Neither Israel nor Palestine is on the world map of football, but their football has been making headlines, at least off the field. Next week, at the annual meeting of FIFA, the international body governing football, its 209 members are scheduled to vote on a proposal to suspend Israel from international play. Palestinian football officials put the proposal on FIFA's agenda, saying Israeli policies hurt Palestinian players and the sport's development and break FIFA's own rules. Restricting travel by players, internally and abroad, is just one item on a long list of Palestinian complaints against Israel. Israel blocks visiting teams, particularly from Arab nations, from competing with Palestinians on their home turf. Israel also puts obstacles, including taxes, on donated football equipment, and even allows its teams to display anti-Arab attitudes, a violation of FIFA's anti-discrimination policy. Palestinian football players have been shot and arrested. Perhaps the biggest problem is that five Israeli club teams come from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which is against FIFA rules. They play on territory which is Palestinian. By meeting separately with Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, FIFA supremo Sepp Blatter tried a bit of shuttle diplomacy, in his words a peace mission, but his ideas - setting up a VIP travel service for players between Gaza and the West Bank, providing special IDs to facilitate football players going through Israeli checkpoints, looking at tax exemptions, and forming a working group to regularly monitor Palestinian concerns – were not enough. Blatter has spoken out against suspending the Israeli FA, saying such a move would damage the organization as a whole and could set a dangerous precedent, citing concerns that other federations in conflict zones could follow suit. It is actually highly unlikely FIFA will give Israel the boot even though such a suspension would not be unprecedented. Apartheid-era South Africa was suspended by FIFA, as well as much of the rest of the international sports community, for its system of racism. And in truth it might be petty, maybe even absurd to presume that football, or any other sport, would somehow matter in a life under occupation, a life in which its people must deal with much more urgent matters. But the fact remains Israel continues to impose a de facto ban on Palestinian sports, and the freedom enjoyed by Israeli athletes and teams comes at the expense of Palestinians who are deprived of the right to participate in sports from local to international level. More than any other people, Palestinians must have the right to freely participate in all sporting activities to offset the precious few rights they enjoy elsewhere in their lives. Even though the guns have fallen silent following last year's Israeli assault on Gaza, the enclave and in fact all of Palestinian territory is still occupied. This is a bare reality which Palestinians themselves are never allowed to forget. The occupation plays not just a part of their life; it is their life, affecting them in every way, big and small, sports included. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians are unable to participate in the national sporting institutions of their country because Israel has stifled the functioning of sports associations and institutions, and has bombed leisure facilities used by Palestinian youths. Palestinian children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli bullets or bombs, or both, while playing football. At the annual FIFA Congress on May 29, FIFA might not muster the political will needed to oust Israel. But if the Palestinians continue to seek Israel's suspension, the issue will at least remain in public view and debate, to the Palestinians' advantage.
