By Kyaw Soe Oo and Bhargav Acharya
TORONTO, June 12 (Reuters) – Protesters unfurled a massive red banner on top of the World Cup logo near a busy highway in Toronto on Friday, denouncing FIFA’s association with Israel, hours before Canada’s first game.
Demonstrators donning shirts that read “Jews for a free Palestine” mounted a nearby embankment and dropped the banner with the message “Kick Israel out of FIFA”.
The banner was visible to commuters on the Gardiner Expressway – one of Canada’s busiest – on their way to the home team’s opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Toronto stadium.
Other actions organised by a group of activists included demands for the release of prominent Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, who was captured by the Israeli military in Gaza in late 2024.
Faisal Ibrahim, a spokesperson for the activists, accused FIFA of being complicit with Israel’s actions against Palestinians.
“FIFA not only turns a blind eye to the Israel Football Association’s playing of games on illegally occupied West Bank and Syrian territory, it actually actively broadcasts those games, thereby normalizing occupation and erasure, which makes FIFA an active and complicit participant,” he told Reuters.
In March, global soccer’s ruling body said it would take no action against Israeli clubs accused by the Palestine Football Association of competing while allegedly based in Palestinian territory, citing the unresolved legal status of the West Bank under public international law.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands, caused a hunger crisis, and led to assessments of genocide from scholars and a United Nations inquiry.
Israel strongly denies genocide accusations and calls its actions self-defence after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in an October 2023 attack.
UN experts have also appealed to FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations to suspend Israel from international football.
(Writing by Bhargav Acharya, editing by Ed Osmond)
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