Amnesty International on Friday said that FIFA’s inaction on clubs based in illegal Israeli settlements flouts international law.
“By refusing to take action against clubs based in Israeli settlements, FIFA has failed to enforce its own rules and is blatantly flouting international law,” Steve Cockburn, head of Economic and Social Justice at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
Cockburn said that FIFA had “a clear opportunity” to stand up for Palestinians’ rights and international law, “with this decision it has shamefully chosen to abandon both.”
The statement came after FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee on Thursday found the Israel Football Association (IFA) guilty of multiple “grave and systemic” discrimination violations but stopped short of imposing major sanctions.
The committee said the IFA failed to act against racism, tolerated politicized and militaristic messaging, and allowed the exclusion of Palestinians from football infrastructure in settlements in the occupied West Bank. It described the conduct as “institutional complicity” in a system of segregation.
Despite saying the violations warranted “severe and exemplary sanctions,” the committee declined to pursue a request by the Palestinian Football Association to bar Israeli clubs based in occupied territory from international competition, saying the matter falls outside its jurisdiction.
“The International Court of Justice has unambiguously declared that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful, that settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are illegal and that Israel’s presence in the OPT must rapidly end,” the statement added.
It recalled that FIFA’s own statutes are “clear that its members cannot play games in the territory of another association without permission.”
“By continuing to condone the presence of clubs based in illegal settlements in the OPT in Israel’s league, the Israeli Football Association is indirectly legitimizing Israel’s unlawful occupation and its severe human rights violations against Palestinians, including the crime against humanity of apartheid,” the statement noted.
It further called on FIFA to act as it has an “unequivocal responsibility” to do so.
“It must also ensure full transparency and publish the legal advice FIFA received on this matter and provide the full rationale for its unjust decision,” the statement added.
