Palestinian boys, one weraing an Algerian flag, looks at graffiti-artist, Belal Khaled painting a portrait Italian football player Andrea Pirlo on June 23, 2014 at the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. On the left is painted a Palestinian flag, on the right is an Algerian flag with the words "Long life to Algeria".SAID KHATIB/AFP / Getty Images
Palestinians have resorted to various means in their struggle for recognition by Israel and the creation of their own state – armed resistance, peaceful protest, acts of terrorism and negotiations. They've accepted Israel's existence and sought recognition as a state by various international bodies. But the most effective means yet could turn out to be a completely non-violent contest – on the soccer field, of all places.
For more than two years, the Palestine Football Association (PFA), a member of FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association), has mounted a campaign to have the soccer world's governing body suspend Israel for what Palestinians claim are gross violations of FIFA's code of conduct – acts that centre on restricting the movement of Palestinian and visiting players, the allegedly illegal use of occupied Palestinian territory and a failure to live up to FIFA's rules against racism.
After more than a year of ignoring what it considered a frivolous complaint, Israel woke up recently to the seriousness of the threat. FIFA's full international membership meets May 29 in Zurich, and the Palestinian motion to suspend Israel is on the agenda (item 15.1).
Forget about taking Israel to the International Criminal Court, or applying to United Nations organizations for acceptance as a state, the case before the FIFA congress is the kind of international recognition Palestinians crave.
If 75 per cent of the 209 member countries vote in favour of the resolution, Israel will be suspended – a humiliating defeat in the world's most popular arena. Only one other country has been suspended by FIFA – South Africa, at the height of its apartheid system. While it is unlikely that 75 per cent will vote in favour, a simple majority is very possible, which could allow for sanctions to be levied against Israel.
More than that, any punishment by FIFA likely will lead to further action against Israel by other international sports bodies. If that happens, Israeli teams of all types could be barred from playing in many venues.
Just having a vote on the motion is deeply embarrassing to Israel. In recent weeks, Israeli diplomats have been instructed to discourage soccer associations around the world from voting against Israel, while pressuring FIFA's leadership to drop the item from its agenda.
FIFA president Joseph "Sepp" Blatter will visit Israel and Palestine on Tuesday, just 10 days before the congress, to meet with political leaders and try to resolve the matter so the motion can be shelved.
Twice before, in 2013 and 2014, similar motions were proposed but not voted on, as the Palestinians were persuaded to allow intermediaries to try to reconcile differences with Israel. Palestinians complain that nothing changed. This time, Israeli media report that security forces are taking steps to improve the conditions for the treatment of Palestinian players and remove the basis of the Palestinian complaint as best they can. They continue to insist, however, that some security precautions are necessary in the West Bank and that soccer is a convenient way to conceal terrorist activity.
"Now we are certain that we have no choice," said PFA head Jibril Rajoub after a recent meeting in Zurich with Mr. Blatter and Ofer Eini, chairman of the Israel Football Association (IFA). "Nothing is changing because of Israel's intransigence. And that's why we're raising it a third time at the FIFA Congress. This time I assure you, nothing will stop us."
A veteran of more than 20 years in Israeli prisons for his armed resistance against the Jewish state, Mr. Rajoub, 62, is a former security minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA) of the 1990s. He is a senior member of the central committee of Fatah, the political movement of the late Yasser Arafat that dominates the West Bank, and is widely touted as a possible successor to aged PA president Mahmoud Abbas.
Few people took seriously Mr. Rajoub's unexpected interest in soccer and Palestinian youths a few years ago. Now, however, few doubt his seriousness. Israelis have seized on the connection.
"For Rajoub, soccer is only a political platform," a Foreign Ministry official told Haaretz this week. "He wants to replace Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas when the time comes, and action against Israel over soccer issues is the ticket he is riding."
"Israel is deeply concerned by the politicization of sport" brought about by the Palestinian bid, said Rafael Barak, Israel's ambassador to Canada, emphasizing the main line of Israel's defence against the motion: Politics has no place in sport, which should be a bridge between peoples.
"The Israeli government is the one that is motivated by political considerations," insists Mr. Rajoub. "Israel wants control of everything – primarily the departure and entry of the players, and makes it extremely difficult for us when we try to bring a player from Gaza to the West Bank or to bring in someone from abroad."
Beyond restricting the travel of players, the Palestinians also complain that Israel has damaged soccer facilities and limited the transfer of equipment to the West Bank.
Their official complaint also argues that Israel permits soccer teams from five West Bank Israeli settlements to compete in the Israeli league, despite these settlements being in occupied Palestinian territory, a violation of international law. Mr. Rajoub contends these teams must cease playing. He also insists that Israel take significant action against displays of anti-Arab racism at soccer matches held in Israel, especially at games played by Beitar Jerusalem.
Mr. Blatter, who has chosen to intervene at the last minute, has his own political position to worry about. He is seeking a fifth four-year term as president and is under considerable pressure from the powerful Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) of which Israel is a member. However, Mr. Blatter's support base is among the countries of Asia and Africa that he has long courted. The majority of these countries tilt away from Israel and are likely to support the Palestinian motion.
For its part, Israel continues to talk tough. "We believe that Rajoub will ride this issue to the very last moment and then step back," a senior official told Haaretz last week. "He won't want to lose a vote, so he'll declare that his demands were met and that Israel capitulated."
But even the Canadian Soccer Association says it is not sure which way it will vote. General secretary Peter Montopoli told the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations earlier this month that Canada's vote would be on the merits of the case, and not based on political allegiances. According to Mr. Montopoli, the Canadian government's well-known support for Israel will not influence how the CSA votes.
"FIFA is just the beginning," says Gershon Baskin, a leading Israeli advocate for better relations with Palestinians.
"The issue is not football or the freedom of movement of soccer players," he wrote in his Jerusalem Post blog last week. "The issue is much larger and will continue to emerge on the international stage on which Israel is now being targeted. The issue is, of course, the continuation of the occupation and Israel's refusal to recognize the Palestinians' right to self-determination in an independent state of their own next to Israel."
No one should write off Mr. Rajoub and his efforts in this regard.
In the two decades he has toiled for Palestinian soccer, the young team has risen from nowhere to number 141 in FIFA's ranking of the 209 national teams (right behind the Maldives, and ahead of Thailand). They have been able to host visiting teams from other Asian nations and to travel to play in this year's Asian Cup in Australia.
Two years ago, when the famous Barcelona Football Club was on a goodwill visit to Israel and Palestine, Mr. Rajoub made sure they came to his home town of Dura, a dusty place just outside Hebron, where the Islamic resistance movement Hamas is most popular.
Watching football stars such as Lionel Messi and Neymar da Silva Santos playing with local kids in the Dura stadium, Palestinians began to believe Mr. Rajoub can do anything.