Red Card for Palestine Before World Cup Gets Underway

While the World Cup only kicks off June 11 at Mexico Cty’s Estadio Azteca when Selección de fútbol de México faces off against the South African squad nicknamed Bafana Bafana (The Boys in Zulu), red cards have already been drawn.

The foul? Palestinian Football Assoiation (PFA) president Jibril Rajoub, general secretary Firas Abu Hilal and vice-president Susan Shalabi Molano were initially denied entry to Canada to attend FIFA’s Congress on April 30 and the Asian Football Confederation confab two days earlier – both held at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Though ultimately Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) allowed the three sports bureaucrats to attend, Rajoub, 72, has made the Mondial into a political football. Since 2024, he has repeatedly raised the issue of Israeli football clubs allegedly playing illegal matches in what the PFA argues is occupied territory which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War.

In March, FIFA issued a report on the issue, ruling the sports organization would “take no action” over the PFA’s claims. The report noted that resolving “the final legal status of the West Bank remains an unresolved and highly complex matter under public international law”.

At the FIFA annual meeting in Vancouver, Rajoub – who also serves as secretary general of Fatah’s Central Committee – snubbed FIFA president Gianni Infantino who attempted to orchestrate a handshake between the heads of the Palestinian and Israeli delegations. Following individual addresses toward the end of the assembly, both Rajoub and the Israel Football Association’s FA’s vice-president Basim Sheikh Suliman were summoned to the stage by the FIFA president. In an awkward moment towards the end of the congress, Rajoub refused to stand alongside Sheikh Suliman. Instead, he pledged to take the Palestine-Israel squabble to the Court of Arbitration in Sport, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. No date has been set for the hearing.

Palestine’s three-member delegation wasn’t the only representation held up by the IRCC. Iranian soccer federation president Mehdi Taj said Canadian officials cleared him to enter the country for the FIFA Congress, but Iran’s delegation chose to turn back after being held for ​three hours and questioned at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Iranian media reported on May 1.

Rajoub, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Rami, has long been connected to Palestinian terrorism.

In September 1970, he was arrested for throwing a grenade at an IDF bus near Hebron. Tried and convicted of this attack and of membership in an armed group, he was sentenced to life in prison. Fifteen years later, he was one of 1,150 security prisoners Israel released in exchange for three hostages held by the PFLP-GC.

Re-arrested in 1987 for his activities during the First Intifada, Rajoub was deported to Lebanon in 1988. Relocating to Tunisia, he served as an advisor on the Intifada to Fatah deputy leader Khalil al-Wazir. After Wazir’s assassination by Israeli agents, he became a close lieutenant of Yasir Arafat, and was allegedly behind a 1992 plot to assassinate Ariel Sharon.

Rajoub, who also serves as secretary general of Fatah’s Central Committee, was allowed to return to the West Bank in 1994 following the signing of the Oslo Accords. He served as head of the PA’s Preventive Security Force until 2002. The following year, Arafat appointed him as his national security advisor.

The confab, the 76th since FIFA was founded in 1904, brought together more than 1,600 international delegates from 211 FIFA member associations.

Palestine became a member of the global soccer organization in 1998. This summer’s 48-team tournament – the most widely watched sporting event in the world – is taking place across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico from June 11 to July 19.