#RedCardIsrael: Calls to ban Israel from global football grow as FIFA meets on July 20

By Press TV Staff Writer

World football’s governing body is set to convene an extraordinary meeting on July 20 to discuss sanctioning Israel over its genocidal war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The FIFA Extraordinary Council Meeting comes in response to the protest lodged by the Palestinian football body calling for the suspension of Israel from all international soccer competitions.

At FIFA’s annual congress in Bangkok on May 17, the football governing body agreed to seek legal advice on the issue before holding an extraordinary council meeting within two months.

During the meeting, FIFA president Gianni Infantino outlined the plan to 211 member associations, emphasizing the “sensitivity” of the matter and seeking “independent legal expertise.”

“Due to the obvious sensitivity of these matters, FIFA will mandate independent legal expertise to analyze and assess the three requests made by the Palestinian Football Association and ensure that the statutes and regulations of FIFA are applied correctly to ensure a fair and due process,” Infantino said.

“Due to the urgency of the situation, an extraordinary FIFA Council will be convened and will take place before July 20 to review the results of the legal assessment and to make the appropriate decisions.”

Since 2014, the Palestinian football federation has raised the matter of suspending Israel at least five times, but calls have grown louder since October last year when the Israeli regime launched its fresh genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Nearly 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past nine months, most of them children and women. Among the victims are more than 250 athletes, including footballers.

FIFA under fire: Calls grow for suspension of Israel from intl. football over Gaza war

Two NGOs have called on FIFA to ban Israel from all international competitions over the occupying regime’s genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Iconic athletes killed by Israel

In March, iconic Palestinian footballer Mohammed Barakat, 39, who played for Ahly Gaza and the Palestine national team, scoring 114 goals, was killed when his house in Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip was bombed by Israeli warplanes.

During his long association with the Khan Younis Youth Club, which he captained, Barakat was known as “the legend of Khan Younis.”

In January, 42-year-old Hani al-Masdar, one of the legendary Palestinian footballers and a junior coach of the Palestinian Olympic soccer team, was also killed in an Israeli air strike on Deir al-Balah.

In November last year, Palestinian volleyball players Hassan Zuaiter and Ibrahim Qassia were both killed in an Israeli bombing that targeted the Jabalia camp north of Gaza City.

Basketball player for Al-Breij, Bassim al-Nabahin, 27; footballer Rashid Dabbour, 28, who played for Al-Ahli Beit Hanoon; and Ahmad Awad, 21, who represented Palestine’s national football team for dwarfism are among others killed by the apartheid regime since October 7.

In April, the Press TV website published names of athletes, officials, technicians, and scouts killed by the genocidal regime since the events of October 7, 2023, based on the list released by the Palestinian Football Association.

It, however, did not include all the names as many have been unaccounted for.

Know their names: Palestinian athletes, scouts, coaches killed by Israel in Gaza

Amid calls to ban Israel from the Paris Olympics and other sports competitions, here is a list of Palestinian athletes, scouts, coaches and technicians killed in Gaza since October 7.

Palestinian proposal to ban Israel

In the latest proposal, which came amid the genocidal war on Gaza, the Palestinian football body demanded “appropriate sanctions, with immediate effect, against Israeli (football) teams.”

It referred to “international law violations committed by the Israeli occupation in Palestine, particularly in Gaza” and cited FIFA's statutory commitments on human rights and against discrimination.

Jibril Rajoub, who heads the Palestine Football Association, during the May 17 meeting in Bangkok said the Palestinian people, including the Palestinian football fraternity, “are enduring an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” referring to at least 193 footballers killed since October 7, 2023.

Calls have also grown for suspending Israel from the Paris Olympics, which begins later this month.

Teams have been banned from the Olympics in the past. For example, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned apartheid South Africa from the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

In 1970, the IOC expelled South Africa from the Olympics, and the country did not return until 1992 when Nelson Mandela supported a mixed-race squad that participated in Barcelona.

Last year, the IOC banned the Russian Olympic Committee from participating in the Paris Games due to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, which many dubbed a politically motivated move.

Journalist Karim Zidan, in an opinion piece published by The Guardian in January, said the IOC’s treatment of Russia and Israel sends a “troubling message” regarding the perceived value of human rights.

“By refraining from applying the same standards to Israel as they did to Russia, these sporting organizations appear to suggest that Palestine, as a member state and participant in major international events, is not deserving of the same level of sympathy, dignity, or the commitment required to uphold their fundamental human rights,” Zidan wrote at the time.

Calls mount for IOC to kick out genocidal Israel from Paris Olympics

Calls to ban Israeli teams from participating in international sports competitions have grown louder with the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics knocking on the heels, slated to begin in less than five months in Paris.

Calls for banning Israel grow louder

In its statement in February, the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) made a case for Israel’s suspension from all football-related activities amid the ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.

WAFF President Prince Ali bin Hussein made the plea in an open letter addressed to the international governing body of association football, football confederations, and member associations.

Reiterating his call earlier this week, Al Hussein, who heads the Jordan Football Association (JFA), said sports should serve as a platform for unity and solidarity, not discrimination or injustice.

“I urge football fans worldwide to stand together for justice and pressure FIFA to make decisions reflecting the noble human values football represents. Continuing the current situation without decisive action perpetuates double standards and paints an unfair picture of the sports world,” he said.

Pertinently, the president of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) had walked out of FIFA’s annual congress in May in support of Palestinians, protesting against genocide in Gaza.

“We left the congress hall because we do not recognize the Zionist regime. My belief is that the Zionist regime should be banned from all football activities, and this should include its representatives at all levels of football, at the club, national, and managerial levels,” Mehdi Taj said at the time.

“We, on the right side of history, do not forget millions of oppressed people [in Palestine].”

Iran has been very vocal about the suspension of Israel from all international sports competitions, including football.

In a statement posted on its website in February, the Iranian football federation urged FIFA to “completely suspend” Israel from football-related activities due to the regime’s war against Palestinians in Gaza.

The federation said the suspension was recommended in response to the “inhumane actions carried out by the Zionist regime in Palestine and the commission of war crimes in Gaza, and the massacre that took place against innocent civilians, especially women and children.”

#RedCardIsrael: July 20 FIFA meeting

As the July 20 meeting of the FIFA Council approaches, social media has been abuzz with netizens urging the global football’s governing body to order the suspension of Israel from international football.

A campaign with the hashtag #RedCardIsrael has been trending in recent days with a barrage of tweets supporting it and demanding an immediate ban on Israeli football teams.

“Please take 10 seconds to email FIFA Council Members and ask them to #RedCardIsrael and suspend Israeli teams at the FIFA Extraordinary Council Meeting on July 20, 2024, where they are meeting to specifically discuss Israeli sanctions,” said Action Network in a statement.

“The sanctioning of Israeli teams is a real opportunity to help isolate Israel internationally for genocidal acts, including its killing of civilians and footballers, and could help build peace in Palestine. Similar sports sanctions helped to end South African Apartheid.”

It said 642,618 letters had already been sent to FIFA as part of the #RedCardIsrael campaign.

Leyla Hamed, a sports journalist based in London, also tweeted the same “call to action.”

“FIFA is voting this Saturday, July 20, on whether to ban Israel from international games. 260+ footballers have been killed in Gaza. Stadiums have been turned into mass graves. Head to the link below to demand @FIFAcom suspend Israel NOW,” she wrote.

Adnan Dar, an Australia-based entrepreneur and investor, also took to his X page to demand FIFA “red card” Israel over the genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

“FIFA is voting this Saturday, July 20, on whether to ban Israel from international games,” he wrote.

“Head to the link below to demand @FIFAcom to suspend Israel NOW! Over 1/2 a million of us have already signed the petition below, what are you waiting for?”

Importantly, Israeli warplanes have also been pounding civilian infrastructures across the besieged territory since October last year, including sports facilities and stadiums.

The historic Yarmouk soccer stadium in Gaza City was transformed into an internment and “interrogation” camp by the Israeli military before destroying it completely.

In mid-January, more than 300 Palestinian sports clubs, youth centers, and civil society organizations launched a campaign to ban Israel from international sports.

The #BanIsrael campaign was organized by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and included soccer, basketball, and volleyball teams.

Now, the hashtag #RedCardIsrael has been trending on social media, reflecting widespread support for the suspension of Israel from international sports.

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