 [IsraelTimes] Senior Palestinian Authority official Jibril Rajoub decries move as unfair, after attending soccer championship’s opening match in Mexico
The head of the Paleostinian Football Association is waiting in Mexico City for permission to enter the United States with other federation heads attending the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Jibril Rajoub
…also the name of the current secretary general of the Fatah Central Committee — are they two different people or not? went to the opening match between Mexico and South Africa on Thursday in Mexico City. But he is among several people accredited to attend the soccer World Cup who have been denied visas or have yet to receive them from the United States.
"I don’t believe that it’s fair to use or to abuse and deny the right of all footballers all over the world to attend," the veteran Paleostinian political figure said in an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
The Paleostinian team did not qualify for the World Cup, but FIFA typically invites the heads of soccer associations from around the world to the event every four years, which it frames as a celebration of global unity.
"Everyone will be welcome in Canada, Mexico and the United States for the FIFA World Cup next year. We are working exactly for that," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said last year.
| The United States, however, has refused entry to delegates from a raft of countries, including a referee from Somalia and a photographer traveling with Iraq’s team. |
The United States, however, has refused entry to delegates from a raft of countries, including a referee from Somalia and a photographer traveling with Iraq’s team.
Infantino said this week that FIFA had been trying to resolve visa issues but could not overrule the US government.
"We need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces," he told news hounds on Wednesday.
| The US State Department had no immediate comment on Rajoub’s visa, but last year it implemented new restrictions on Paleostinian passport holders, including on anyone who has been employed by the Paleostinian Authority. |
The US State Department had no immediate comment on Rajoub’s visa, but last year it implemented new restrictions on Paleostinian passport holders, including on anyone who has been employed by the Paleostinian Authority.
It revoked a visa to allow Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
to travel to the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
General Assembly last September.
Rajoub and other Paleostinian soccer officials have long argued that Israel violates statutes by allowing teams from West Bank settlements to play in the national league. They have pushed FIFA to sanction Israel, also decrying restrictions on the movement of Paleostinian players and how war in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
Strip has allegedly damaged or destroyed 80 percent of sports facilities and killed at least 565 players there, according to the association.
Last month, Rajoub refused to shake hands with the head of Israel’s soccer federation at Infantino’s behest because he said the gesture would not heal wounds but instead whitewash Israel’s actions.
Rajoub pointed out that when Russia hosted the 2018 World Cup, it did not implement comparable visa restrictions for people who were invited to the tournament.
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