{"id":426712,"date":"2026-05-01T09:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426712\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T09:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:37:08","slug":"watch-fifa-president-infantinos-attempt-to-secure-israel-palestine-handshake-backfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/426712\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Fifa president Infantino\u2019s attempt to secure Israel-Palestine handshake backfires"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Both men were called to the stand by Fifa president Gianni Infantino, but Rajoub declined to be brought closer to Arab-Israeli Suliman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Infantino put \u2060his hand on Rajoub\u2019s arm and invited him with a gesture to come closer to Suliman, but in vain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Asked what Rajoub said when he refused, Palestinian FA Vice-President Susan Shalabi, who was in the room, told Reuters: \u201cI cannot shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and \u2060genocide. We are suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"rtl\" lang=\"und\">PFA President, Mr Jibril Rajoub refuses to shake hands with the Israeli Football Association representative despite FIFA President\u2019s insistence.<\/p>\n<p>\u0627\u0644\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642 \u062c\u0628\u0631\u064a\u0644 \u0627\u0644\u0631\u062c\u0648\u0628 \u064a\u0631\u0641\u0636 \u0645\u0635\u0627\u0641\u062d\u0629 \u0645\u0645\u062b\u0644 \u0627\u0644\u0627\u062a\u062d\u0627\u062f \u0627\u0644\u0625\u0633\u0631\u0627\u0626\u064a\u0644\u064a \u0631\u063a\u0645 \u0625\u0644\u062d\u0627\u062d \u0631\u0626\u064a\u0633 \u0627\u0644\u0641\u064a\u0641\u0627..<\/p>\n<p>\u0645\u0646 \u062d\u0642\u0646\u0627 \u0623\u0646 \u0646\u0645\u0627\u0631\u0633 \u0643\u0631\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0642\u062f\u0645 \u0628\u0643\u0644 \u062d\u0631\u064a\u0629 \u0643\u0645\u0627 \u0643\u0644 \u0634\u0639\u0648\u0628\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uAWd41IPkY\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/uAWd41IPkY<\/a><\/p>\n<p> \u2014 Palestine Football Association (@Palestine_fa) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Palestine_fa\/status\/2049978149136728408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 30, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Israel has denied committing genocide \u200bin \u2060Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Infantino then took the stand and said: \u201cWe will work together, President Rajoub, Vice-President Suliman. Let\u2019s work together to give hope to the children. These are complex \u2060matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Speaking to Reuters after the Congress ended, Shalabi said Infantino\u2019s attempt to have Suliman and \u200bRajoub \u2060shake hands showed little consideration for \u200cthe Palestinian FA chief\u2019s speech, in which he made yet another plea for Israeli clubs not to base teams in the West Bank settlements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">She said: \u201cTo be put in a position where to \u200chave a handshake after everything that was said, this \u200cnegates the whole purpose of the speech that the general (Rajoub) was giving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cHe spent like 15 minutes trying to explain to everyone how the rules matter, how this could easily become a precedent where the rights of \u2060member associations are violated with impudence, and then we&#8217;ll just wrap this under the carpet. It was absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Last week, the PFA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against Fifa\u2019s decision not to sanction Israel over clubs based in West Bank settlements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The PFA has long argued that clubs based in settlements in the West Bank \u2013 territory Palestinians seek as part of a future state \u2013 should not compete in leagues run by the Israel Football Association.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Fifa said last \u200cmonth it would take no action against the IFA or Israeli clubs, citing \u200bthe unresolved legal status of the West Bank under public international law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">As \u200cthey were leaving the Vancouver Convention Centre, \u2060Rajoub and Shalabi were targeted by protesters who were demanding that FIFA should ban \u2060Iran from the World Cup on the grounds that the team, they say, represent the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cDoes \u200cthat convince you that you \u200bhave to support IRGC&#8230; because you\u2019re having a \u200cproblem with Israel,\u201d one protester asked Rajoub.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cWe\u2019re \u200bnot supporting anyone, we just want the support of the international community,\u201d Rajoub said.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both men were called to the stand by Fifa president Gianni Infantino, but Rajoub declined to be brought&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2956,61,60,3410,4268,112],"class_list":["post-426712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fifa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}