TEL AVIV – During the international soccer governing body Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s annual congress, a tournament named after the terrorist responsible for the murder of 125 Israelis took place under the auspices of the Palestinian Football Association – the same group that is demanding Israel’s FIFA membership be revoked.
Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch, citing the official Palestinian Authority daily Al Hayat Al-Jadida, reported on Monday on the start of a soccer tournament named after Khalil Al-Wazir, otherwise known as Abu Jihad, the co-founder of the Fatah party and an architect of the first intifada. As the head of the PLO’s military wing, Abu Jihad planned multiple terror attacks, including the infamous Coastal Road massacre in which a bus was hijacked and 38 passengers, including 13 children, were killed.
“The Jerusalem Al-Nasser club has successfully organized the Prince of Martyrs Khalil Al-Wazir [Abu Jihad] Championship for the 23rd consecutive year. … This is under the supervision of the Central Branch of the [Palestinian] Football Association and under the joint auspices of the Central Branch of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth and the Jerusalem Clubs Association,” the report in Al Hayat Al-Jadida reads.
The tournament comes just as FIFA bosses are gathering in Bahrain for the soccer association’s annual congress scheduled for Thursday. One of the items on the agenda was the PFA’s demand that the Israel Football Association be kicked out of FIFA for having football teams in the West Bank. Late on Tuesday Tokyo Sexwale, the head of the joint Israeli-Palestinian monitoring committee, decided that it was “too premature” to take any final decisions.
Meanwhile, FIFA, which prides itself on using the sport to promote peace, allows members like the PFA which routinely holds sporting events named after terrorists. The president of the PFA, Jibril Rajoub – himself a former terrorist who has served time in Israeli jails – continues to glorify terror and has boycotted any joint matches between Israeli and Palestinian teams, calling Israeli Jews “Satan.”
On Sunday, Breitbart Jerusalem reported that more than 30 Israeli families who lost relatives in terror attacks have signed a letter to FIFA charging the PFA and Rajoub with severe violations of its statutes, including incitement to terrorism.
Last month, Rajoub received a court summons and compensation lawsuit for $250 million upon landing at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York over his alleged involvement in the killing of an American-Palestinian citizen in 1995.
Azam Rahim’s family, who live in the state of Texas, served the court summons on Tuesday. According to the charge sheet, on September 29, 1995 Rahim was arrested by Preventive Security officials and taken to a security facility where he was tortured to death.
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