Palestinians: We’ll sue FIFA over teams from settlements
The Palestinian Football Association said it would turn to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport should the Federation Internationale de Football Association fail to ban six Israeli soccer teams located in West Bank settlements from internationally recognized soccer.
“In the case that FIFA does not make a clear decision to end the suffering of Palestinian sports, namely the organization of matches in settlements, we will resort to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” PFA Chairman Jibril Rajoub said on Wednesday during a press conference in Ramallah.
“That is our natural right and we won’t raise a white flag,” he emphasized.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport is an international body responsible for solving sports-related legal disputes, but typically it takes cases only with the agreement of both parties.
Rajoub spoke in advance of a Thursday and Friday meeting in Zurich, Switzerland by the FIFA Council, which is made up of 37 members.
On its agenda is to hear a report by the newly created Monitoring Committee for Israel-Palestine, which is tasked with overseeing issues affecting the development of soccer in the Palestinian territories.
The committee also has been reviewing the issue of the settlement clubs, and could possibly make decisions regarding their fate. It is headed by South African former government minister Tokyo Sexwale, who visited Israel and the Palestinian territories over the summer.
Earlier this week the Palestinian Football Association called on FIFA to ban or relocate the six Israeli soccer clubs that have fields in West Bank settlements.
“The PFA calls upon the FIFA Council to take the necessary steps to respect and enforce Article 72 (2) of the FIFA 2016 Statutes without further delay,” a PFA press release from earlier this week stated.
Article 72 (2) states that “member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval.”
The PFA is arguing that the West Bank settlement clubs are in clear violation of Article 72 because the UN has said that the West Bank is “a part of the occupied Palestinian state.”
Susan Shalabi, a Palestinian member of the FIFA Monitoring Committee, told The Jerusalem Post, that the PFA expects FIFA to implement its bylaws.
“There are laws that must be implemented. They were implemented regarding Russian teams playing on Ukrainian territory. So we expect the law will be implemented here as well,” Shalabi said.
FIFA decided that clubs in Crimea could not play in the Russian soccer league after Russia occupied Crimea in 2014.
If FIFA decides to ban the settlement clubs, the decision would be binding until the next meeting of the FIFA Congress in May, which would have to make a final decision.
Shalabi added that the PFA does not want to suspend the Israel Football Association from FIFA.
“We do not want to suspend the IFA from FIFA and we do not like to see players deprived from playing soccer, but as I said, the law must be implemented,” Shalabi remarked, adding that there are few disputes between the PFA and IFA beyond the issue of settlement clubs.
Israel Football Association spokesman Shlomi Barzel said that he did not believe any action would happen prior to an anticipated visit to Israel and the West Bank of newly elected FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
The Palestinians’ tactic here, he said, is akin to what is happening with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
They want people to boycott soccer, the same way they are boycotting wine and products produced in the settlements, Barzel said.
“They are trying to mix politics and sports,” he said.
“Legal expert Eugene Kontorovich challenged the PFA’s interpretation of Article 72 (2) of the FIFA statutes, saying that it would only be applicable if the borders of a Palestinian state are defined.”
He noted that there are instances, such as with North and South Korea, where competing territorial claims have not been a barrier to the participation of the countries teams in FIFA.
Pressure on FIFA to address the issue of settlement clubs has increased in recent weeks with the publication of a Human Rights Watch report, which said Israel “is sponsoring soccer matches on seized land.”
Following the publication of the report, Sara Bashi, Israel and Palestine country director at Human Rights Watch, said, “FIFA has new leadership and has made new commitments to human rights this year. FIFA should step up now to give settlement clubs a red card and insist the Israel Football Association play by the rules.”
According to Human Rights Watch two of the Israeli clubs play in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. The other four play in the settlements of Givat Ze’ev, Oranit, Ma’aleh Adumim and Tomer.
Infantino told AFP late last week that the issue of the settlement clubs is a top priority.
“This is one of my priorities and our priorities.”
The council meeting Thursday and Friday in Zurich is not the first time that the issue of the settlement teams has been raised at FIFA. In 2015 it failed to sway the members of the 65th FIFA Congress to suspend Israel over the settlement issue. The debate, however, did lead to the creation of the Monitoring Committee.