Palestinian Football Association demands FIFA suspend Israel FA

 THE PALESTINIAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION (PFA) FORMALLY SUBMITS A RESOLUTION TO FIFA DEMANDING THE SUSPENSION OF THE ISRAEL FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION (IFA) . 

Press Release by the Red Card Israeli Racism campaign.

On 20 March 2015 the PFA submitted its resolution to be considered at the 28-29 May FIFA Annual Congress in Zurich.  The full text has not yet been published, but it calls for the suspension of the IFA from FIFA until certain conditions are satisfied, including:

 

• Players, staff and officials can move freely into, out of and within Palestine; football equipment can be imported without hindrance.
• Football facilities can be developed in Palestine without hindrance.
• Football clubs established in the illegal settlements in the West Bank are banned from playing in IFA competitions.
• The IFA takes firm action to eliminate racist and apartheid practices from its own leagues.

 

These conditions address long-standing grievances.  The PFA has supported initiatives by FIFA over the last almost two years to address them.  Regrettably, the PFA’s attempts to work with the FIFA Task Force have been undermined by Israel and have come to naught.   As a result, strong pressure in the form of suspension of the IFA is needed to help bring about the necessary change.

A PFA report on signing the resolution is, in Arabic: http://www.pfa.ps/index.php/news/et7ad-news/1789-2015-03-20-18-38-46.html.

UEFA taking sides against the PFA?

A recent web report quotes UEFA’s Platini as advising the IFA to enlist diplomatic channels to thwart the PFA motion at the FIFA Congress.  Such actions would contravene FIFA’s Statutes on the independence of national football associations from the influence of third parties.  Surely Platini cannot recommend undermining one of football’s basic principles?

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4641433,00.html

Israeli repression.

Israel continues to perpetrate its devastating military occupation of Palestinian territories, to flout international law, disregard UN resolutions, kill and maim innocent civilians and imprison Palestinians without charge.  Full details on the impact on sports and football in particular are given in the PFA blog:Israeli Occupation Transgressions against Palestinian Sports.

The IFA to all extents and purposes is a State institution – it reports to the State Comptroller and is financed in part by the State.   A 2009 declaration in the Knesset clarifies that the PFA is an “organ of the State”.  Therefore it is complicit in the actions of the Israeli civil and military authorities and so breaches FIFA’s Statute 3, which prohibits racist actions punishable by suspension or expulsion.   However, regardless of such technicalities, FIFA has the moral duty to take a stand against Israeli repression.

South African precedent.

From 1964 to 1992 South African Football Association was excluded from FIFA membership.  Several prominent South African  leaders who experienced apartheid in South African including Archbishop Tutu state that Israeli apartheid is far worse than South African apartheid ever was and that Israel is guilty of far more serious crimes against humanity.

Leaders’ concerns.

The President of the Asian Football Confederation, Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, recently declared his commitment to tackling the “illegal Israeli practices” hindering Palestinian soccer.   Frederic Kanoute and about 50 other prominent footballers had earlier expressed their concern over Israel’s hosting of the 2013 UEFA under 21 finals tournament, and he was joined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ken Loach and other leading humanitarians.   There were similar objections to Israel’s 2014 proposal for Jerusalem to be a host city for the 2020 Euro competition, which was rejected by the UEFA administration, partly due to our campaign’s intervention.

Red Card Israeli Racism campaign

For four years we have campaigned for the rights of Palestinian football.  We fully endorse the PFA’s proposal to suspend the IFA until certain important conditions have  been satisfied.  For further information see our website: Red Card Israeli Racism

Red Card Israeli Racism campaign

27 March 2015

PROTEST FORCES PLATINI TO DEFEND UEFA UNDER-21 FINALS IN ISRAEL

RED CARD ISRAELI RACISM NEWS RELEASE

See also Ali Abunimah’s report on Electronic Intifada

(Pictures courtesy of Euro-Palestine)

Michel Platini obliged to share the limelight with a Palestinian football shirt held by French campaigner Olivia Zemor

Campaigners occupy the reception area at the headquarters of
European football’s governing body UEFA

A protester’s poster highlights Israel’s detention of football players

PROTEST FORCES PLATINI TO DEFEND UEFA UNDER-21 FINALS IN ISRAEL

• Pro-Palestinian campaigners occupy entrance to UEFA’s Swiss HQ

• Platini says he will “think about” Israel hosting Euro 2013

• 6,000 signature petition handed over, more protests planned

Dozens of pro-Palestinian campaigners brought growing anger over Israel hosting this year’s European under-21 football finals right to UEFA’s door on Friday (January 25), forcing the organisation’s president Michel Platini to grant them a hearing at his headquarters in Nyon , Switzerland.

Platini had previously spurned calls from sources as diverse as the president of the Palestinian Football Association, internationally renowned film-maker Ken Loach and a list of more than 50 football stars including Frederic Kanoute and Didier Drogba, not to reward Israel for its flouting of Palestinian human rights.

On Friday he gave the first hint that he was listening to the protests, saying in a televised news conference after a meeting of UEFA’s Executive Committee  that he would “think about it and take a decision in the current year”.

Olivia Zemor of French campaign group Euro-Palestine, leading the activists who crowded into UEFA’s reception area in Nyon, charged Platini with ignoring Israel ’s active discrimination against Palestinians – not only restrictions on movement but destruction of facilities, detention without trial of players and the killing of young boys playing football.

Campaigners also noted that of the grounds likely to be used for the men’s junior tournament on June 5-18, one is on land seized from two Palestinian villages, one is beside a largely destroyed village and a third is a stadium from which a Palestinian club was expelled in 1948.

The protests shamed Platini into pledging to “see what he could do” about the detention for almost a year of Palestinian Olympic squad goalkeeper Omar Abu Rois and Ramallah player Mohammed Nimr.

Last May, as a mounting international campaign forced Israel to release hunger striking Palestinian national team player Mahmoud Sarsak after three years in detention, Platini rebuffed calls to relocate Euro 2013 claiming Israel would host a “beautiful games”.

Since then support has grown around Europe for the Red Card Israeli Racism campaign which is calling on football enthusiasts who care about human rights to take the following actions in the months leading up to the June finals.

• Continue adding signatures to the almost 6000 names already on the Red Card petitiion

• Join protests at the next ExCom meeting in March (venue to be announced)

• Mobilise for protests at UEFA’s Congress in London on May 24

• Organise anti-racist football tournaments to draw attention to the plight of the game in Palestine

Contact:  info@rcir.org.uk

FURTHER INFORMATION

1. Full report of Nyon protests including still photos

http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article8010

 2.Video from Nyon plus links to media reports.

http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article8011

3.   Israel ’s U-21 championship venues:

a)  Bloomfield  – before Israeli forces occupied  Jaffa  in 1948, the ground was known as Basa (swamp) Stadium, home to local  Jaffa  team Shabab el-Arab. They were expelled and later formed Shabab el-Nassera in  Nazareth . In January 1949 the Basa stadium was given to the Hapoel Tel Aviv team by the Israeli “custodian of absentee property”.

b) Teddy Stadium, named after former  Jerusalem  mayor Teddy Kollek, is beside an almost entirely destroyed village, al-Maliha.

c) Reserve stadium at  Ramat Gan  was built on land seized under the Absentee Property Owners Law of 1950 from the Palestinian villages of Jarisha and al-Jammasin al-Sharqi.