days after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now that Israel’s war on Gaza has turned into an occupation the argument is that the circumstances are the same.

The Palestine FA (PFA), since the start of the conflict, has accused the IFA of supporting the continuous Israeli military action in Gaza and the West Bank which led to almost complete destruction of football infrastructure in Gaza including the clubs and other football facilities. The PFA also highlighted that Israel’s systematic targeting of Palestinians, has resulted in the deaths of a number of Palestinian football players and their families.

FIFA at its congress in May once again kicked the issue of Israeli settlement clubs into the long grass, a tradition the world governing body has maintained for more than a decade.

At the end of her intervention at the 75th FIFA Congress in Asuncion, Paraguay, Susan Shalabi, the vice-president of the PFA, said: “Let’s not keep passing the bucket from one committee to another while football in Palestine is being erased.”

But minutes later, FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom brutally and coldly did just that in response to the PFA’s request to urge the governance, audit and compliance committee to conclude an investigation into Israeli settlement clubs in the West Bank within a month. The Israeli FA did not take the floor to respond.

“The matter was discussed by the governance, audit and compliance committee and the work of the governance, audit and compliance committee remains on-going, as does the investigation of the disciplinary committee,” said Grafstrom.

Now the pro-Palestine sympathisers, the whole of the Arab football world and an increasingly large bulk of Europe’s federations are turning to the governing bodies saying that enough is enough and that Israel is clearly in breach of FIFA statutes and action – in the form of a ban – must be taken.

★ UN COMMISSION ADDS ITS VOICE TO THE BAN

 

The call for a ban has been backed up a United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, which is just the latest in a growing number of international bodies confirming that genocide is being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Sports must reject the perception that it is business as usual,” it said. “Sporting bodies must not turn a blind eye to grave human rights violations, especially when their platforms are used to normalise injustices.”

The experts said that countries engaging in sporting competitions with Israel, must consider their own obligations not to remain neutral in the face of genocide.

“We are clear that the boycott must be addressed to the State of Israel and not to individual players. We have always maintained that individuals cannot bear the consequences of the decisions their government makes, so there should be no discrimination or sanctions against individual players because of their origin or nationality,” the experts said.

“National teams representing States that commit massive human rights violations can and should be suspended, as has happened in the past,” it said.

“…We support the calls for action that aim to encourage the implementation of the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice and impose consequences on the State of Israel for breaching international law,” the experts said.

“Once again, we urge FIFA to stop legitimising the situation arising from Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory… There is a legal and moral imperative to take every measure possible to end the genocide in Gaza now.”