Palestinians kick FIFA boss into a spot of Blatter

When the Israel soccer team lost to Belgium in a European championship qualifier no one was more pleased than Abdel Halawi.

FIFA boss kicked into a spot of Blatter

When the Israel soccer team lost to Belgium in a European championship qualifier, no one was more pleased than Abdel Halawi.

His grin was even wider after the most powerful man in world sport, Sepp Blatter, tiptoed through the minefield of Israeli-Palestinian politics this week and emerged as bruised and battered as anyone else.

Mr Halawi is a proud Palestinian from East Jerusalem who runs a sports store off Jaffa Street, a dividing line between the Arab and Jewish sides of the city.

I met him on the night of the game, back in March, after the ­visiting Belgians booted home the winning goal. His howl of delight could be heard above the clanging trams. Over coffee, he explained he would support any side that brought the Israelis down a peg.

Yesterday, he was revelling in the discomfort Mr Blatter’s highly publicised visit to Jerusalem had caused soccer-obsessed Israel.

Fairly or not, the Palestinian National Authority has taken its dispute with Israel into the sporting arena by petitioning world soccer’s governing body, FIFA, to suspend Israel for restricting the travel of Palestinian players from Gaza and the West Bank.

Like the Palestinian Football Association, Mr Halawi insists the Israelis have only themselves to blame. “They built the wall and it affects every Palestinian,’’ he said, referring to the security barrier that seals off the occupied territories. “People can’t go about their everyday business, and that ­applies to our footballers as well.’’

Israel pushed back diplomatically, and there were reports that the foreign ministry had been backgrounding international sports administrators on alle­gations that Palestinian athletes had been involved in what one local media outlet coyly described as “armed activity’’.

Israeli Sports Minister Miri Regev insisted that a “separation must be made between sports and politics, as long as there is loyalty to the state and its law’’.

Mr Blatter jetted in hoping to talk the Palestinians out of putting their complaint against Israel to a vote at the FIFA Congress in Zurich next Friday, where he faces a fight to keep his job. The 79-year-old was feted like a head of state, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas opening their doors to him.

During his talks with Mr Netanyahu, Mr Blatter put forward a peace plan involving an inter­national “friendly” between the ­Israeli and Palestinian teams; Mr Netanyahu said he would attend.

The Israelis also promised a special “football ID” to speed the movement of Palestinian players through checkpoints and to make donations to the sport tax-exempt.

Mr Blatter said he opposed kicking the Israelis out of inter­national competition, including the World Cup. “I do not see that a suspension of an association is a solution,” he said.

Mission accomplished? Not by a long way.

Despite Mr Baltter’s “constructive meetings’’ with the PFA and Mr Abbas, the Palestinians are vowing to press on and have the suspension ­motion debated and decided by FIFA delegates on Friday. The Football Federation of Australia did not respond yesterday to requests from The Weekend Australian to say where it would line up.

“We will keep the proposal on the agenda for sincere and open discussion by the FIFA member associations,” PFA president Jibril Rajoub said with Mr Blatter just before the FIFA supremo flew out.

“There will be no compromising on the free movement of our ­athletes and officials.’’

Targeting soccer and landing a blow where it might count with the average Israeli is part of a tactical shift by the Palestinian leadership to pursue statehood.

With the prospect of direct ­negotiations with the Israelis dead in the water — Mr Abbas affirmed this week he saw no benefit in ­sitting down with Mr Netanyahu to discuss peace — the Palestinians have turned to third party ­action in the international arena, hoping to crank up the pressure on Israel.

Their bid to join the International Criminal Court to press war crimes allegations against Israel over last year’s war in Gaza is a case in point. However, the eligibility of the PNA is in question, and Israel has warned the ICC could just as easily go after Hamas, which controls Gaza. The US also opposes the Palestinian move.

As details emerged of a UN ­Security Council resolution by New Zealand and France setting an 18-month deadline for a deal on a Palestinian homeland, Mr Netanyahu this week tried to assure the EU top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, he was committed to a two-state solution.

This was despite his election-eve declaration in March there would be no such deal on his watch, and that Israel would continue settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the occupied territories.

Mr Blatter insisted he did not have the power to take the Palestinian motion to suspend Israel off the agenda of next week’s congress, and it was an “unusual and very serious matter’’.

Israel fields a national side ranked 46th in world soccer and is tipped to have the numbers in FIFA to comfortably win a vote, should it come to that. Palestine, ranked 141st, qualified for this year’s finals tournament of the Asia Cup hosted and won by Australia.

In addition to complaining about the travel restrictions ­imposed by Israel on their national team, the Palestinians cite the curbs Israel places on the importation into the territories of sports equipment, visits by foreign teams and individuals and the inclusion of teams from settlements in the occupied West Bank in Israel’s ­leagues.