FIFA President Gianni Infantino played an infantile game at the 76th FIFA congress when he encouraged the Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub and Israel’s FA Vice President Basim Sheikh Suliman to shake hands. Faed with Rajoub’s refusal, In Fantino then said, “We will work together, President Rajoub, Vice President Suliman. Let’s work together to give hope to the children. These are complex matters.”
Throughout the decades FIFA turned a blind eye to international law violations several times. One would recall the destruction of favelas in Brazil to build stadiums for the 2014 World Cup. In earlier history, FIFA’s tacit silence during Latin America’s right-wing dictatorships enabled both impunity and coverup of disappearances of thousands of detainees. One horrifying details regarding football and dictatorships was the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, where stadiums hosting the games were situated close to the dictatorship’s torture and extermination centres.
In Palestine’s regard, FIFA hasn’t fared any better. It maintains alleged neutrality in its refusal to suspend Israel even after its genocide in Gaza. Genocide is as complex as it is straightforward – a web of international complicity across diplomatic and economic sectors collaborating to aid Israel ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza. The complexity lies in untangling the complicity, in which FIFA plays a considerable propaganda part. The killing part of genocide, on the other hand, is very straightforward, as Israeli officials and soldiers have attested to.
Since the killing part of genocide is straightforward, even if Infantino decided to lump colonialism into mere ‘complex matters’, why did Rajoub dilute his gesture later in remarks to the press by stating that Infantino had good intentions? The rest of Rajoub’s comments depicted the hypocrisy of the attempted handshake – he would not shake hands with an official “defending Netanyahu and his government”. If the rest of the statement stands on its own merit of truth, why apply an apologetic introduction?
Several outlets are stating that Infantino attempted to capitalise on his announcement that he would be contesting the FIFA presidency. The manipulation went awry. Complex matters? Of egotism perhaps? To bring Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza to the stage, attempt to dilute it into a symbolic handshake and claim hope on behalf of innocent children in Gaza is another low to be recorded in the history of offering the ambiguity of hope to the colonised population.
In February this year, Infantino, along with UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin were accused at the International Criminal Court of aiding and abetting war crimes by allowing the inclusion of Israeli football clubs pertaining to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to the parties filing the complaint, the FIFA and UEFA presidents collaborated with Israeli and US authorities to maintain the clubs’ inclusion.
With this level of complicity, Rajoub should not have destroyed his message with benevolence towards Infantino. The colonised are not tasked with maintaining Infantino’s career. Palestinians have seen their resistance shattered to shards of survival. It is with immense resilience that they can build resistance through survival over and over again.
Football is not ‘the beautiful game’. It reeks of corruption, of collaboration with dictatorships, and now of collaboration with genocide. Complex matters? Diplomacy can provide a veneer that sustains Infantino’s puerile rhetoric, but Rajoub has Gaza’s testimony at his disposal.
Football is an accomplice to murder, and Rajoub was asked to shake hands on that hidden clause.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
