{"id":490044,"date":"2026-06-12T23:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/490044\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T23:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:13:09","slug":"pro-palestinian-protest-at-world-cup-in-canada-urges-to-kick-israel-out-of-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/490044\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Palestinian protest at World Cup in Canada urges to kick Israel out of FIFA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro-Palestinian protestors staged a protest near a stadium and a major highway in Toronto on Friday, hours before Canada faced Bosnia, unfurling a giant banner calling to \u201ckick Israel out of FIFA\u201d on the first day of World Cup matches on Canadian soil.<\/p>\n

The activists said the banner was meant to send what they described as \u201ca visual message that cannot be missed\u201d to FIFA officials and the wider public.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05d4\u05e9\u05dc\u05d8<\/a>\"\u05d4\u05e9\u05dc\u05d8<\/p>\n

The anti-Israel protest in Toronto <\/p>\n

(Photo: Kyaw Soe Oo\/ Reuters)<\/p>\n

The protesters accused FIFA of applying a double standard in its handling of international conflicts. \u201cFIFA\u2019s constitution prohibits countries from holding matches on occupied territory without approval. FIFA is violating its own constitution by doing so, taking a political position and whitewashing Israel\u2019s crimes through the broadcast of matches,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n

They also cited FIFA\u2019s swift decision to suspend Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, arguing that the organization has avoided taking similar action against Israel despite the war in Gaza and the conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n

The protest focused mainly on Israel and FIFA. \u201cYou cannot celebrate \u2018fair play\u2019 while Palestinian stadiums are being turned into military detention camps and hundreds of players, coaches and referees have been killed,\u201d the protesters said.<\/p>\n

They added that FIFA had not responded to their appeals. \u201cThey simply ignored us completely. They have taken no meaningful action,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

In a separate matter, Palestinian Football Association chief Jibril Rajoub said the United States refused to grant him an entry visa, preventing him from attending official World Cup events. Rajoub is currently in Mexico City but said he had not received permission to enter the U.S., one of the tournament\u2019s three host countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe it is fair to use football, or abuse it, to deny football players around the world their right to come and participate,\u201d Rajoub said.<\/p>\n

His remarks came several weeks after he refused to shake hands with acting Israel Football Association chairman Bassem Suliman during a FIFA congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pro-Palestinian protestors staged a protest near a stadium and a major highway in Toronto on Friday, hours before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-490044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}