September 26 – One of the world’s leading human rights groups has urged FIFA to put a stop to Israeli league games being played by teams stationed in the occupied West Bank in what is becoming an increasingly thorny dispute.
In a report, Human Rights Watch said the Israeli teams, from the settlements of Maale Adumim, Ariel, Oranit and Givat Zeev, and a squad representing the occupied Jordan Valley region, were playing “on land unlawfully taken from the Palestinians”.
In some cases, the grounds the Israeli teams are playing on are on land privately owned by Palestinians, HRW said. “By holding games on stolen land, FIFA is tarnishing the beautiful game of football,” said Sari Bashi, the director for HRW for Israeli and the Palestinian territories.
She said FIFA should require the Israeli Football Federation “to move all FIFA-sanctioned games and activities inside Israel”.
Israeli and Palestine are both FIFA members and football’s world governing body forbids clubs from one federation to play in the league of another without permission.
Jibril Rajoub (pictured), head of the Palestine Football Association, was quoted as saying: “(Settlement) clubs must be stopped and Israel must be held to account. It is time to raise a red card to Israel, which does not respect international or FIFA laws.”
Israel counters that FIFA has no authority to define what is Israeli territory but earlier this month, 66 legislators from the European Parliament signed a letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino urging him to raise the settlement issue at the first full meeting of FIFA’s new-look Council meetings in Zurich next month.
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