Israel and Palestine Are Taking Their Fight to FIFA

At the end of May, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) will officially submit to the FIFA Congress their request for sanctions against the Israeli Football Association (IFA) for a laundry list of infractions. Like every other aspect of the Israel-Palestine conflict, there is a deep, complex history behind the PFA-IFA conflict with no clear moral high ground. It's a total and complete mess, and now FIFA is smack in the middle of it.

The PFA claims that Israel restricts the free movement of Palestinian players, staff, and officials. They also charge the IFA with stifling the development of Palestinian soccer by preventing the establishment of clubs in East Jerusalem, refusing to issue necessary permits for foreign delegation visits, "humiliating" treatment by Israeli security and border forces, and forcing the PFA to operate through the IFA, a violation of FIFA statutes.

Since the blockade of Gaza began in 2007, the Palestine national team has been unable to practice together. Hamada Shbair, a player residing in Gaza at the time, told James Montague in the excellent book When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone, "As a national team player, I've had big difficulties in playing because of the siege. I can't play outside, to be the member of another team. I was offered chances in Jordan and Egypt, but I'm still here."

For Palestine's first ever home competitive match in 2011, Montague reported that eight of 12 Gazan players were refused entry to Ramallah—half of the starting lineup—and the team's Tunisian coach, Mokhtar Tlili, was denied entry until the night before the match. According to Montague, even Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam was held at the Jordanian border for reasons unknown.

The travel restrictions that prevent Palestinian players from going abroad to hone their skills persist to this day. According to Susan Shalabi, director of the Palestine Football Association's International Department, the problems are nothing new. "Nothing has changed, really. It's as it always been before movement is restricted not only between the Northern and Southern Governorates (West Bank and Gaza), but also in and out of Palestine." She says it's hard to predict which players or officials Israel will allow to pass, making planning for matches near impossible. "The Israelis approve the application of one person and then reject him on another occasion which makes it look like the decision depends on the mood of the Israeli officer sitting on the desk that day."

Perhaps the clearest, most representative case in the PFA's charges is that of Mahmoud Sarsak, who tried to cross into the West Bank to join a team there. Instead, he was arrested under suspicion of partaking in a recent bombing. He was detained for three years without being charged. In 2012, he was freed as a result of his hunger strike and FIFA president Sepp Blatter's personal lobbying for his release. Eventually, Sarsak returned to Gaza "having lost half his body weight," according to Montague. It was never clear why he was arrested in the first place, although the PFA said his brother was a suspected Jihadi.

Not only are players, coaches, and officials subject to Israeli security whims, but so is equipment. "We have to go through very complicated red-tape procedures to get clearance for these goods," Shalabi told me via email. "The goods often arrive after the match they are intended for is over, rendering them almost useless." Further, Shalabi says obtaining a permit to build or renovate a stadium could take years, which makes it "very difficult for us to benefit from the FIFA Goal project money which expires in one year." Shalabi says that adding stands to Majed Asaad Stadium in Al-Bireh took "years of negotiations, court action and international intervention." As Shalabi tells it, all this red tape was because the fans cheering from the stands would "annoy the [Israeli] settlement on the next hill."

Why would Israel do all of this? The IFA wouldn't respond to my repeated requests for comment, but, like many other problems in the region, the issue is rooted in Israel security fears.

At the center of the dispute—and Israel's assumed justification for these actions— is the PFA president Jibril Rajoub, a man who wears many hats and offers contradictory statements, making him hard to pin down ideologically.

When he was 17, Rajoub tossed a grenade at an Israeli checkpoint. He was imprisoned for 18 years. According to Montague, Rajoub came out of prison "a very different man." He now speaks Hebrew and, as Montague wrote, espouses the "virtues of non-violent action." Rajoub has done incredible things for what was, even a decade ago, a virtually non-existent Palestinian soccer infrastructure. He was instrumental in the construction of Majed Asaad Stadium. He negotiated an easing of checkpoints so a new Palestinian pro league could be formed, and has been a strong figure in the Fatah political party, which is generally regarded as a more moderate group and is prominent in the West Bank's push for statehood, as opposed to the more radical Hamas which controls Gaza. Rajoub is also the president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee.

The "new" Rajoub still elicits deep concerns from Israelis, though. In 2014, Rajoub stated on Palestinian television: "OK, brother, here is the occupation, am I stopping you from slaughtering a settlement? No one is stopping anyone…Our political decision is resistance in the occupied territories in order to bring an end to the occupation using all forms of resistance." The year before, Rajoub—who has also publicly endorsed a two-state solution—told an Arab sports television show that "the whole of Palestine from the river to the sea, is occupied," implying that all of Israel is merely "occupied Palestine." Prior to that, Rajoub has allegedly called Jews "Satans" and "Zionist sons of bitches." But most troubling were his remarks—which were widely reported by international news outlets—that "I swear that if we had a nuke, we'd have used it this very morning."

These suspicions of foul play and strong anti-Israeli sentiment extend to players as well. In June, Israeli operatives arrested Palestinian player Samah Maraabeh for allegedly meeting with a Hamas operative in Qatar and receiving a phone, money, and "written instructions that were to be passed on to Hamas contacts in the West Bank," according to the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet.

This is the situation Sepp Blatter and FIFA must now address. On the one hand, the PFA has some very legitimate claims that the IFA and Israeli government are interfering with their organization and its development. Israel seems to believe that fully complying with FIFA rules could be putting itself in a position to be taken advantage of by people intending to harm the state of Israel. Israeli security forces—and some Israelis—believe Rajoub, the president of the PFA, is one of those people, which puts FIFA in an incredibly precarious position.

Of course, none of this is particularly new. So why is the PFA acting now?

For the past three years, a special FIFA task force—comprised of Sepp Blatter, the presidents of the Asian Football Confederation and UEFA (Israel was kicked out of the AFC in 1974 and joined UEFA in 1994), and liaisons from the IFA and PFA—has been working on this issue.

Shalabi was the PFA's liaison to the FIFA task force and told me pointedly, "things did not improve. The IFA continue to assume the position of the Israeli political and military authorities." When Israeli security forces raided the PFA offices last November, the IFA did not issue a statement. For the entire task force's existence, the IFA has continued to force the PFA to "operate through the formal channels of the state of Israel," which Shalabi considers a direct violation of FIFA Article 17 Point 1: "Each member shall manage its affairs independently and with no influence from third parties."

Given that this is an Israel-Palestine issue, it should come as no surprise that there are no easy answers. Considering Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ramped up his antagonistic rhetoric, FIFA sanctions against Israel would likely have long-standing, unpredictable effects. But further inaction would only maintain the status quo, which would effectively condone the IFA's actions (and inactions) thus far.

Back in 2013, Palestinian defender Nadim Barghouthi told Montague that soccer is "a perfect way to prove to the rest of the world that [Palestinians] are human beings. We are not terrorists. In the past, all the world thought that Palestinians threw stones. I consider the players to be soldiers without weapons. We are playing for freedom in Palestine."

If nothing else, this is a further lesson that soccer diplomacy only goes so far, which isn't very far at all. Soccer covers up conflicts; it doesn't repair them. FIFA is no more of a peace-maker than it is a non-profit. It exists to profit off a global obsession, not to solve our most complicated diplomatic and militaristic quarrels. Soccer is just another battleground on which Israel and Palestine wage war.

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Update: since the article was published, VICE Sports received the following response from the IFA:

Like in any other country the issue of movement of any one (be it a sportsmen or any other person) and the regulations and procedures in respect of entering the country (including the need of permits, Visas etc.) is a governmental matter which has nothing to do with IFA. The same goes to any other country in the world. Accusing the IFA of having any control on such things will be as absurd as accusing, for instance, US soccer or the Chinese football federation for the fact that a large number of sportsmen and football players entering to the USA or to China or to any other country need a visa as this is a requirement of the governmental authorities in each country. This has nothing to do with football. To the contrary, should the National Association have any control on such regulations it would have been a clear violation of the spirit and the statutes of FIFA in respect of the separation between football and politics. Saying that it should be noted that the IFA always suggested and will afford any assistance within its limited powers to assist if asked to do so. In this respect FIFA laid down, with full cooperation of IFA and the PFA a mechanism that is aimed in assisting to resolve specific cases and the IFA fully comply with this mechanism. This was confirmed again and again by FIFA. FIFA also suggested to both federations an MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] in this respect which IFA was and still is willing to sign but the PFA is the one who refuses!

In response to the PFA's claim that it is not a fully independent entity, the IFA replied:

This is a false allegation!! Like in other countries it is a fact that the PFA has to ask for permits etc. for the movement of Players and official between the two parts of the Palestinian authorities for the mere fact that this requires entering in Israel and therefore this movement, as in any other country is regulated by the national authorities and IFA has nothing to do with it. The same goes if there are any movement restrictions within the Palestinian authorities in specific cases. The IFA has nothing to do with it. However as explained in specific cases the IFA is happy to assist if possible and for this FIFA suggested a mechanism that is aimed in assisting to resolve specific cases and the IFA fully comply with this mechanism. This was confirmed again and again by FIFA.