A coalition of human rights attorneys and sports advocates is urging the international soccer governing body, FIFA, to vote against a campaign, being led by a Palestinian with several convictions of terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, to ban Israel from participating in world soccer.

The decision is slated to be announced tomorrow after months of postponement. If the governing body rules in favor of the request, Israel’s national team would be pulled from participating in the upcoming Nations League tournament — a biennial international competition organized by the European division of FIFA. Israel’s first match against Belgium is scheduled for September 6. 

The Palestinian Football Association is seeking to exclude Israel from international soccer over allegations of violating international law and FIFA’s human rights policies. Its president, Jibril Rajoub, argued that “FIFA cannot afford to remain indifferent to these violations or to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, just as it did not remain indifferent to numerous precedents.” The request was filed back in March but FIFA has repeatedly delayed issuing a ruling. 

However, the coalition — which includes the International Legal Forum, the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Project Max, and several sports advocacy groups — rebukes the charge as “hateful and politicized” and “without any legal basis or merit.” 

“The fact of the matter is, there is no legal basis upon which to kickout, expel, or suspend Israel from FIFA. The Israel Football Association (IFA) is not in breach of any FIFA rules, regulations or statutes, they are not impeding or discriminating against Palestinian football players from participating in the sport and there are no security considerations to other teams presented by Israel’s ongoing participation in FIFA,” the group wrote in a letter to the president of FIFA. 

The coalition also points to the troubling past of the Palestinian Football Association’s president, Mr. Rajoub, who is a convicted terrorist and boasts “a bottomless CV and record of spewing relentless antisemitism, incitement and racial hatred.” 

His rap sheet of antisemitic offenses — which the coalition lists out in a “CV of Incitement and Terror” — includes referring to Jews as “Satans” and “the sons of dogs,” suggesting that if Palestinians had a nuclear weapon, “we” would use it on Israel “this very morning,” publicly supporting the October 7 massacre, and praising Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, who he has called a “pragmatic, patriotic, and realistic man.” The list continues. 

Mr. Rajoub’s request is “merely the latest attempt” to suspend or expel Israel from international football, the coalition notes. After failing on previous occasions in 2015 and 2017, “he is now attempting to exploit and capitalize on the current surge of antisemitic and anti-Zionist fervor to try again.” 

All the while, the unifying role of soccer is needed in Israel now more than ever, the group argues, noting that roughly a third of all soccer clubs and players in Israel are from the Arab-Israeli community, and the national team boasts many Arab players. Expelling the team from competition would “therefore also directly impact one of the most exemplary platforms for Arab-Israeli coexistence,” the group writes. 

It would also, the coalition stresses, “legitimize the politicization of the sport” which would set a wide-reaching precedent for other countries embroiled in political conflict. “Similar politicized cases could then also be made against some nations in Asia, South America and the Middle East.” 

FIFA has long advocated for the separation of sport and politics. Just two years ago, when participants of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar spoke out against the host country’s troubled record on human rights and same-sex relationships, FIFA President Gianni Infantino urged players to “not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists.”

And yet, the governing body has also chosen to ban countries from international competition in the past, including Russia and South Africa. The coalition, however, urged the association to stick to its core goals of inclusion and unity. 

“In order to indeed keep football as a force for good and politics out of sport, FIFA must once and for all give a ‘red card’ to this relentless Palestinian campaign of hate against Israel, and dismiss this politicized and mendacious attempt to exclude the Jewish state from ‘the beautiful game.’” 

FIFA has said that its decision will be guided by the findings of independent legal counsel which it sought out in May.