Palestine urges FIFA to address Israeli violations against sports

Palestine has called on football’s international governing body, FIFA, to address Israeli violations against Palestinian sports and sportspeople, Anadolu has reported.

The Palestinian Football Association said that it submitted a proposal to discuss Israeli human rights violations against the Palestinians during the FIFA Congress in Thailand on 17 May. The proposal “calls for immediate sanctions against Israeli teams over unprecedented violations of human rights committed by the Israeli occupation in Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip.”

The PFA accuses its Israeli counterpart of being “complicit” in the violations of the Israeli government against Palestinian football teams and players. “It provides moral support for the occupation government’s actions and justifies its violations,” it said.

According to the PFA statement, at least 99 Palestinian footballers have been killed and dozens of facilities have been destroyed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since last October.

WATCH: Should Israel be banned from European football?

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since October. The offensive has displaced 85 per cent of Gaza’s population amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water, fuel supplies and medicine. The UN estimates that 60 per cent of the civilian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed by Israel.

The occupation state started its offensive on Gaza after a cross-border incursion led by the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, on 7 October in which nearly 1,200 people were killed, many of them at the hands of the Israel Defence Forces. More than 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed by Israel in Gaza, and nearly 73,700 others have been wounded amid mass destruction.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza. South Africa, which took the case to the court, believes that Israel has not complied with the ICJ order.

OPINION: There’s no protection from genocide in the colonial framework of international law