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Article

28 Nov 2017

Author:
Aljazeera

FIFA will not take action on Israeli settlement teams

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International football's governing body has announced that it will not take a position on the future of six Israeli football clubs based in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. FIFA...cited the "exceptional complexity and sensitivity" and "political" nature of the subject...The Palestine Football Association (PFA) had been campaigning FIFA to force the relocation of the clubs since 2015. The clubs are located in settlements considered illegal under international law, which is in breach of FIFA statutes. PFA President Jibril Rajoub previously said that he was not seeking the expulsion of Israel from FIFA, but rather for Israel to abide by international regulations. Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch, said: "There should be nothing political about deciding to follow one's own rules. "With today's decision, FIFA has decided to continue sponsoring games in illegal Israeli settlements, in contempt of international law and contrary to its professed commitment to human rights." In a statement, Fadi Quran, a senior campaigner in Palestine for the civic organisation, Avaaz, said that FIFA's failure to act means that thousands of Palestinian children are being "robbed of the chance to play the game they love on land that's theirs"...

 

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