August 14 – Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestine FA and the Palestine Olympic Association, and the country’s sports minister was detained yesterday by Israeli forces at the Karama/King Hussein Bridge border crossing with Jordan on his return from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Palestinian delegation’s medical officer was the first member of the Olympic party to be detained before the Israelis detained Rajoub, taking his passport, before issuing an order to return to the ‘Ofer Camp’ – a military detention centre and prison 4km outside Ramallah – for further interview.
Rajoub, 71, is a Palestine Authority minister, the body that administers the Palestinian West Bank, though now more than 60% of the country is under the military and civilian control of Israel. Rajoub’s passport was returned to him following his brief detention.
Rajoub has said that he will not comply with the order to return for questioning.
“This is an occupation authority and I will not comply with its summon,” he told Palestinian news agency WAFA. The Israelis have shown no regard or respect for diplomatic protocol with the Palestine Authority and the question is now whether they will act with a further detention of Rajoub.
The Ofer Camp detention centre has become synonymous with Israeli intelligence interrogation activities.
Rajoub’s profile has been raised by his calls for the suspension of Israeli athletes from the Olympics and the PFA’s motion at the FIFA Congress in May calling for the suspension of Israel from all international football activity.
That motion was based around the emotion of the Israeli military destruction of Gaza and the indiscriminate killing – now, more than 39,500 civilians and the wounding of 92,240 – and the football case for suspension based on Israel’s destruction of football infrastructure in Palestine, the on-going Israeli interference in preventing the Palestine FA and football community carrying out activity and the recognition of teams from the settlements in the West Bank as being Israeli teams.
FIFA’s rules are very clear that one nation cannot interfere with or prevent another’s football activity. At the FIFA Congress, president Gianni Infantion prevented the Palestinian motion going before the member associations for a vote, instead saying that the decision was within the competencies of the FIFA Council.
FIFA were scheduled to rule on the Israeli suspension but that has been pushed back following the creation of an August 31 deadline for both sides to submit further documentation to support their cases. This allowed the Israeli U23 football team to compete at the Olympics.
FIFA’s independent legal assessment will complete sometime in September with documentation then forwarded to the FIFA Council for review before an October Council meeting.
Meanwhile the Israelis have continued to target and destroy football facilities in Palestine, used some as military camps and created an environment where it is too dangerous to carry out any formal football activity. The Palestinian league remains suspended.
At the Olympics Rajoub met with multiple world and sports leaders as he lobbied for the Palestinian cause and kept his country in world focus. He was an uncomfortable focus of attention at the Olympics for the Israelis.
In the sporting arenas the eight competing Palestinian athletes were warmly greeted and welcomed by French crowds. In contrast the Israelis were frequently booed or at best given silent treatment.
In the court of public opinion the sports movement was clearly against the Israelis.
The Israelis are now clearly targeting the head of what they view is a ‘beast’ and in the corridors of football power they have cultivated significant allies who have unfailing, to date, supported their activities and provided protection against any form of sanction.
Those protections are starting fray if not at the very top, certainly amongst the rank and file of FIFA membership.
Meanwhile the Israelis continue to kill Palestinians at will in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank as they further annex Palestinian territory.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is aware of the situation and, monitoring the next moves. Rajoub was detained returning from a sporting engagement, but he was released, and the Israelis will doubtless argue this is a civil matter rather than a sporting one.
Rajoub has not been involved in any recent acts of violence (over his lifetime he has spent 17 years in Israeli prisons having been first arrested as a 14-year-old). More recently he has expounded the potential of sport to contribute to peace alongside his demands for fair treatment of his country’s sporting life by their aggressor neighbours.
The next step is very much in the hands of the Israelis. The rest of the world, riding on the high of a humanity-embracing Olympics, is watching. As, increasingly, are sports decision makers.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1731463962labto1731463962ofdlr1731463962owedi1731463962sni@n1731463962osloh1731463962cin.l1731463962uap1731463962
