The Palestine Football Association (PFA) has called on the FIFA Council to suspend Israel’s membership. The PFA submitted its arguments to the FIFA Council’s independent legal committee, addressing issues raised in their proposal to the FIFA Congress on March 11, 2024. This request comes amid a devastating situation where, since October 7, over 41,000 people, including nearly 16,000 children, have been killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza, and over 500 killed and 5,200 injured in the West Bank. Palestinian football infrastructure has been heavily damaged or destroyed, with 41 facilities in Gaza and 7 in the West Bank targeted. Gaza’s Yarmouk stadium has been used as a detention center, where civilians, including young boys and elderly men, were mistreated. So far, 231 footballers, including 66 children from a football academy, have been killed. Jibril Rajoub, President of the PFA, emphasized that for 15 years, they have raised these concerns with FIFA, only to see them deferred repeatedly. He urged FIFA to either uphold its core values and human rights obligations or passively stand by, as Palestinian football and people face existential threats.
WAFA