Palestinians call for taking UEFA tournament away from Israel

By James M.Dorsey
PalestinianFootball Association president General Jibril Rajoub, in an escalation ofmounting pressure on Israel to save the life of a hunger striking Palestiniansoccer player in Israel prison, has called on European soccer body UEFA tostrip Israel of the right to host the Euro 2013 Under-21 championship.
Mr. Rajoubmade his call in a June 12 letter to UEFA president Michel Platini days afterworld soccer body president FIFA condemned Israel’s detention of Palestiniansoccer players, including Mahmoud Sarsak.
A 25-yearold soccer player from the Gaza city of Refah, Mr. Sarsak has been on hungerstrike for the past 88 days together with Akram al-Rekhawi, an imprisoneddiabetic, and Samer al-Barq who both started their strike on dates more than amonth after him. The three men refused to join hundreds of Palestinians inIsraeli jail who ended their hunger strike on May 14 in demand of improvedprison conditions because they were not included in an Egyptian-mediated deal.
JawadBoulos of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, who visited Mr. Sarsak in Ramleprison on Tuesday described his medical condition as “dire.” He said Mr. Sarsakwas determined to maintain his refusal to eat until he is released from prison.
Mr. Sarsakwas put in administrative detention in 2009 as an “unlawful combatant” and hasbeen held since without being charged. Israel has so far declined to say whyMr. Sarsak was detained at a military checkpoint as he was travelling from Gazato the West Bank to join a Palestinian soccer team. Israeli sources privatelysuggest that he is suspected of being a member of Islamic Jihad, a Gaza-basedmilitant Palestinian group.
In hisletter to Mr. Platini, a copy of which was sent to FIFA vice president PrinceAli Bin Al Hussein, General Rajoub said the detention of Mr. Sarsak as well asof two other Palestinian players earlier this year constituted “a directviolation of FIFA Regulations and Olympic charts. We ask Your Excellency not togive Israel the honor to host the next UEFA U21 2013 Championship,” the lettersaid. The tournament is scheduled to be held in Israel in June 2013.
GeneralRajoub’s call for moving the U21 competition to another country is likely tohave been prompted by Mr. Sarsak’s deteriorating health condition as well asMr. Blatter’s unusually blunt condemnation of the detentions.
In his June12 letter to Israel Football Association (IFA) president Avi Luzon, Mr. Blatterexpressed concern that Mr. Sarsak and two other Palestinian players were being“illegally” detained “in apparent violation of their integrity and human rightsand without the apparent right of due process (trial).”
He calledon the IFA “to act with the utmost urgency” given “the graveness of the …situation” to “draw the attention of the competent Israeli authorities to thepresent matter with the aim of ensuring the physical integrity of the concernedplayers as well as their right for due process.”
Israeli andPalestinian human rights groups have called for Mr. Sarsak to be moved from theRamle prison clinic to a civilian hospital where he could receive bettertreatment. Soccer officials who are closely monitoring Mr. Sarsak’s case deniedreports earlier this week that he had agreed to cushion his hunger strike by drinkingmilk. “It is absolutely not true,” one official said.
Palestinianpeace negotiator and PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erekat warned thisweek that Israel was responsible for the lives of Palestinians in Israeliprison.
There wasno immediate Israeli response to General Rajoub’s demand.
Mr. Sarsak’sdeteriorating health puts Israel as well as FIFA and UEFA in a difficult spot. Israelas well as the soccer bodies fear that Mr. Sarsak’s death could spark popularprotests and put them in a situation they would find hard to defend.
Israel lastmonth agreed to improve conditions for Palestinian prisoners in exchange for anend to the hunger strike of hundreds of inmates and a pledge by militantPalestinian groups, including Islamic Jihad, to honor a ceasefire. As part ofthe Egyptian negotiated deal to more family visits, Israel promised to end solitaryconfinement and limit a controversial policy that allows it to imprison peoplefor years without charge. Israel had hoped the deal would avert the threat ofpublic protests.
IslamicJihad’s armed wing despite the ceasefire pledge last week claimedresponsibility for a foiled attack in which an Israeli soldier and militantwere killed. The group’s Saraya al-Quds (Jerusalem Brigades) said in a leafletthat one of its fighters, Ahmed Abu Nasser, was killed as he tried to crossinto Israel from Gaza to kidnap Israeli soldiers. The group wanted to exchangethe soldiers for Messrs. Sarsak, Al-Rekhawi and Al-Barq.
Israel hasbeen tightlipped about why it has so far refused to accommodate Mr. Sarsak. Humanrights groups said Israeli officials had promised to release Mr. Sarsak on July1 if he agreed to end his hunger strike, but refused to put the offer inwriting.
In contrastto Mr. Sarsak’s case, Israel has detailed its reasons for arresting earlierthis year two other Palestinian players, Olympic soccer team goalkeeper OmarAbu Rwayyes and Ahmad Khalil Ali Abu El-Asal, who plays for the Aqabat JaberPalestinian refugee camp soccer team. The two men are suspected of having beeninvolved in a shoot-out in January with Israeli troops.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. RajaratnamSchool of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University inSingapore, author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle EastSoccer, and a consultant to geopolitical consulting firm Wikistrat.  ]]>