Palestinians Call to Suspend Israel from International Sporting Bodies Over Its Genocidal Attacks on Palestinian Life and Sports

In a recent statement, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) called on the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and all regional and international sports governing bodies to take an urgent stance towards Israel’s grave violations of human rights and subject it to legal accountability measures. 

The statement came after the Israeli military forces, committing the world’s most live-streamed genocide, armed, funded and protected from accountability by the colonial West, led by the US, raided Al Yarmouk stadium in Gaza and transformed it into a detention, torture and interrogation center then bulldozed and destroyed it. 

The Arabic statement reads: 

“The Palestinian Football Association calls on the International Olympic Committee, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) - in its capacity as the umbrella sponsoring football around the world -, the Asian Football Association, all continental and international sports federations, and all relevant parties, to take an urgent stance against these flagrant violations [...], to subject Israel to legal accountability and provide protection for the Palestinian sports facilities.” 

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) supports the PFA demand while also calling for international public and official pressure on international sporting bodies, especially the IOC and FIFA, to suspend Israel’s membership and ban it from international tournaments and games until it ends its grave violations of international law, particularly its apartheid rule and the crime of genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza.