By Andrew Warshaw in Jordan
May 13 – The head of Palestinian football warned today that time is running out for Israel to stop its “bullying” in the occupied territories or risk a demand for it to be thrown out of FIFA.
Palestinian FA president Jibril Rajoub, denounced by pro-Israeli factions as a former terrorist, re-iterated once again that he will urge delegates at next month’s FIFA Congress to take sanctions unless his federation’s players and officials are treated more humanely by the Israeli authorities.
“They are still behaving as a racist, facist political system,” Rajoub told reporters, including INSIDEworldfootball, on the fringes of the Soccerex Asian forum on the banks of the Dead Sea.
A FIFA mediation Task Force set up to arrest the total breakdown in communication between Israel and Palestine had done little, he said, to improve the treatment of Palestinian sportsmen following the arrest of one player and the shooting of two others recently.
The talks included representatives from both UEFA, of which Israel are members, and the Asian Football Confederation, which includes Palestine. But issues of freedom of movement and access for Palestinian athletes have shown no progress, Rajoub said.
“As far as I am concerned there is no change,” said Rajoub. “We would welcome FIFA President Sepp Blatter to come and help because the Israelis have not implemented anything from the mechanism both of us signed as part of the Task Force’s mission. So next month, we are going for sanctions.”
Painting a dim picture of the immediate future, Rajoub added: “So far the Israelis are not co-operating. I hope that Blatter and all those who have good intentions can still solve the problem before the Congress otherwise I am going for sanctions against the Israelis. I need to speak to the federations first. All options are on the table. Even some of the Europeans federations support us.
“The Israelis cannot keep behaving like the neighbourhood bully, violating all the statutes of FIFA and the Olympic charter and rejecting any good intention either from UEFA, FIFA, the AFC, Palestinian FA or any other interested third party.
” Last week, our national team was in Qatar in camp in preparations for the Asian Cup and when they came back the Israelis arrested one of the players and now he is in jail with no reason. I am sure they will release him in a week or two – so why arrest him in the first place?
“The other event was the famous story that they shot and injured two athletes who had to go to Jordan for treatment for three months. Then they came back and they arrested them. I don’t think that such a policy should pass without sanctions, without being punished. I hope Mr Blatter can rescue the situation. I am still optimistic that maybe something could happen.”
Israeli officials paint an entirely different picture of the current impasse and say that for security reasons, key decisions to improve the situation in the West Bank and Gaza can only be taken at government level rather than football.
“It means they are not recognising the very existence of Palestinian sporting entity. This is the substance of the problem,” argued Rajoub.
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