The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) has called for the Israeli Football Association (IFA) to be banned after a FIFA report found “multiple breaches” of its anti-discrimination obligations.
“We maintain our right and continue our efforts to ensure that the Israeli Football Association is expelled from all international institutions,” PFA chief Jibril Rajoub, who also heads the Palestinian Olympic Committee, said during a press conference in the occupied West Bank city of Al-Bireh.
FIFA fined the IFA $190,700 for the breaches last week, “a significant decision”, according to Rajoub, who said the penalty still “falls short of the minimum required”.
Rajoub cited the IFA’s “racist nature”, alleged criminal activity by some Israeli sports officials, and the inclusion of football clubs from illegal Israeli West Bank settlements in the Israeli federation as grounds for a ban.
A recent report by the disciplinary committee of world football’s governing body found that the IFA “failed to take meaningful action against Beitar Jerusalem” for “persistent and well-documented racist behaviour”.
Rajoub said that Beitar Jerusalem is “an extreme example of racism, fascism, and discrimination” but that such attitudes are commonplace in Israeli football clubs.
On the alleged criminal activity of Israeli sports officials, Rajoub said he was referring to instances of players killed during two years of genocide in Gaza and the destruction of many of the Palestinian territory’s sports facilities during the same war.