FIFA President Tries To Stage Israeli-Palestinian Handshake On Stage – It Does Not Go To Plan

ByMF Jones

Pure awkwardness at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, Canada, this week, as FIFA President Gianni Infantino thought it might be a good idea to have Palestinian FA President Jibril Rajoub shake hands and stand together with Israeli FA Vice-President Basim Suliman.

Rajoub refused, stating loudly “we are suffering”, before leaving the stage…

Asked what Rajoub said when he refused, Palestinian FA Vice-President Susan Shalabi, who was in the room, told Reuters: ‘I cannot shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and ⁠genocide. We are suffering.’

Infantino returned to the podium and said: ‘Let me please say something. Let me thank the two representatives from Israel and from Palestine, who have the same rights, duties and obligations, who are members of FIFA. We will work together, let’s work together to give hope to the children, let’s work together for that.

‘We have a beautiful under-15 tournament coming up, where we will invite all 211 countries to participate, all the children of the world, let’s do it for that. Let’s work together, you have my commitment, you have the support of the whole room.’

Well, I guess Infantino had good intentions, but asking the Palestinian representative to shake hands and stand with a man who is representing a country that is obliterating his people is kind of wishful, to be fair.

After all, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) reports that 565 Palestinian footballers have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023. I’m not sure if Infantino knows that, but if he had, maybe he wouldn’t have asked these two men to shake hands on stage.

Then again, this is a guy who awarded the FIFA Peace Prize to Donald Trump, so who knows what the hell goes through his head.

For the time the head of Guam’s Football Association fell asleep during a vital FIFA World Cup meeting, click HERE.

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