B’nai B’rith International sent a letter last week to the leaders of top soccer organizations worldwide, voicing opposition to a campaign led by the Palestinian Football Association to urge FIFA to sanction the Israel Football Association.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino topped the list of nine recipients—all FIFA council members—in a copy of the Aug. 22 letter provided to JNS. Others included Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football, and Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation.
The Israeli association “is not connected to the war that Hamas started. Indeed, it has suffered—as has all of Israeli society—from Oct. 7, losing players and coaches during the massacre and in the fighting since,” read the letter signed by B’nai B’rith president Seth J. Riklin, B’nai B’rith CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin and B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem director Alan Schneider.
Mariaschin told JNS that it’s “another example of Palestinian-led BDS, this time being carried out on the field of play. It is war by other means to demonize Israel. FIFA and the international sporting community should reject this brazen politicization of the game of soccer.”
B’nai B’rith concluded by calling on the leaders “to use your good and high office to thwart any sanction against the IFA based on Israel’s just war of defense against Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations.”