Occupied Jerusalem: In what might be the biggest victory yet for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, Argentina’s national football team announced Tuesday that it was canceling a friendly match against Israel’s national team after facing political pressure.
Protesters outside the team’s Barcelona practice facility have displayed football jerseys dabbed with red paint resembling blood stains, and players and their families, particularly star player Lionel Messi, have reportedly received death threats. These were also among the reasons cited by Israeli regime leaders and Argentine representatives as to why the team decided not to go ahead with the match, which was scheduled for Saturday in occupied Jerusalem.
For the BDS movement, which aims to pressure Israel into complying with international law vis-a-vis its policies towards the Palestinians, however, the cancellation of the highly anticipated match is perhaps its biggest coup to date.
The game, just a week before the opening of the 2018 World Cup soccer tournament in Russia, was politically charged almost from the start.
Initially it had been slated to take place in the northern city of Haifa, but Israel’s minister of culture and sports, Miri Regev, decided to switch the venue to occupied Jerusalem. She said that, as Israel’s “capital”, the city was the appropriate venue for such a prestigious game. About 30,000 tickets were sold for the match.
On Sunday, Regev told Israel’s Army Radio that Messi’s visit to Israel was an incredible public relations coup for country and that he would “kiss the Western Wall” and “shake hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
But Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, said he had sent a letter to the Argentine Football Association urging it to cancel the match.
The letter was also “intended for Messi,” he said, “who is a symbol of love and peace, and who is a UNICEF ambassador for spreading love and tolerance. We demand that he not serve as a means to beautify the fascist occupation’s image and its racist policy.”
“Starting from today, we will begin a campaign against the Argentine [Football] Association, and we will personally target Messi, who has tens of millions of fans in Arab states, Islamic states, in Asia, in Africa, and in states that are friends of the Palestinian people,” he said.
He called on “everyone to burn their Messi shirts and pictures and renounce him.”
Waking up to the news Wednesday that Argentina had canceled the match, Israeli leaders denounced Rajoub, saying it was his incitement against Messi and the Argentines that caused them to withdraw. They called Rajoub’s messages “terror threats.”
In an attempt to get the match back on track, Netanyahu called Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Tuesday night. But the South American leader said he did not have the ability to influence the national team’s decision, at least if the match took place in occupied Jerusalem.
Tensions have been high over the past few months, following a decision by President Trump to recognise occupied Jerusalem as the Israeli regime’s capital and move the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv. The move has been fiercely protested by Palestinians and seen as illegal by most of the world.
In addition, Israel has faced sharp international criticism for its lethal response to ongoing protests along its border with the Gaza Strip. Israel has imposed a land and sea blockade on the territory since 2006. Egypt also has kept its crossing into Gaza closed for much of the past 10 years.
A growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza has pushed its residents to start protesting. In late March, thousands began weekly protests demanding both a right to return to land that is now inside Israel and a solution to the crisis facing more than 2 million residents. On May 14, the day the US Embassy was officially inaugurated in occupied Jerusalem, tensions were further inflamed, and Israeli occupation forces massacred more than 60 Palestinian protesters and wounded thousands.
The images of Palestinians killed and injured juxtaposed with Trump’s daughter Ivanka at the central event opening the new embassy drew strong condemnation, and international calls to hold Israel accountable have increased. There is often pressure on celebrities and high-profile individuals not to perform in or visit Israel.
In recent years, several artists have canceled tour dates in Israel, either for political reasons or because of ongoing violence. Last December, New Zealand singer Lorde canceled her scheduled concert dates in Israel, and in 2010, the Pixies decided not to perform after the Israeli occupation regime raided a Turkish ship bringing aid for the Gaza Strip, an operation that killed nine people.
Elvis Costello also canceled two shows in Israel in 2010, saying that “sometimes silence in music is better than adding to the static.” In 2014, when Israel was waging a 50-day war on Gaza, several artists - including Lana Del Rey, Neil Young and the Backstreet Boys - postponed or canceled shows.
Five times Israel has been shunned in sport
The Argentina incident is just the latest in a long line
1974: Asian Football Confederation expelled Israel after a proposal by Kuwait went to a vote. In 1994, Israel received full Uefa membership to play in Europe, 20 years after it left Asia.
1988: India boycott a Davis Cup tennis match against Israel in Tel Aviv to protest Israel’s repression of Palestinian protests in the occupied territories.
2008: In August 2008, Syrian swimmer Bayan Jumah withdrew from a 50 metre freestyle race in which she would have faced Olympian Anya Gostomelsky, refusing to swim alongside an Israeli.
2009: Tennis star Shahar Peer, ranked 48th in the world at the time, was denied a visa to participate in the Dubai Tennis Championships. She had been drawn to play 15th-seeded Anna Chakvetadze in the first round of the joint ATP and WTA event.
2017: When Israeli Tal Flicker won gold at the Adu Dhabi Grand Slam in the UAE, officials refused to fly the Israeli flag and play the Israeli national anthem, instead playing the official music of the International Judo Federation and flying the IJF logo.
By Matthew Smith/Deputy Sport Editor
