Manama: The Palestinian ambassador to Bahrain has urged the local sports authorities and the national football team to go ahead with a match scheduled for May 28 in Palestine, assuring them that they would not deal with Israelis and that their passports would not be stamped by Israel.
"Media reports claiming that the Bahraini passports would have the Israeli stamps are not true," Ahmad Ramadan said.
"The Israelis will have nothing to do with the Bahraini team, particularly that the football match will be held under the auspices of FIFA, the international football federation, and Israel will not take the risk of a standoff with them," he said.
An intense debate over the merit of the football match in Palestine has gripped Bahrain, particularly after four players have published statements saying that the game was a form of normalization with the "Zionist entity" and "did not want to play any role in it."
An anti-Israel society, several columnists and MPs supported them and called upon the Bahraini authorities to dismiss the game or, as a second option, hold it either in "liberated Gaza" or in Manama.
However, the Palestinian envoy said that he was "shocked by the inaccurate premises" upon which several people developed their positions against the match.
"We were not pleased with the reports in the local media about the game. Even if we assume there were good intentions in the published statements, we must stress that they are not based on facts surrounding the game," the ambassador said.
"We wish that that people stop producing subjective and biased analyses based on speculations and not on facts."
For instance, the game will not be held in Occupied Jerusalem, but in Al Ram, an area between Jerusalem and Ramallah, the ambassador said.
Al Husseini stadium at Al Ram near Ramallah was inaugurated in October 2008 when Palestine hosted their first international match at home since becoming affiliated to FIFA in 1998.
Previously, they did not have a pitch up to international standards and had to play their "home" matches outside the country, either in Jordan or Qatar.
"The aim of football is not only to put the ball in the net, but to touch the world and build a better future," said FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter at the inauguration of the stadium where Palestine and Jordan fittingly played out a 1-1 draw.
According to the ambassador, Ram will soon after the match with Bahrain host an international conference in which several Arab delegations would take part.
"The participants will be allowed into Palestine without Israeli stamps. We have had several international meetings in Palestinian towns and the delegations had nothing to do with the Israeli border authorities," he said.
Ahmad Ramadhan said that the Palestinian leaders and people urged all Bahrainis, Arabs and Muslims to go to Palestine where they are most welcome.
"Their visit is not in any way a form of normalization with the Israelis. There are no Israeli stamps and visitors can witness the sufferings and woes of the Palestinians and, at the same time, allow the local population to feel that they are not alone and that they have brothers and sisters who stand by them and support them," the ambassador said.
Bahrain, like most Arab countries, has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
