Can FIFA’s Blatter prevent Israel’s suspension from international soccer?

The Palestinian resolution which could gain significant support among member associations is rooted in years of failed FIFA efforts to work out a mechanism between the Palestinian and Israeli soccer associations to address complaints that Israel’s occupation regime impedes the development of the Palestinian game, as well as accusations of racism in Israeli soccer.

Palestinian soccer officials argue that previous FIFA-mediated agreements with the Israel Football Association (IFA) that involved regular consultations and a hotline to resolve problems facing Palestinian footballers at Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank have failed because the IFA has no influence on Israeli security policies.

Ironically, perhaps, Israeli diplomats lobbying against the Palestinian resolution and the IFA itself in a meeting with Blatter earlier this month have echoed that argument, saying the Israeli soccer body should not be held accountable for restrictions on Palestinian football that are not under its control.

The argument that the IFA should not be punished for the occupation is unlikely to impress PFA President Jibril Rajoub, a former West Bank security chief who spent years in Israeli prison and who sees sports as a vehicle to help end the occupation and achieve Palestinian statehood.

The IFA, of course, is unable to influence security policy, but that may not sway the argument for suspension of the national soccer association of the occupying power whose policies impede Palestinian soccer.

These include assertions of racism in Israeli soccer despite the fact that Palestinian citizens are among Israel’s top players, and the IFA’s inclusion of clubs from the Israeli settlements deemed illegal under international law by the U.N.