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March 19 – In a letter to FIFA, the Palestine Football Association (PFA) has demanded that Congress consider “appropriate” sanctions against the Israeli Football Association (IFA) and its clubs because of “unprecedented international human rights and humanitarian law violations” in the war on Gaza.
The letter, sent on March 11, proposes an item for the FIFA Congress agenda calling for the FIFA membership to address the crisis in Gaza that has brought Palestinian life and football almost to a complete standstill at its May meeting.
The PFA motion has the support of six member associations, but it is understood that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia do not back the proposal, which refrains from using the word ‘ban’.
In the letter, the PFA wrote that it “brings forth a proposal to address the unprecedented international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed by Israel and the complicity manifest in the Israel Football Association’s (IFA) continued inclusion, in its national league, of football teams located on the territory of another association.”
The PFA invokes articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the FIFA statutes, citing the governing body’s human rights commitments, as well as FIFA’s Human Rights Policy. The Palestinian body also points to articles 71 and 72 of the FIFA articles to denounce the existence of five settlement clubs in Palestinian territory.
The letter argues that IFA is “complicit in the Israeli government’s violations against Palestinian football.”
The proposal highlights the destruction of the Yarmuk Stadium, a ground of historic importance to Palestine that became infamous recently when images emerged of men and boys being stripped naked by Israeli soldiers.
The PFA letter says: “All the football infrastructure in Gaza has been either destroyed or seriously damaged, including the historical stadium of Al-Yarmuk which was turned by the Israeli occupation into a concentration camp as…
Source link : https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2024/03/19/palestine-fa-sends-fifa-agenda-item-calling-israel-sanctioned-may-congress/
Author : Paul Nicholson
Publish date : 2024-03-19 16:00:40
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