Time for FIFA to suspend the Israeli Football Association

JVL Introduction

Palestinian football has long struggled under discriminatory, repressive conditions imposed by Israeli authorities.  This article by Nizar Visram brings the story up to date after many months of outright war against the Palestinian people. He writes:

As part of its genocide, Israel is also committing sporticide, killing more than 500 Palestinian athletes, including over 344 footballers. Two of them were on the Palestinian National Team, including Mohamed Barakat, the first Palestinian to score over 100 goals professionally. Israel also jailed footballers, referees, and club owners…They turned football stadiums into concentration camps where they detain and humiliate thousands of Palestinians who are paraded almost naked on television screens.

Visram argues that it is high time the sport’s international ruling body FIFA suspended the Israeli Football Association. This is a move supported by the Palestinian boycott movement and UK campaign group Show Racism the Red Card which has been fighting for the rights of Palestinian sportspeople for more than a decade.

A campaign spokesman told JVL moves were afoot to win support from the FIFA Council, a new, 37 strong sub-group of the membership, ahead of FIFA’s Annual General Meeting in May.  It is the AGM that would have to agree Israel’s suspension. Russian national teams were suspended by both FIFA and UEFA in February 2022 in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The article has been published on a number of platforms beside Dissident Voice, including Ghana News,   Countercurrents, Global Research and RadioFree.

NWI

This article was originally published by Dissident Voice on Fri 29 Nov 2024. Read the original here.