FIFA must EXPEL apartheid Israel at 2015 Congress – a letter to delegates
10 years ago faa 2
Breaking news: Is Blatter bending the FIFA to prevent sanctions against Israel less than a year after Israel massacred 547 Innocent children sleeping in their beds, whilst it EXPELLED Zimbabwe from FIFA because it owed $60,000 to its former coach? One rule for……….
On 16 July 1976 millions of the black majority and ethnic groups of people in South Africa celebrated and applauded delegates at the FIFA congress in Montreal, Canada, for taking the decisive steps that would lead to the collapse of the apartheid system of oppression in South Africa.
FIFA Delegates voted 9 to 1 to expel South Africa from FIFA after 15 years of prevarications and suspensions – intended to extend the life of apartheid for every minute possible. The chief proponent of suspension was the FIFA President and pro-apartheid Englishman Sir Stanley Rous. Each delay / suspension enabled the apartheid regime to exploit for profit, brutalise and even kill thousands of the most oppressed people on earth, including the massacre of nearly 200 protesting children.
However Nelson Mandela and Arch Bishop Tutu and Reverend Allan Boesak have told the world many times that the crimes of Israeli Apartheid are far worse than South African apartheid ever was, and are getting worse by the day.
On 16 July 2014 exactly 38 Years to the very day after FIFA expelled apartheid South Africa the world of football gasped in shock as Apartheid Israeli war bombs killed four completely innocent children playing football on the beach in Gaza. Picture headline flashed around every corner of the world including the football world. Shockingly UEFA the governing body of European football remained silent.
A Palestinian man carries the body of a boy, whom medics said was killed by a bomb fired by an Israeli war plane, on a beach in Gaza City July 16, 2014. Photo by Reuters
During the course of 51 days apartheid Israel launched the most ferocious attack on the civilian population of GAZA and massacred 538 completely innocent children, whilst they slept in their beds, along with 1500 mostly civilian adults. They destroyed 80,000 homes making over 150,000 Palestinian civilians homeless. Apartheid South Africa never even came close to this level of depravity.
Football, footballers and civilians were not systematically attacked in apartheid South Africa with the brutality that Apartheid Israel has exerted against football players, officials supporters, as well as the civilian population.
No doubt you are wondering how the apartheid state of Israel which was already expelled from the Confederation of Asian Football In 1974 for its apartheid racism – the worst manifestation of racism, could be admitted to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) with such an appalling record on racism, whether or not UEFA accepts that Israel is an apartheid state.
UEFA comprises of 53 National Football Associations apart from Israel, but not one of them is on record of even expressing concern at the massacre of 547 innocent sleeping children in July 2014 in Gaza.
The failure of UEFA to take any action whatever regarding the massacre in Gaza which Included football players and Palestine’s most famous player Ahed Zaqout and commentator, encouraged the Israeli Football Association to intensify the Israeli apartheid programme. It decided to illegally segregate children’s football to separate Jewish from non-Jewish teams.
Only 2 months before this 2015 FIFA Congress on 29 March 2015 the only response from FIFA to the massacre in Gaza in July 2014 from the FIFA Task Force Mechanism set up to examine Palestinian complaints of arrests of footballers , imprisonment without trial, torture, shooting, maiming and killing as expected achieved nothing, as it “came to a dead end” .
FIFA and its president Sepp Blatter continue to make promises about tackling racism and veiled threats are made but FIFA refuse to take action against Apartheid – the worst manifestation of racism.
Only one week ago on 19 May 2015 the Israel Football Association halved Beitar Jerusalem’s punishment for racist misconduct, from the deduction of two points to the deduction of a single point which at that time made a difference between 3rd and 4th place in the League
Not only did UEFA fail to follow the example of the Asian Football Confederation in 1974 and expel apartheid Israel but according to Israeli press the UEFA President Michel Platini urged former Israel Football Association chief Avi Luzon, a member of the UEFA executive committee, to enlist Western diplomatic help to avert possible FIFA sanctions against apartheid Israel’s Football Association when The Palestine Football Association president Jabril Rajoub submitted his resolution to FIFA, which reluctantly calls for the Suspension of Apartheid Israel from FIFA, explaining that “suspension is already a concession because they deserve exclusion”
Just as Apartheid South Africa mounted a vigorous world-wide diplomatic campaign to prevent EXPULSION from FIFA so too has apartheid Israel started its campaign to defeat the Palestinian plan as advised by UEFA president Platini, and has already targeted an initial list of 100 national football associations.
The FIFA decision to expel apartheid South Africa inspired millions throughout the world to call on their own governments to take action against apartheid and a year later the UN convened its first World Conference for Action against Apartheid, held in Lagos in August 1977
In November 1977 The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 418 declared arms trade with South Africa a “threat to peace” under Article 39 and made the arms embargo mandatory.
In 1978, a mere 2 years after the EXPULSION of Apartheid South Africa from FIFA in 1976 The Free Nelson Mandela movement erupted onto the world. Schools, Hospitals and streets were names after Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid prisoners and fallen heroes of the struggle.
By EXPELLING apartheid South Africa from world Football FIFA had kick started a world-wide movement that lead to the end of the apartheid structures and government in South Africa. The FIFA delegates had initiated a campaign that was now knocking at the doors of governments all over the world to impose sanctions against apartheid South Africa.
In 1985 only 9 years after expulsion from FIFA, the notorious supporter of apartheid racism Margaret Thatcher was fighting a losing battle when she was opposing a motion calling for sanctions against SA at a meeting in the Bahamas of what remained of the British Empire to dismantle apartheid.
In 1985 Nelson Mandela started discussing terms of surrender (Long Walk to Freedom;Chapter 89) with his racist oppressors. It was football, by expelling apartheid from FIFA that kick-started the beginning of the end of Apartheid in South Africa in all its manifestations. Football must now kick start the beginning of the end of Israeli Apartheid and free not just Palestinian football but the whole nation of Palestinian people.
But Israel Apartheid racism is not confined to Palestinians whether Muslim or Christian, Jewish people too who are not white are discriminated against, and Ethiopia Jews have also been targeted for rough apartheid treatment.
Despite all Palestine won the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup final, and in so doing, qualifying for the Asia Cup 2015 in Australia, Asia’s biggest football tournament.
Jewish people all over the world including freedom fighters in South Africa not only condemn the Zionist Ethnic apartheid racism and ethnic cleansing, but campaign actively and whole heartedly against it. From the very founding of the racist state intellectuals such as Albert Einstein characterised the newly created Israeli state as fascist.
Former Zionists who supported the founding of the Jewish state following the horrors leading up to and during WW2 and the Holocaust and who served in the Israeli army, now campaign vigorously against Zionism, its apartheid state and ethnic cleansing.
One such former Zionist is Professor Ilan Pappe, and he would like you to read his best seller book “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” or watch videos of his speeches to university students and football supporters now available with a click of a button on the internet, and then consider that your vote and the votes of other right thinking people at FIFA Congress could end Israeli apartheid, just as FIFA delegates heralded the end of apartheid South Africa in Montreal on 16 July 1976.
Miko Peled was a special operations soldier in the Israeli Army and dedicated to Zionism, but became the foremost campaigner in the world against the barbarism that is Zionism. He would ask that you read his best-selling book “The General’s Son”, and or watch his videos on YouTube, and he will leave you in no doubt that apartheid Israel must be peacefully expelled from FIFA.
Both of the aforementioned former Zionists, and millions of people across the world believe that Zionism is an apartheid racist ideology, and many Jews claim it is anti-Sematic and must be opposed and dismantled as apartheid South Africa was, and that all of the former land of Palestine become a single democratic state, similar to South Africa where the new constitution declares that all people be treated equally. Is this call by former Zionists not a reasonable one? Jews United Against Zionism claims “Zionism and its State have no share and no part in the true ISRAEL”
The Jewish group True Torah Jews claim that “Zionists are not the saviors [sic] of the Jewish People and guarantors of their safety, but rather the instigators and original cause of Jewish suffering in the Holy Land and worldwide”
Jews United Against Zionism as well individuals such Nazi concentration camp survivor Hajo Meyer compares Zionism with Nazism, because of attacks against an innocent civilians, who Zionism condemns as guilty of belonging to a different race or religion, & as such an attack on all of humanity.
Football proved to be the catalyst that heralded the end of apartheid in South Africa, but FIFA delegates were not only responding to the discrimination against football and the divisions imposed on it, but against the whole apartheid apparatus, that divided the people.
Although Football was divided along racial lines in SA there was not a systematic and targeted attack on Football, its players including children, officials, commentators, fans and even the national stadium, as have been and continues to be carried out daily against the Palestinian people.
Our only weapon football, is a peaceful one, a beautiful one, and comes completely free, and nobody anywhere will be injured whilst EXPELLING apartheid Israel from FIFA. We believe that the proponents of the beautiful game like yourself will summon the spirit of Montreal ’76 and peacefully expel apartheid Israel from FIFA.
The purpose of this short letter is to alert you to the possibility that the Palestinian Football Association may submit a resolution to the FIFA congress calling for the expulsion of the Israeli Football Association from FIFA, and we ask that you support that resolution when it is tabled.
We will be happy to meet with you or your representatives to brief you further, and can be contacted at
FootballAgainstApartheid@gmail.com @FAApartheid Mobile: 0044 7969 542 629 Website; https://footballagainstapartheid.wordpress.com FAA 21 May 2015