Rajoub was banned from FIFA games for inciting violence and hatred
against soccer superstar Lionel Messi, and Erdan called on the IOC to
take similar action.
Palestinian Olympic Committee chairman and convicted terrorist Jibril
Rajoub should be suspended from the International Olympic Committee for
inciting violence, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan wrote in a
letter to IOC President Thomas Bach on Tuesday.
“Sports should be used to build bridges and spread peace between
nations, and should not be used to promote divisiveness and racism,”
Erdan wrote.Erdan highlighted Rajoub’s ban and fining by FIFA earlier
this year for inciting violence against players on the Argentinian
national football team, and called on the IOC to follow suit. The
Argentinian team had been planning to play a friendly match against the
Israeli team this June, but canceled following threats against the
players and their families.
“Rajoub called on football fans to burn shirts and posters of
Argentinian National Team player Lionel Messi, simply because Messi was
in favor of playing in Israel,” the minister recounted.
The Olympics, he wrote, are meant to “unite the nations of the world through sport, in peace and harmony.”
“There should be no room in respected international organizations for
those who support terror, promote violence and employ threats and
intimidation,” Erdan said. “Rajoub’s behavior stands in direct
opposition to the values of the Olympics.”
In August, FIFA ruled that Rajoub violated its disciplinary code and can
no longer cannot attend any soccer matches for a year, and had to pay a
fine of more than $20,000 or NIS 74,000, due to “media statements he
gave...[that] incited hatred and violence.”Rajoub, a senior official of
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party, was
convicted in 1970 of throwing a grenade at an Israeli army bus and of
membership in a terrorist group. He was one of 1,150 Arab prisoners
Israel released in 1985 in exchange for three Israeli hostages, but was
arrested twice more for terrorist activities.
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