Elham Asaad Buaras
Fifa has been accused of displaying “jaw-dropping hypocrisy” in its decision to “shield” Israel after it stripped Indonesia of hosting the Under-20 World Cup, less than two months before it was due to be played after the Indonesian football federation (PSSI) said it had cancelled the draw because the governor of Bali refused to host Israel’s team.
“Fifa has decided, due to the current circumstances, to remove Indonesia as the host of the U-20 World Cup 2023,” announced the world football governing body in a statement released on March 29.
Football’s global body added that the decision had been taken after a meeting between its president, Gianni Infantino, and PSSI chair, Erick Thohir.
Fifa announcementprovoked a candlelight vigil on April 4 at Gedung Joang 45 in Jakarta, with football fans rallying to in solidarity with their football team.
President Joko Widodo, said his country had agreed to host before knowing of Israel’s participation. Earlier last month, protesters marched in Jakarta, waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags and demanding Israel not be allowed to participate.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and supports the Palestinian cause.
The PSSI said losing hosting rights has harmed the Indonesian football team’s chances of participating in other Fifa tournaments, while the economic losses would amount to “trillions of rupiah”.
“A new meeting between the Fifa President and the PSSI President for further discussions will be scheduled shortly.”
This is not the first time Indonesia has objected to Israel’s participation in a sporting event; in 1958, Indonesia, along with Türkiye and Sudan, dropped out of the World Cup qualifiers to avoid playing Israel, allowing Israel to win the Africa and Asia group qualifiers without playing a single game. Israel withdrew from the Asian Games in 1962 after the host country, Indonesia, refused visas to Israeli athletes.
Double standards
Hasto Kristiyanto, Secretary General of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), accused Fifa of applying a double standard by allowing Israel, which he accused of committing human rights violations against Palestinians, to play in the youth tournament while barring Russia from international competitions over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
“This is a double standard from Fifa and we need to criticise this. We should not turn a blind eye to any humanitarian problems,” Hasto said.
He accused Fifa of bowing to pressure from Israel. “It punishes Russia but refuses to punish Israel, and we’re going to be silent about this? We should stand up to this.”
The senior PDI-P politician also called for the support of Bali Governor Wayan Koster, who issued a statement opposing the Israeli team’s presence on the resort island.
“This is why we need to support Koster, what he does is akin to what Poland and Western Europe did in rejecting the war [in Ukraine],” he explained.
Earlier last month, Koster wrote to the Youth and Sports Ministry, asking it to “adopt a policy forbidding the Israeli team from competing in Bali” over the conflict with Palestine. Koster’s stance prompted Fifa to postpone the U-20 Bali group stage draw.
The Palestinian BDS National Committee, the largest Palestinian civil society coalition, also condemned Fifa’s decision to remove Indonesia’s hosting rights, calling it “an act of jaw-dropping hypocrisy and colonial arrogance.”
The Committee said Fifa was displaying “off-the-charts hypocrisy” in “shielding Israel from accountability for its crimes against Palestinians,” while “immediately sanctioning Russia just days into its illegal aggression against Ukraine and has maintained those sanctions.”
“Israel regularly attacks Palestinian players, killing, mutilating, torturing, and imprisoning them. It denies them their right to movement, systematically destroys training facilities, including the bombing of football stadiums, and even prevents football equipment from being imported,” said the Committee.
Fifa is also accused of disregarding its own rulebook by not sanctioning the Israel Football Association (IFA), which states that football clubs affiliated with Fifa may not play on the territory of other football associations without their permission.
“The Israel Football Association not only includes in its official leagues’ several teams based in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land, but it also actively advocates for maintaining them. These settlements constitute a war crime under international law,” argues BDS.
It’s not just its treatment of Russia and its non-application of its own rules when it comes to Israel that has prompted accusations of double standards. In 1964, Fifa banned apartheid South Africa, due to its discriminatory practices.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Israel’s B’Tselem have recently accused Israel of apartheid, both inside the country and in the occupied territories. The human rights bodies say the very fragmentation of the territories in which Palestinians live is part of an overall regime of control designed to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.
They point to discriminatory policies within Israel and in annexed east Jerusalem, Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, its continued control of the West Bank, and the construction of Jewish settlements that most of the international community consider illegal. The election of Israel’s new hard-line government, dominated by ultranationalists opposed to Palestinian independence, has added to these concerns.
Photo: Indonesian football fans hold a candlelight vigil on April 4, in solidarity with their national teams, which are likely to be barred from all Fifa competitions.
(Credit: Eko Siswono Toyudho/AA)
