Red Card Israeli Racism have grown fed up of Fifa’s inaction when it comes to stopping Israel from escalating the harassment of Palestinian football, asking: “What has it done lately?”

The past few weeks has seen a rise in violent raids on Palestinian football premises, which has led to hundreds of prominent figures, sport students and footballers being arrested.

Palestinian football officials have been denied permission to attend AFC and ANOC events, while Indonesian and Maldivian footballers have been denied entry to Palestine to represent their national teams and the Pakistani national team has been delayed until the last minute. 

In a letter sent to the Fifa council seen by the Star, RCIC has demanded Fifa explain its recent lack of action, asking: “What has it done to fulfil its past pledges to Palestine?”

The letter says: “We write to protest the continuing harassment and obstruction of Palestinian football by the Israel Defence Forces, and to call upon you to make good your organisation’s promises to facilitate the free conduct of football in Palestine.”

In the letter, RCIR outlines a number of incidents that have occurred, which include:

• October 10: A raid on Al-Khader Stadium, Bethlehem, during which 100 players, coaches and staff were detained for several hours.
• November 1: A raid on Silwan FC during which club manager Muhannad Shalhab and the Governor of Jerusalem were violently arrested, and ambulances prevented from attending to treat the wounded.
• November 19/27: The arrest of Islami Qalqilya FC’s media spokesman Mahmoud Qashmar and its administrative director Zaki Daoud.
• December 13: A blockade of the Joseph Blatter Football Academy, Al-Bireh, forcing cancellation of the planned inauguration of the academy’s youth refereeing school, during which 120 students and staff were detained for several hours; the simultaneous detention of a group of coaches who were travelling to an AFC course at the Academy
• December 13: A raid of the Palestine Olympic Committee headquarters, also in al-Bireh, during a meeting of the POC executive committee. Committee members and staff were violently detained while soldiers wrought havoc in the building.

During the same period the perennial Israeli obstruction of footballers’ travel has worsened.

• The November 15 friendly match between Palestine and Pakistan was delayed by a day due to the late arrival of entry visas for the Pakistan team.
• A number of Indonesian and Maldivian players were denied entry to Palestine for the AFC Women’s Olympic qualifiers of November 8-13.
• PFA deputy vice-president Salah Abu Al-Atta was denied an exit visa to collect an award at the AFC annual awards in Muscat on November 28.
• POC vice-president Dr Asad Majdlawi was denied a visa to attend the 23rd ANOC general assembly in Tokyo

The letter goes on to say: “In addition the development of new facilities continues to be frozen, as can be seen from the PFA’s two-year struggle to build a pair of artificial pitches in the face of endless bureaucratic hurdles.

“None of the above are new forms of repression in Palestine but, occurring together within a few weeks, they represent an intolerable escalation of Israel’s assault on the nation’s sport.

“Palestinian football has made giant strides, in spite of the obstacles imposed, and does not deserve such outrageous impediments to its further progress. 

“It is high time the international football community made it clear that it will not condone the egregious violation of Palestinian rights.”

RCIR called on Fifa to set up a new task force at the start of the month to address Israeli military interference and have followed up that request by seeking answers to the following questions: “What representations have you made to the government of Israel in response to the outrages listed above? What defence have you made of the right of Palestinians to pursue their cultural development freely, in line with international agreements and your own human rights policy?

“How have you made good Fifa council’s promise of October 27 2017 that ‘the Fifa administration will continue to facilitate the movement of players, officials and football equipment in, out of, and within Palestine?’ Which specific units have been tasked with pursuing this goal and what measures have they undertaken to that end? How has Fifa council monitored their progress?”