Why it matters what athletes say

The Palestinian Football Association really does influence what young people think … and do.

Moshe Phillips | Sept 17, 2024

Palestinian youth rally in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah in the West Bank, in support of a move to have Israel suspended from FIFA, the International Federation of Association Football, May 29, 2015. Photo by STR/Flash90.

The members of the Palestinian Authority’s soccer team, currently training in Malaysia, recently posed for a team photo. It is a classic case of a picture being worth a thousand words—if not more.

Normal athletes all over the world pose for team photos in their uniforms, as keepsakes for themselves as well as for their fans. But the society that the P.A. has shaped is anything but normal.

And so the P.A.’s Palestinian Football Association recently posted on its Facebook page a photo of the soccer team in which the players are wearing scarves that display a map of all of Israel labeled “Palestine” and covered in the colors of the Palestinian flag.

To make absolutely certain that nobody misunderstands what they mean by calling all of Israel “Palestine,” there were words knitted into the scarves, in English: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

There is only one state in between the river (the Jordan) and the sea (the Mediterranean), and that is Israel. So “Palestine will be free” obviously means that Israel should be destroyed and replaced by “Palestine.”

Fida’i is the Arabic word for “self-sacrificing fighters.” (Thank you to Palestinian Media Watch for the translation.) The Palestinian Arab terrorists in Gaza and Jordan who murdered hundreds of Israelis in thousands of attacks in the 1950s and early 1960s were known as the fedayeen.

Why does this matter? Why should we care what a bunch of unknown soccer players say or think?

It matters very much, for four reasons.

• First, the P.A.’s soccer team is a member of the FIFA, the International Federation of Association Football. FIFA is supposed to promote sports, not politics. Yet its leaders refuse to lift a finger against the pro-terrorism activities of the P.A.’s athletes. It’s yet another example of how international cultural standards often are cast aside out of support for—or fear of—the Palestinian Arabs.

• Second, the soccer players’ hate-Israel display is another vivid reminder that hatred of Jews and Israel permeates every corner of Palestinian Arab society, even something as (ostensibly) non-political as soccer. Whether it’s the schools, security forces, labor unions or athletic teams, no corner of Palestinian life is not drenched in hate and violence.

The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) is not headed by some non-political former athlete, the way American college and high school football teams are headed by ex-professional athletes whose political views are irrelevant. In the P.A., political (pro-terrorist) views are all that matter. Thus the chairman of the PFA is a veteran terrorist, Jibril Rajoub.

Rajoub began his career as a terrorist in 1968 when he was just 15 years old. He served time in prison for throwing a hand grenade at a civilian Israeli bus in 1970. He was set free in a prisoner exchange in 1985. That was a big mistake. He quickly resumed his terrorist activities and was re-arrested. Deported to Lebanon, Rajoub made his way to Tunis to join up with PLO leader Yasser Arafat after Arafat was allowed to escape from Beirut at the end of the Lebanon War in 1983.

Not surprisingly, Rajoub has publicly praised the Oct. 7 massacres as “epic,” as “acts of heroism” and as “a defense war.” In addition to his work with soccer players, Rajoub is head of the P.A.’s Council for Youth and Sports, which means that he organizes the extremist summer camps where young Palestinian Arabs are trained to be terrorists and Jew-haters.

• The third reason that the photo of the soccer team is significant is because it’s a reminder that it’s just the tip of the iceberg. In every sport played in P.A. territory, there are teams and tournaments named after mass murderers. Whether it’s boxing or tennis or chess, the P.A., uses every opportunity to glorify those who have killed Jews.

• The fourth and final reason why it matters that those soccer players called for the destruction of Israel is that young people in the P.A.-governed territories, like young people everywhere, idolize athletes. They wear the jerseys of their favorite team. They buy sneakers that bear their favorite player’s name. And of course, in this age of social media, they pay close attention when their sports heroes speak out, on Facebook, regarding public-policy issues.

A soccer team is actually one of the most dangerous propaganda weapons that the P.A. has at its disposal. What athletes say really does influence what young people think and what they do. It’s a tragedy that instead of using its athletes to promote peace and coexistence (as the Oslo Accords require), the P.A. continues to use them to promote the goal of destroying Israel and murdering millions of Israeli Jews.

Moshe Phillips is national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel, a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education group.