Palestinian girls hold red cards in front of an Israeli soldier during a rally in support of a Palestinian move to have Israel suspended from FIFA on Friday, May 29, 2015 in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.MOHAMAD TOROKMAN/Reuters
In a surprise move on Friday, the Palestinian Football Association withdrew at the last moment its motion to suspend Israel from soccer's governing world body, FIFA. The move was greeted with applause from many quarters, as people hoped to avoid another controversy in an organization already roiled by charges of corruption.
Instead, the Palestinians put forward a proposal to create a monitoring mechanism to investigate Palestinian complaints of racism and of Israel impeding the movement of Palestinian players in the Israeli-occupied territories. The mechanism – approved by the congress in a vote of 165 to 18 – has some real teeth.
"I am here to play football, rather than to play politics," Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian Football Association, told FIFA's 209 members. But "I don't want to score goals," he said. "I want to end suffering."
The former Palestinian security chief made it clear that, although he dropped the motion to suspend, "it does not mean that I give up the resistance."
From the podium, he cheekily waved a red card at the Israeli delegation – similar to one a soccer referee would hold up to signal the expulsion of a player.
"I look forward to the day in which Palestinians, like many others, are enjoying the benefits of the game," he said. "Let us look forward and be optimistic. I count on you to vote [for the revised proposal]," he told the members, "and I thank those who convinced me to drop the suspension."
Had the original motion carried by two thirds, Israeli soccer teams would have been barred from international play for at least a year. FIFA has suspended only two other countries – South Africa and Yugoslavia.
The mere fact of the motion being voted on would have embarrassed Israel, a member of FIFA since 1929.
Ofer Eini, chairman of the Israel Football Association (IFA), welcomed the Palestinian move and endorsed the revised proposal, under which FIFA will set up a committee of international observers to monitor the movement of Palestinian players and equipment and seek a solution for the five Israeli clubs in the occupied West Bank.
"I want us to work together; I want us to co-operate," Mr. Eini said. "I believe and hope that, with the help of the president of FIFA, we can make football a bridge for peace."
The Israeli then called on Mr. Rajoub to join him on stage. "I very much want us to shake hands, and say we are launching a new road," Mr. Eini said.
A tense few moments followed.
Mr. Rajoub, a central committee member of the governing Palestinian movement Fatah, said he would not embrace the Israeli just yet.
"I am ready to come and shake hands, but let us vote [on the motion] … make a deal that me and you will co-operate under the statutes of FIFA," he said.
When the Palestinian proposal was approved by a wide margin, the Israeli walked to the Palestinian table and offered his hand. Mr. Rajoub accepted it.
The language of the motion gives Palestinians much of what they want.
"In order to end the suffering and discrimination of our Palestinian football family at the hands of the illegal and racist occupation of our land, we have presented a proposal for a final solution," the resolution begins.
It sets out how FIFA will appoint the monitor group that "will supervise the possible infringement of FIFA rules by IFA and their clubs." And it compels the FIFA Congress to enforce the rules, including the suspension of Israel by a vote of a simple majority.
It even decrees that, in the matter of the five Israeli teams in the occupied West Bank, "if shown to be true that these Israeli teams … are based on, and playing out of, occupied Palestinian lands, the Israeli Football Association will face the consequences of Article 14.1" – suspension.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the news that the motion to suspend Israel had been dropped.
"Our international effort has proven itself and led to the failure of the Palestinian Authority attempt to oust us from FIFA," he said. "This Palestinian provocation joins the unilateral steps that the Palestinians are taking at other international institutions. So long as they take these steps, they will only push peace further away instead of bringing it closer."
He may have spoken too soon.
This is the third time the Palestinian Football Association has issued a proposal aimed at suspending Israel, only to drop it.
On the two previous occasions, the compromises that induced the retraction were never met.
This motion, the Palestinians believe, gives them more powerful tools with which to work.