Football’s world body FIFA today ordered an urgent legal evaluation of a proposal by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to suspend Israel over the war on Gaza, promising to address it at an extraordinary meeting of its council in July, Reuters reports.

The Palestinian proposal accuses the Israel Football Association (IFA) of complicity in violations of international law by the Israeli government, discrimination against Arab players, and inclusion in its league of clubs located in occupied Palestinian territories. The IFA rejected that. Israel’s right-wing government does not acknowledge that settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law and seeks to annex them.
The request for sanctions against the IFA comes two years after FIFA’s decision to suspend Russia from international competitions over its invasion of Ukraine.
“FIFA cannot afford to remain indifferent to these violations or to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, just as it did not remain indifferent to numerous precedents,” PFA President Jibril Rajoub said.
srael has killed more than 35,200 Palestinians since 7 October and injured 77,000 more in the Gaza Strip.
Rajoub said among those killed are 193 Palestinian players, while football infrastructure has been destroyed, its leagues suspended and its national team required to play World Cup qualifiers abroad.