BICOM

The International Football Association (FIFA) has removed a draft resolution targeting Israel from the agenda of its congress.

The resolution demanded that teams from Israeli settlements be removed from their league, and threatened Israel’s participation in FIFA tournaments.

FIFA’s council met yesterday in Bahrain ahead of today’s FIFA Congress. In an official statement, FIFA have said that “following the report by Chairman of the Monitoring Committee Israel-Palestine, Tokyo Sexwale, the FIFA Council considered that at this stage it is premature for the FIFA Congress to take any decision”.

The Palestinians, led by head of the Palestinian Football Association Jibril Rajoub, have been pressuring FIFA and its member states since 2015 to take action against Israel over the settlement teams. The Palestinian say these teams violate FIFA rules, which state that “member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval”.

On these grounds, they demand that Israel shut the settlement teams down, and if not, Israel should be suspended from FIFA.

The Israeli government has argued that the settlements in question were built in Area C of the West Bank, where Israel has full security and administrative control under the Oslo Accords, and should not be deemed unlawful.

Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to FIFA president Gianni Infantino over the weekend, asking him to remove the Palestinian demand to impose sanctions against the six settlement teams from the Congress agenda. The Prime Minister said: “If the decision against the teams from the settlements passes, it will make sports a source of division, instead of a source of conflict resolution. It could ruin FIFA.”

Satisfied with FIFA’s decision to remove the draft resolution, Israeli officials have however cautioned any celebration, as Palestinians could still request during the Congress that the member states vote to reject the position of the FIFA council and vote in favour of their proposal.

Meanwhile the official Palestinian Authority daily Al Hayat Al-Jadida reported yesterday that the Palestinian Football Association this week continued its supervision of the annual football tournament named after Abu Jihad – Khalil Al-Wazir, the terrorist responsible for the murder of over 100 Israelis during 1960s and 70s.