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The Palestine Cup, a FIFA-sanctioned club championship that sends its winner to the Asian Champions League, was effectively canceled this week by Israel.
Now the world is waiting to see how FIFA reacts, if indeed it steps in at all.
Khadamat Rafah, a club from Gaza, and FC Balata, a club from Nablus in north West Bank, were set to meet a few dozen miles away in central West Bank to face off in the Palestine Cup final, the club championship for Palestine between the winners of the Gaza Strip Cup and West Bank Cup. Israel, however, denied travel permits for 23 of 35 members of the Gaza club’s traveling team. Only five players’ permits were approved.
“It’s a terrible feeling after training so hard,” Ahmad Abu Thuhair, a Khadamat Rafah player whose application was rejected, told Reuters.
The match was originally scheduled for July, but that game was postponed when 31 of the 35 team members’ permits were denied. On Monday, an Israeli court upheld the decision from COGAT (Israel’s military liaison to Palestinians) to deny the permits, Reuters reported, but no details were provided for why the permits were denied.
“Each permit application received by COGAT is individually and thoroughly evaluated, pursuant to the criteria that are published on COGAT’s website and subject to security checks,” COGAT said in an email to Reuters.
For a quick history lesson on Israel-Palestine tensions, I’ll just directly quote Reuters:
“Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank in 1967. It withdrew its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005, and the enclave is now run by the Islamist armed group Hamas, which Israel and the West designate a terrorist organization. Citing security concerns, Israel maintains tight control over Gaza’s land and sea borders. Hamas and Israel have fought three wars over the past decade, and several other heavy rounds of violence have broken out. The two million Palestinians in the narrow coastal enclave must request permits from Israel to travel to the West Bank.”
Palestine and Israel, though intricately linked, have separate national soccer programs and leagues, both recognized by FIFA. Israel, ranked 86th in the world, competes in UEFA. Palestine, ranked 101st, competes in AFC (Asia).
Because of the travel restrictions Israel places on Palestinians, often making it difficult to obtain any sort of exit visa, many of Palestine’s national-team players come from around the globe, including the United States. Despite this, the Palestine national team (the Lions of Canaan) rose to as high as 73rd in the FIFA rankings in 2018. However, qualification to major tournaments has been difficult, as Israel often denies visas for players to travel to matches citing security concerns. Sometimes these concerns are valid; sometimes they are not.
As for the Palestine Cup match Israel effectively killed off, many in both Israel and Palestine have spoken out against the decision.
The president of the Palestine Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, said Israel is trying “to paralyze Palestinian players and even the (Palestinian) sport system in general,” Reuters reported. Rajoub only recently completed a year-long ban from football for asking fans to burn jerseys and images of Lionel Messi because Argentina was scheduled to play a friendly against Israel in Jerusalem. That match was ultimately canceled due to political tension. Before that, Rajoub has called on Israel to be expelled from FIFA.
An Israeli rights group, Gisha, petitioned the Jerusalem District Court that upheld COGAT’s decision. The group said the travel bans are another example of Israel’s “separation policy,” which “violates Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement.” Others have suggested similarly that Israel is attempting to keep Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem separate in all areas, including sport. Other opponents of the decision say it’s another example of the ruthless cruelty of Israel to oppress Palestinians and called on FIFA to act against Israel in the same way it once expelled South Africa for its apartheid system.
FIFA has rules against politics becoming embroiled in soccer. When governments intervene with football associations, FIFA has stepped in to punish those countries.
Well, sometimes.
FIFA has been a bit uneven in its interpretation of its own rules, as evidenced by the extremely late pressure only now being put on Iran to allow women into men’s soccer matches.
FIFA has yet to make any sort of public comment on the Palestine Cup, instead focusing its time on alleged voting irregularities in the FIFA Best awards, which few people actually care about anyway.
FIFA Statement on Voting Process for THE BEST FIFA FOOTBALL AWARDS 2019 https://t.co/hhnDdnsCX9
— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) September 27, 2019
FIFA should at the very least investigate Israel’s killing of the Palestine Cup. If Israel has legitimate security concerns over certain players, it should at least clarify with FIFA to explain its decisions, even if those concerns are not made public. If Israel can’t provide proper evidence for canceling the match, then FIFA is obligated to sanction the Israel Football Association.
This of course is all a sensitive subject given the tensions between Palestine and Israel. But one thing I think all soccer fans can agree on is that soccer should be used to unite, not to divide.
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