Fifa condones matches on appropriated land

Six clubs in the Israeli football league are based in Jews-only colonies in the occupied West Bank

Fifa has been condoning football matches played on stolen land in the occupied West Bank, Human Rights Watch said yesterday, calling for Israeli clubs based in Jews-only colonies to be forced to relocate.

Six clubs in the Israeli football league play in West Bank Jewish colonies, which are considered illegal under international law, the report said.

By allowing games to be contested there, world football’s governing body Fifa is engaging in business activity that supports Israeli colonies, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report.

It said this ran contrary to human rights commitments undertaken by Fifa.

“By holding games on stolen land, Fifa is tarnishing the beautiful game of football,” Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine country director at the New York-based HRW, said in the statement.

“Some of these games are played on land owned by individual Palestinians not allowed to access the area, while others are held on land belonging to Palestinian villages that the Israeli military seized and designated for exclusive Israeli civilian use,” she said.

‘Move games inside Israel’

To comply with international law, she said, the clubs “need to move their games inside Israel”, referring to Israeli-claimed territory inside the Green Line.

Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians have long opposed the participation in the Israeli championships of the colony clubs, which play in Israel’s third, fourth and fifth divisions.

Fifa is expected to discuss the issue at an October 13-14 meeting of its executive committee.