LONDON / ISTANBUL

A UN expert has recommended that Israel be suspended from international football matches, citing official conclusions that Tel Aviv has committed genocide.

Speaking to Anadolu, Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights Alexandra Xanthaki Xanthaki, one of the UN experts who urged that football authorities FIFA and UEFA expel Israel after the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that it had committed genocide, said waiting is no longer acceptable.

“We cannot pretend that it's business as usual, and football associations also cannot pretend that it's business as usual,” she noted.

“Unfortunately, sports associations in general have been reluctant to agree ... to act on human rights violations, although most of them do talk about how human rights are at the core of their work.

“We're not just talking about violations of human rights, but we're talking about such a huge violation.”

Xanthaki argued that many organizations and states fail to act when powerful interests are at stake.

“However, this is not business as usual. This is something extraordinary. Now we have evidence, not from me, but from independent, world-renowned experts, such as the UN Commission of Inquiry, such as 41 special rapporteurs.”

“Sports associations have the responsibility to act. Also, the states where the sports associations are based have the responsibility, the legal responsibility, to ask the sports associations not to violate human rights, and also the states where these football competitions take place.”

Russia was banned within 4 days after start of war, so world should be 'consistent'

The rapporteur underlined that sport is about justice, and federations frequently invoke that principle.

“A mere four days after the illegal (February 2022) invasion of Russia in Ukraine, some sports organizations were very eager and very quick to take action and exclude Russia as a country. We really have to remain consistent,” she stated.

While a genocide unfolds in Gaza, swift measures are imperative, Xanthaki said, criticizing European football authority UEFA for citing the recent US ceasefire plan as a reason for inaction.

“But this plan is appalling. It was prepared without the consent of genocide victims and completely ignores the UN. My proposal to UEFA is: take action first; perhaps when peace is achieved, Israel could be readmitted.

“This plan is atrocious. This plan has not been made with the consent of the people who are the victims of genocide. This plan is focused so much on the US acting as a neutral power ... and completely ignores the UN.

“So I have another idea for UEFA. Why don't they take measures now? Once the peace is being done, maybe then they can accept Israel as in football competitions again.

“FIFA also rejected (a ban on Israel), I think it was last week or the week before,” she said, speaking of the world football body. “I think that they really need to meet again. They really need to put politics aside and focus on such an extraordinary, terrible hit to our humanity and to the values we have as a humanity,” she stressed.

'More and more' people are becoming vocal

Asked whether national federations and clubs could refuse to play against Israel if UEFA and FIFA continue to delay, Xanthaki replied: “We see that more and more inhabitants are becoming vocal. People come out in the streets, and demonstrations are very vocal.

“I think that maybe individual sports clubs are going to may decide to take matters in their own hands. This is going to be really bad for UEFA and FIFA and sports associations, because it's just going to delegitimize them. It's just going to be a discredit to them.

“They will always be the ones that did not take action to stop genocide or not to accept a state that is committing genocide in sports that is supposed to be a place of fairness and peace.”

On whether the call for Israel's suspension came too late, Xanthaki said: “We had to be sure that we are talking about genocide. Genocide is the ultimate crime. So we're talking about such a serious crime that we had to be absolutely sure that this is what we're talking about. So no, I don't think it has come too late.

“However, I do feel that it didn't have to be genocide. The gross and continuing crimes that have been committed deserved louder voices.”

Asked whether she faced pressure before or after her statements, Xanthaki made it clear: “No, I didn't face any pressure before the announcement. I am an independent expert. This is very much states would like to make this a political issue.

“So what I'm trying to say is that this is not a political issue. This is human rights, and we have to act irrespective of the micropolitics and the geopolitics that exist in the world.

“The states that want to pretend that this is a political issue and not a human rights issue, make a disservice to their own inhabitants, because their own inhabitants and everybody in the world deserve the respect for the values we have all agreed (on) as humanity, which is human rights.”