Background:
Jabril Rajoub (b. 1953) is a Palestinian political and militant figure. He is a senior member of Fatah and past head of the Preventive Security Force in the West Bank. Rajoub is currently chair of the Palestinian Football Association and of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. Since assuming these positions he has been fighting for sanctions against Israel in the international sports arena. In March 2015 he started a campaign to suspend Israel from membership in FIFA. He has been interviewed extensively on this subject, including in the Israeli media, and is investing much effort in publicizing his initiative. In May-June 2014 Rajoub tried to promote a similar move before the World Cup in Brazil, but his proposal was not brought up for discussion. In a visit to the region in 2014, FIFA President Sepp Blatter met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat. He appointed the chair of the Cypriot Football Association to investigate the Palestinian claims.
Rajoub’s harsh comments concerning Israel have been publicized in the media; several of them are brought below.
· Comparing Israel to Nazis and Fascists, ahead of Barcelona team’s visit to Hebron (July 2013):
“This state [Israel] is a state of bullies. Fascists can learn a lesson from this state. This government – there is none more brazen than it in human history... Anyone who joins any joint [sports] activity with the Israelis – I’ll take him off the [Palestinian Football] Association’s lists, whether he is a player, coach, judge or, God forbid, a team...
Did we act correctly and convince [FIFA’s] General Assembly? Yes. Yes, we’ll suspend their [Israel's] membership [in FIFA] and this way we’ll screw them... I won't allow and won't agree to any joint game between Arabs and Israel... If a photo is published of [football star] Messi next to the [separation] fence, the new Berlin Wall, and the new Nazis (Israelis) will be seen the way they treat Palestinians, the Palestinian players – well, this by itself will be the highest achievement.”
(PA official TV, 1 July 2013, reproduced on the websites of an Israeli research institute and Palestinian Media Watch (PMW))
· Israel defined as enemy/ opposition to normalization (Sept 2014)
Rajoub's statements were made in response to a football match between Palestinian and Israeli children sponsored by the Israeli Peres Center for Peace:
"The game was an Israeli attempt to cover up their crimes against [Palestinian] athletes. It is a disgrace to use sports for this purpose. If there are Israeli parties who believe sport is a means of spreading values and peace, they should come out against the occupation's crimes against Palestinian athletes."
(Alhayat Aljadeeda, 8 September 2014, and Rajoub’s Facebook page, as quoted by an Israeli research institute and Palestinian Media Watch)
· Israel as worse than the Hitler regime (Oct 2014):
"We have nothing to lose. What's worse? Do you think we are living in Sweden and have something to lose? We are living under a racist and fascist occupation. I'm telling you, if Hitler had come (here), he would have learned from them how to oppress humans and learned from them about concentration camps, extermination camps."
(Palestinian TV, 4 October 2014, reproduced on the websites of an Israeli research institute, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), and Arutz 7)
· Support for killing settlers and the use of violence to stop the “Occupation” (Aug 2014)
"I'm telling everyone: Fatah has decided that our relations with the Israelis are relations between enemies. There is no kind of coordination between the Israelis and us...
OK, brother, here is the occupation, am I stopping you from slaughtering a settlement? No one is stopping anyone. Don't lie and tell me: 'the [PA] Security Forces and Mahmoud Abbas,' and so on [stop you]. Drop it, OK? No one is stopping anyone.
Our political decision is resistance in the occupied territories in order to bring an end to the occupation [using] all forms of resistance."
(Note: “resistance” is a code word for violence)
(Independent Palestinian TV channel Awda, 21 August 2014, as quoted by an Israeli research institute and Palestinian Media Watch)
· Incitement to use force against Israel:
“Our main enemy, not only as Palestinians but also as Arabs and Muslims, is Israel and the Israeli occupation…We don’t yet have nuclear (weapons). I swear that if we would have nuclear (weapons), as of this morning we would use them.”
(Lebanese channel Almayadeen, 1 May 2013, reproduced on the websites of an Israeli research institute and Palestinian Media Watch)
· Support for kidnapping Israeli soldiers, praise for Hamas kidnapping of Gilad Shalit and the organization’s tough stand during negotiations for his release
(Video shown on TV channel “Palestine”, 18 February 2014, reproduced on the websites of an Israeli research institute and Palestinian Media Watch)
· Calling Israelis “sons of Satan, Zionist sons of whores”
(Palestinian TV, 17 May 2012, reproduced on the websites of an Israeli research institute and Palestinian Media Watch)