The world’s leading soccer association is under pressure by the world’s leading human rights organization to live up to its own rules and ethical guidelines.
A well-researched study, which included aerial photos, by Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Sept. 25 for six clubs of the Israeli Football Association (IFA) to stop playing its home games in soccer fields built on Palestinian lands. Pointing to an Oct. 11 FIFA meeting, HRW described the Israeli actions to be against international humanitarian law.
HRW called settlements “illegal” and said that they are built on “stolen” and “seized” Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank.
Under the headline “Israel/Palestine: FIFA Sponsoring Games on Seized Land,” the HRW report states that “Israeli settlement football clubs contribute to human rights violations.”
Palestinian Football Association (PFA) chief Jibril Rajoub wasted little time to jump on the report, saying that FIFA has a responsibility to follow up on the case. Meeting on Sept. 27 with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in India, Rajoub was quoted by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA as saying that FIFA must take steps against IFA, which is clearly violating FIFA laws prohibiting the presence of two associations in the same recognized country.
Rajoub also called on the FIFA president to visit Palestine and see the situation firsthand.
Ribhi Dola, the mayor of the Palestinian city of Beitunia, west of Ramallah, spoke to Al-Monitor about the problems that his city is facing because of the nearby settlement of Givat Ze’ev. “The Israeli security wall was built in the middle of city lands for the benefit of Jewish settlers, cutting off landowners from their land,” he said.
Dola noted that of the city’s 25,000 dunums (roughly 6,200 acres), only 5,000 are classified as Area A to which the city has access. “Of the remaining 20,000 dunums, 15,000 are beyond the wall, which is totally unacceptable to city residents,” he added.
The nearby Jewish settlement of Givat Ze’ev built a regular sized soccer field for a local club that is affiliated with IFA; the field is used by the settlement’s local club, which operates as part of the IFA. The IFA is part of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and FIFA. Part of the FIFA and UEFA laws and regulations do not allow the recognition of member federations in the areas of another country. Article 10.1 of the FIFA statutes states, “Only one association shall be recognized in each country.”
The PFA, which operates in the Palestinian territories, vocally and officially protested in May the fact that six Israeli teams are playing in the West Bank, where FIFA is supposed to ensure that its member federations are not violating their own guidelines.
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