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How the Palestinian Authority Uses Sports to Demonize Israel and Urge a Boycott
Palestinian Football Association head Jibril Rajoub speaks during a press conference regarding the cancellation of the soccer match between Argentina and Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, June 6, 2018. Photo: Flash90.
Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, has reiterated Palestinian Authority (PA) policy that for the PA, sports is “a means of struggle” against Israel:
[Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association] Jibril Rajoub emphasized that Palestinian sports “will continue to be a means of struggle and a platform to sound the Palestinian people’s voice and expose the occupation’s (i.e., Israel’s) crimes.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 7, 2025]
This comes following the Palestinian Authority Basketball Federation applauding Jordan’s boycott and refusal to compete against Israel’s team in the Under-19 World Championship, which Palestinian Media Watch exposed last month.
Right after Jordan’s boycott of Israel, official PA TV stressed that “this is a very important issue on which our sports message is built.”
The Deputy Secretary of the Palestine Olympic Committee exemplified this, explaining that the committee has “submitted an official request to remove Israel from the Olympics”:
Palestine Olympic Committee Deputy Secretary Nader Jayousi: “There is a decision by the [Palestine] Olympic Committee to send Palestinian teams everywhere. Regarding institutions, we have approached every institution involved in sports, and there are many like these, the most important of which is the International Olympic Committee. Even before the Olympics in Paris, we submitted an official request to remove Israel from the Olympics. This was a clear and justified appeal. We submitted documents [showing] that Israeli athletes participating in the Olympics wrote posts on social media about killing children in the Gaza Strip, boasting about the murder of children in the Gaza Strip, nothing more is needed (refers to Hamas’ Oct. 7 war on Israel; see note below -Ed.).”
Official PA TV host: “I want to talk about the popular international position. There are many athletes who have boycotted forums and world championships due to the participation of [Israeli] players who took part in the annihilation and were soldiers in the annihilation. This is a very important issue on which our sports message is built, that the Arab and international athlete is part of the message and part of the confrontation against the war of annihilation and crimes against the innocent.”
Nader Jayousi: “We saw the expression of this yesterday [June 29, 2025]. Yesterday the youth team of sister Jordan refused to play against the Israeli basketball team in the Youth Basketball Cup. This is a phenomenon we see among our brothers from Algeria who on several occasions refused to compete against Israelis.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, June 30, 2025]
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has documented that Jibril Rajoub, who also serves as Fatah Central Committee Secretary, Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA), as policy prohibits Palestinian-Israeli sports.
Ironically, he has also claimed that sports is “a bridge of love and connection with the international community.”
PMW has also exposed that Rajoub has justified Hamas’ massacre and Oct. 7 war on Israel as “war of defense” and endorsed terror as “self-defense in our lands … through all types of resistance.” Rajoub has even called for war, encouraging Hezbollah and Iran to “punish the Israeli enemy”:
When PMW complained to FIFA about Rajoub in the past, and he was suspended by FIFA for a year, he was furious at PMW and called PMW’s director the “Goebbels of the 21st century”:
“There’s Palestinian Media Watch, whose director is Goebbels – Goebbels, Hitler’s ideological theorist… He is the Goebbels of the 21st century.”
[Official PA TV Live, Sept. 3, 2018]
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, whee a version of this story first appeared.
The post How the Palestinian Authority Uses Sports to Demonize Israel and Urge a Boycott first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.