Sport and Sport Boycott – Liverpool Friends of Palestine

THE WORLD CUP – PALESTINE 1 ISRAEL 0

At many of the World Cup games there have been banners and chants in support of the Palestinians, leading the Brazilian newspaper Ge Globo to comment that Palestine is the 33rd country in the competition!. This picture shows the Moroccan player Jawad El Yamiq on the pitch immediately after his team had qualified from the Group Stage for the last 16. For more on Moroccan fans see THIS ARTICLE by Dr Ramzy Baroud: “For them, Palestine is not an external cause, and their cheers are not simply an act of solidarity. For them, Palestine and Morocco are synonymous, describing the same collective experience of defeat, struggle and, ultimately, victory.”. More generally see THIS OPINION ARTICLE from Al Jazeera.

If you need any reminding of why racism has no place in sport, watch THIS TRAILER for the documentary ‘Forever Pure’ on the Israeli football club Beitar Jerusalem. It is a withering critique of a club that prides itself on having no Arab players. The mere signing (in 2012) of two players from Chechnya (who were Muslims) led to widespread protests. Ownership of the club is uncertain: current owner Moshe Hogeg is under investigation for illegal dealings and as at July 2022 THIS REPORT suggests the club may go under altogether. Chants of “Death to the Arabs”. still reverberate around the stadium during games, leading some to describe it as ‘the most political club in the world’. A book on the subject published in 2022 is HERE.

It is therefore hardly surprising that in the summer of 2021 FC Barcelona, having unwisely scheduled a friendly game against this club, insisted that the game be played outside Jerusalem: the Palestine FA had pointed out that the Beitar stadium is actually built on the ruins of a Palestinian village Al-Mahla that was ethnically cleansed in 1948. Beitar refused so the game was called off. Similarly in the summer of 2022 the Argentina national team called off a friendly with Israel.

Elsewhere in the footballing world, the Israeli FA has been under pressure to exclude six of its member clubs that are based in illegal settlements. See HERE for a detailed investigation by Human Rights Watch. A ruling from FIFA (the international federation) has let the Israeli FA off the hook but the issue remains live.

As Israeli football clubs take part in European competition, so the protests follow them. The biggest demonstrations have been at Celtic Park where supporters regularly display Palestine flags.. A more recent appeal to Scotland supporters, made on the eve of an international fixture, is HERE.

MORE ON FOOTBALL

The case for a football boycott of Israel is just as compelling as that for football boycott of South Africa. South Africa was excluded from international football for twenty-eight years (1964 to 1992) because of apartheid, rather than for football reasons. South African sport was and is really important internationally while Israeli sport is not. So why bother with a sports boycott? And why football?

First, football is by far Israel’s largest sport, with basketball a distant second and the Israeli government considers football important enough to subsidise.

Secondly and most significantly, international football is an extremely important normalising activity for Israel. Israel has worked hard to host international football tournaments. When it has succeeded, it has been open about the status that it brings to the country. Reflecting this importance, once the Israeli President and Prime Minister both showed up at the welcoming televised press conference for a visiting European football manager!

Thirdly, the Palestinian national football team has provided a huge morale boost for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian football world was delighted that in June 2015 the Gaza and West Bank champions were able to meet as a result of Palestinian pressure. That deserves our strong support.

Fourthly, a boycott would spread awareness of Israeli racism and abuse of Palestinian human rights across the football community worldwide. That football community understands racism. When it fully understands Israeli racism against Palestinians both on and off the field, which it doesn’t at present, it will be a strong supporter of boycott. This will take time, so it is important that we work hard to strengthen current activities.

The UK’s Red Card Israeli Racism campaign’s objective is “the suspension of the Israeli FA from FIFA and UEFA until Israel respects the human rights of Palestinians and observes international law“. Several other activist groups across Europe hold to a similar objective.

Over the past few years activists’ actions have included: demonstrating against Israeli teams playing in European countries; objecting to UEFA tournaments being hosted in Israel (with some success); campaigning and lobbying FIFA, UEFA and national associations; occupying UEFA headquarters to great effect; and simply leafleting at home football matches. Leading footballers, e.g. Eric Cantona, Frederick Kanoute, and leading human rights campaigners, e.g. Stephane Hessell, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Ken Loach have lent their support. Every opportunity has been taken to educate the football world about Israeli abuse of Palestinians’ human rights which has prevented Palestine from developing its football at either national or club level.

At FIFA’s 65th Annual Congress in 2015, the Palestinian FA took a big step forward by proposing the suspension of Israel from FIFA until four specifically football-related issues were resolved satisfactorily for Palestinians. It turned out to be a step too far – or at least too soon. FIFA politics obliged the Palestinian FA to settle for a compromise “amendment” which at least kept the topic alive. Congress established an “Israel Palestine Monitoring Committee” to address the four football-related issues where Israel imposes constraints on Palestinian football:

Movements – Israeli border controls and roadblocks in the OPT make life difficult for all Palestinians. Football has particularly suffered by Palestine being unable to field its best teams at international tournaments over many years. Home teams are often obliged to travel overnight to away games only 50 km away.
Imports of Equipment – Israel completely controls the movement of goods to the OPT and imposes tariffs. Football equipment has suffered long delays and huge tariffs.
Racism in Israel – Racism against Palestinian citizens permeates Israeli society in many ways, often officially instigated or encouraged. Football chants of “death to Arabs” echo around the Beitar Jerusalem stadium, with negligible penalties being imposed. That team has never hired a Palestinian citizen of Israel and is firmly sticking to that policy. The Israeli FA has hardly challenged this (Netanyahu is a major Beitar supporter). It has no will to do so. In 2015 it even proposed to split a youth league into two – one for Palestinians and one (predominantly) for Israelis – reportedly in response to requests of parents, although this was stopped after a legal challenge by Adalah.
Settlement teams – The integration of settlement residents into Israeli society is complete. That includes settlement football teams playing in Israeli youth leagues. Israeli officials consider this acceptable regardless of the illegality of the settlements under international law.

All those four issues above involve Israeli policies which stand at the very core of the regime’s policies of occupation and denial of Palestinian rights.

Looking ahead

What is the chance of the Palestinian FA succeeding through the Monitoring Committee? Progress initially was slow, with only one success: in June 2015 the top teams from Gaza and the West Bank played each other for the first time in fifteen years. Even that needed intervention by FIFA as the Israeli border authorities held players up for several days. Since then, further outrages have been committed by the Israelis, including shooting Palestinian players in the foot, tear-gassing at stadia, arrests of players and the destruction of facilities. This does not augur well for the success of the Committee. Therefore the Palestinian FA will need to revert to a formal demand to suspend Israel from FIFA at some point in the future.

In future the Palestinian FA will find it more difficult to call directly for the suspension or exclusion of another member in the Congress. On 26 February 2016 new “Reform” Statutes were agreed by which only the new FIFA “Council” (a revised version of the current Executive Committee) will be able to propose suspension or expulsion to a Congress. So the Palestinian FA will have to persuade the majority of the new Council to call for suspension.

Approaches to the Council should be strengthened by reference to a new report: For the Game. For the World.’ FIFA and Human Rights by Professor John G Ruggie. This was commissioned by FIFA in response to the human rights abuses in Qatar, but the scope of the report is much wider. It invokes UN Guiding Principles and recommends that FIFA adopt a clear and coherent human rights policy and robust implementation arrangements. In summary, the report is clear that FIFA must “embed respect for human rights across the full range of its activities and relationships” (page 9) and it specifically mentions relationships with member associations and other enterprises. Outside contractual agreements the report only mentions the abuse of womens human rights in football, but clearly the report can be used much more widely – in particular to highlight what needs to be done in Palestine/Israel. Reference to this report will enable activists to emphasise that boycott is not about politics (the standard retort of football associations), rather it’s about human rights. (The report can be read in full HERE).

More recent developments concern the six Israeli football clubs that are based in West Bank settlements yet play in the Israeli Football League. International rules are clear that no national association may play in another country without the consent of the other country’s national association. FIFA asked the United Nations to advise whether the West Bank was ‘another country’ and the answer was a definite yes. FIFA has since declined to act out its own policy in the light of this ruling but the issue remains live.

International solidarity

In 2018 the national football team of Argentina cancelled a friendly match against Israel. FC Barcelona in 2021 insisted that a scheduled friendly against the racist Beitar Jerusalem should not be played in Jerusalem and the Israelis cancelled the fixture.

An appeal to Scottish national fans in March 2020 (on eve of an international match) is HERE

Pictured here are (left) players of Egyptian club Al-Ahly on winning the African Super Cup in December 2021 and (right) two players of Leicester City on winning the FA Cup in May 2021.

One of the leading football clubs in Chile is Palestine, their history is described HERE.

Setbacks in 2021

We are grateful to Red Card Israeli Racism for the following concerns arising in 2021

a. The killing of football player Said Odeh in May 2021 in Odal, a village south of Nablus: http://rcir.org.uk/?p=3245 and around the same time the death of Mohammad Sulaiman Abu Al-Ata,the 16-year-old player of Al-Namaa FC was killed during a raid of Jabalia on May 12, 2021.

Muath Al-Za’anin, the 23-year old player of Beit Hanoun 1st division FC was killed during the airstrikes on Beit Hanoun on 16 May, 2021.

Adam Al-Fara’awi , player of Al-Shams Taekwondo club.

Osama Al-Zebdeh, former player of Al-Mashtal FC.

Wael Eisa Vice President of Al-Breij FC.

Referee Sa’id Abdelwahab was severely injured in the spine in the airstrike of 15 May on Gaza.

See Susan Shalab Molano’s blog HERE.

b. The bombing of the Wadi Al-Tuffah stadium on Christmas Day 2020 in Gaza – see HERE.

c. Tear gassing at the Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium during national team training in the run-up to the May ’21 assault on Gaza: see HERE.

d. Prevention of the finals of the Palestine Cup in 2021 for the second year running in 2021 due to Israeli constraints on the movement of Palestinian players between Gaza and the West Bank. RCIR called on FIFA to take action. However, as we have previously pointed out, without Sepp Blatter, who championed this Cup, the Palestinian FA’s ability to fight its corner in FIFA has been weakened.

e. On December 21, 2021, the IFA banned Bnei Sakhnin, Israel’s largest Arab-majority football club, from playing home games at its ground in northern Israel reportedly for exceeding permitted crowd sizes. This followed a Bnei Sakhnin victory over Beitar Jerusalem. We are still working out the best strategy to get this unjustifiable action overturned. See HERE

f. Israeli authorities issued a demolition order on facilities at the Sur Baher club in East Jerusalem January 2022 with the standard reason of “construction without permission”. The Palestinian FA has objected to this. See HERE.

g. We reported over a year ago that Israeli bulldozers had destroyed improvements to a ground next to Al Quds University in Abu Dis. We have no news on any developments. See HERE.

h. In October 2021, FIFA president Gianni Infantino attended an Israeli gala at the so-called “Museum of Tolerance” which is built on top of the Palestinian Mamilla cemetery, an ancient Palestian burial ground in Jerusalem: A report is HERE. In protest the Palestinian FA declined to attend a meeting with FIFA . This is another example of how FIFA’s Infantino has thrown his hat into the Israeli ring. Concern for Palestinian football at FIFA has certainly declined since the Blatter era.

i Ownership of the racist Israeli football club Beitar Jerusalem is again uncertain. . Curent owner Moshe Hogeg is under investigation for illegal dealings and Emirati Sheikh Nahyab and Frenchman Stephane Halloul are working on a deal (January 2022). Chants of “Death to the Arabs”. still reverberate around the stadium during games.

THE TOKYO OLYMPICS

Palestine fielded five athletes in the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021. They were as follows:

Hanna Barakat – womens 100m sprint
Wasam Abu Rmilah – mens 81kg judo
Yazam Al-Bawwab – mens 100m freestyle swimming
Dania Noor – womens 50m freestyle swimming
Mohammad Hamada – mens 96kg weightlifting