NEWS: The Sunday Column

Paul Schmidt-Troschke on the handshake which never was, as FIFA President Gianni infantino tried to force the Palestinian and Israeli Federation heads to shake hands live on stage at the Annual FIFA Conference in Vancouver.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Welcome, etc.

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Hello and welcome to this week's World Cup, etc. Sunday column with me, Paul Schmatroschke. The moment was supposed to be simple. Two officials, one handshake, to stage a moment of unity under the bright lights of global football. Instead, at the latest FIFA Congress held in Vancouver, Canada, the moment revealed the exact opposite, the truth. At the center of it stood Jibril Rajub, head of the Palestinian Football Association, who refused to shake hands with his Israeli counterpart, Basim Sheikh Suleiman. When FIFA President Jan Infantino tried to arrange the gesture, Rajub simply would not do it. He wouldn't stand beside him, he wouldn't play along. But honestly, there is not a single reason why he should. This wasn't some small or childish stubbornness, as Rajub explained his reason for doing so clearly. He refused to help whitewash Israeli actions with empty gestures. And by using this word, he hit FIFA where it hurts, since the organization is not only accused of whitewashing, or to use the latest term sportswashing, the image of dictatorships or religious monarchies around the world, but its own public perception as well. While Infantino was trying to create a photo opportunity, the Palestinian side was raising real complaints, once FIFA has been avoiding for years. One of the biggest issues is Israeli football clubs based in settlements in the West Bank, land that much of the world sees as occupied based on international law. Palestinians argue these clubs break FIFA's own rules. Yet after more than ten years of discussions, FIFA has not taken serious action yet. After a decade of review under the guise of neutrality, this absence of FIFA sanctions regarding the Israeli Football Association amounts to disparaging nullis to say the least. The bigger picture makes the situation even harder to ignore. Palestinian football is not just dealing with paperwork problems, but with relentless destruction. Stadiums in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Leagues have stopped and players of all ages, but especially children, have been killed by the hundreds, if not the thousands, while the total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza amounts to more than 70,000 since October 7th, 2023. And even though a United Nations Commission has stated that Israel is committing genocide, FIFA's response has mostly been slow processes, legal talk, and general calls for unity. Unity sounds nice, but it means very little when one side is asking for the most basic recognition of its rights and the rule of international law, and the other faces no consequences for the worst of all crimes. There is also a clear double standard that FIFA does not seem willing to face. Many people and groups have called for Israel to be suspended from international football, especially because of the high number of civilian deaths in Gaza. These calls often compare the situation to Russia, which FIFA quickly suspended after its invasion of Ukraine. But when it comes to Israel, FIFA says it wants to stay quote unquote non-political. But doing nothing is also a political choice, not alleging that FIFA follows consistent argumentation. Even inside FIFA's own system, the contradictions are obvious. The organization has admitted that there are concerns about discrimination in Israeli football, but it has not acted against clubs and settlements. So the rule exists. The problem is known, but nothing changes. And that's exactly why the refused handshake mattered. Infantino seemed to believe that a simple public gesture could smooth over a decades-old conflict riddled with unthinkable trauma on both sides. But Rajub's refusal broke that idea in front of everyone. It showed how unrealistic it is to expect sportsmanship when one side is fighting for its existence in a system which is set up to work against it. And not to let Infantino off the hook here, how brazen, ignorant, and megalomaniac a person must be to believe that he could force Rajoub to shake hands with a man representing a country which is actively, in this very moment, not only invading the next country, Lebanon, but every week killing more civilians in Gaza. FIFA likes to present itself as a global organization that brings people together and stands above politics. But moments like this show a different picture. An organization that can act quickly when it wants and delay forever when it doesn't. So that's it from us for today.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

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Also check out our World Sports etc. And with that, thank you so much for listening and goodbye.