Palestinian FA President Jibril Rajoub refused to stand alongside Israeli FA Vice President Bassem Sheikh Suleiman during a tense moment at the Fifa Congress in Vancouver on Thursday.
Suleiman is an Arab-Israeli official who represents Israeli football in international forums such as FIFA and UEFA, where he has taken part in discussions involving Israeli and Palestinian sporting relations.
Palestinian football federation President Jibril Rajoub refused FIFA President Gianni Infantino's invitation to shake hands with and stand alongside Israeli football official Basim Sheikh Suliman during the FIFA Congress on Thursday.
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Both officials were invited to the stage by Fifa President Gianni Infantino, who attempted to bring them together.
Rajoub declined to move closer to Suliman despite Infantino placing a hand on his arm and gesturing for him to do so.
As he declined the handshake, Rajoub also shouted at the audience, with his deputy, Susan Shalabi, later telling Reuters that he said: “I cannot shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and genocide. We are suffering.”
Infantino sought to defuse the situation, telling the audience: “We will work together, President Rajoub, Vice President Suliman. Let’s work together to give hope to the children. These are complex matters.”
Per the report, Rajoub later said: “From my side, I still respect and follow the legal procedure, but I think it’s time to understand that Israel should be sanctioned.
"The double-standard policy should stop. ... I think Gianni has the right to try to bridge gaps and bring people together but I think maybe he does not understand or does not know the deep suffering of the Palestinian people.”
And, in a post on X, the Palestinian FA wrote: “We have the right to play football with complete freedom, just like all the peoples of the earth.
“In loyalty to the blood of the martyrs… and in victory for Palestine and sports.”
Despite a report in The Guardian that Rajoub and two other Palestinian Football Association officials were initially denied visas, Canada allowed them entry after the Palestinian Authority asked Fifa to intervene with Canadian authorities.
Rajoub is also president of the Palestine Olympic Committee and secretary-general of the Fatah Central Committee.
He previously served 17 years in Israeli prisons after being convicted of throwing a hand grenade at an IDF bus and later served as national security adviser to Yasser Arafat.
At a conference in 2012, he said that “Jews are Satans, and Zionists the sons of dogs,” and the next year, he was barred from attending a conference organised by Israel’s Meretz party due to his history of anti-Israel rhetoric.
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