A legal analysis penned by two South African scholars has claimed that Israel must be banned from any soccer-related activities for violating FIFA’s statutes amid the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Both lawyers behind the report, who specialize in international law and human rights, are also part of the legal team currently accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Attorney Max du Plessis cowrote the analysis along with Sarah Pudifin-Jones at the behest of Eko, a social justice nonprofit organization.
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) submitted a proposal to suspend Israel in May, with FIFA ordering an urgent legal evaluation while promising to address it at an extraordinary meeting of its council set to take place this Saturday.
The Asian Football Confederation had also given its backing for action against Israel and PFA President Jibril Rajoub said that FIFA could not afford to remain indifferent to “violations or to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
The Palestinian proposal came against the background of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, which began when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw 251 people taken as hostages to Gaza.
Israel responded with a military offensive aimed at destroying Hamas, toppling its Gaza regime and freeing the hostages.
“There can be no doubt that Israel’s conduct in Palestine has undermined, and continues to undermine, FIFA’s objectives,” the report claimed.
“Israel has violated the internationally recognized human rights of Palestinians, contrary to Article 3. It has discriminated and continues to discriminate against Palestinians on the basis of race, national origin and birth in direct contravention of Article 4(1).
“Its conduct undermines the humanitarian objectives described in Article 5.1(b). Israel’s conduct demands censure, in line with the position adopted by FIFA in relation to similar egregious violations of its objectives and internationally recognized human rights.”
The Palestinian proposal accuses the Israel Football Association (IFA) of complicity in violations of international law by the Israeli government and discrimination against Arab players. The IFA rejected that.
Eko said its petition calling on FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and sporting federations to ban Israel from international sport had received over 380,000 signatures.
Reuters has contacted FIFA for comment.
In recent years, when the PFA brought motions to suspend Israel, FIFA did not impose sanctions, declaring in 2017 the matter to be closed and not subject to further discussion until the legal or de facto framework changed.
The report argued that developments since October have given rise to “a new legal framework that necessitates FIFA’s intervention.”
Rajoub had cited precedents at the FIFA Congress and the analysis argued that the suspension of Israel would be in line with FIFA’s past decisions to suspend or expel member associations that violate its objectives.
The Football Association of South Africa was suspended in 1961 due to the country’s apartheid policy while Yugoslavia was banned in 1992 following United Nations sanctions amid the Serb-dominated government’s aggression in the Balkans.
Most recently, in 2022, both FIFA and its European counterpart UEFA acted swiftly to suspend Russian teams from their competitions following the country’s unprompted invasion of Ukraine.
Critics have accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians, which Israel vehemently denies.
Israel says South Africa is acting as an emissary of the Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza and seeks to eliminate the Jewish state. It says that the Israel Defense Forces is targeting Hamas terrorists, not Palestinian civilians, and points out that civilian casualties in the fighting are unavoidable as terrorists operate from deep within the population.
In an initial response to South Africa’s case, which dealt with the Gaza war, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel in January to take action to prevent acts of genocide.
Separately, the ICJ is also examining the legal ramifications of Israel’s actions in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip after the United Nations General Assembly asked the court in 2023 for an advisory, non-binding opinion.
The ICJ has said it will deliver its opinion on Friday.