ZURICH, SWITZERLAND — (CNN) FIFA President Sepp Blatter is trying to broker a deal between the Palestinian Football Association and the Israel Football Association ahead of this week’s FIFA World Congress, at which the Palestinians have called for a vote to suspend Israel.
Blatter met with both associations during a visit to the region, as well as Israeli and Palestinian political leaders, to try to find a way to ease the tension. FIFA is the international soccer governing body.
“Football has the power to connect people,” said Blatter at a press conference in Jerusalem last week. “Football has the power to construct bridges. I am coming here and going to your neighbors … to try construct bridges and to try and make sure that football is not dividing, but football is uniting.”
Instead of a vote, Blatter suggests a game between the two national teams, offering Zurich, Switzerland, as a possible location.
The Palestinian group objects to Israeli teams playing in the West Bank. They also say Israel restricts movements of Palestinian footballers between the West Bank and Gaza, as well as for international matches.
Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub said, “Our call to suspend the Israeli Football Association from FIFA comes after nearly three years of a failed mechanism to secure meaningful and substantial commitments from the Israeli side, where oppression and discrimination against Palestinian sports in general, and football in particular, have remained unchanged.”
Israel Football Association President Ofer Eini says the restrictions on movement are a question of security. Eini says the association has no influence over such matters. He says the Palestinians are mixing sports and politics.
Association CEO Rotem Kemer said 95% of travel requests for footballers have been approved in 2015.
“We will continue helping the Palestinian association,” said Eini. “We will extend a hand to them. If football is to be the unifying thing, I embrace them because I want football to flourish there just like I want it to flourish here.”
Blatter said he is working to remove the suspension vote from the agenda. The vote would require 75% of FIFA’s 209 member associations to succeed. Blatter says Israel has not violated any FIFA rules, and that other mechanisms exist to address issues between FIFA members, such as an ethics committee and a disciplinary committee, but he says FIFA rules allow the Palestinians to call for a vote.
The Palestinian bid to have Israel suspended from FIFA is part of much broader international pressure coming to bear on Israel to recognize a Palestinian state. The Vatican’s recent recognition of Palestinian statehood is the latest in a series of such successes for the Palestinian Authority.
The International Criminal Court has recognized Palestinian membership, and the United Nations recognized the Palestinians as a non-member observer state. A bid for full recognition failed to get the necessary Security Council votes last December.
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