Editor’s note: This is an imaginary story about a scenario that may one day come to pass.
Last year, when Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup, Arab support for Palestine made a strong showing, illustrating that official Arab normalization with Israel was only at the level of corrupt Arab regimes. Palestine had emerged as the true champion of the 2022 Mondial. But not all is well. A little over a year after the 2022 World Cup, FIFA has officially announced that Israel will be hosting the prestigious global competition in 2030, despite international outrage and condemnation.
After the FIFA president announced that the 22 executive committee members had voted to award the 2030 tournament to a country of ten million illegal colonists, Israel will be one of the few remaining settler colonies in the world to be bestowed with this honor, alongside the United States and Canada, who are set to host the World Cup in 2026.
That the “only democracy in the Middle East” should enjoy this prestige after its morbid performance in Sabra and Shatila, Deir Yassin, and Kufr Qasim, is not surprising. Israel has been good about hiding its crimes.
In previous years, Israel has attempted to rehabilitate its image by “re-branding” itself as an eco-friendly Silicon Valley in the Middle East, or as a haven for gay rights amidst a sea of intolerance. People have rightly termed this cynical practice as “greenwashing” and “pinkwashing.” And now the prestige of hosting the FIFA World Cup is the icing on the cake. It’s a classic case of sportswashing, not least because Israel routinely attacks Palestinian footballers and impedes Palestinians from playing the sport they love.
Israel has imprisoned members of the Palestine national team like Mahmoud Sarsak. It has shot footballers in the legs and handicapped them for life. It has killed former players like Ahed Zaqout. It has bombed football stadiums in Gaza. It targeted and killed four boys while they were playing football on Gaza’s seafront during the Israeli war on Gaza in 2014.
Israel has as much respect for the sport as it does for Palestinian lives.
When Qatar hosted the World Cup a little over a year ago, we witnessed the astonishing standards of morality set by the Western world. Various guardians of human rights, like the German national team, protested against Qatar’s human rights violations. Not a word from the German national team now.
“The most racist football team in the country”
Who are the heroes playing for Israel? The Israeli national football team will include players from Beitar Jerusalem, whose fans proudly call it “the most racist football team in the country.” A member of the Emirati royal family’s short-lived attempt to buy a 50% stake in the team prompted fans to rebel against the team following the owner’s intention to simply be open to accepting Arab players.
Thirty football stadiums in Israel stand atop stolen land. In 2016, an international campaign urged FIFA to kick out Israeli football clubs that play in stadiums built in West Bank settlements, following a Human Rights Watch report documenting how Israeli teams play in FIFA-sponsored games on stolen Palestinian land. FIFA, predictably, postponed ruling on the matter. Perhaps this should remind us that all Israeli football stadiums, not only those in the West Bank, are built over land taken from its rightful owners.
The largest Israeli football stadium is Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem, which was built on the ethnically cleansed ruins of the village of Al-Malha west of Jerusalem. The native inhabitants of Al-Malha were expelled from their homes in July of 1948 by Zionist paramilitary organizations (the Irgun and the Palmach). Today, Al-Malha accommodates Israeli players from Beitar Jerusalem.
None of these stadiums comply with FIFA regulations. Teddy Stadium can accommodate up to 31,733 persons, while FIFA guidelines require the smallest stadium to host up to 40,000 people, and the larger ones up to 80,000. Israel will either have to build new stadiums, or expand its existing ones — on even more stolen land. Israeli plans to evacuate Palestinians to make room for the new extraordinary stadiums are already underway.
There is a precedent for this. In July 2021, the Israeli-run Jerusalem municipality called for the eviction of 100 families for the construction of a biblical park. Israel was prepared to evacuate Palestinian families that held ownership documents and permits.
What is to stop Israel from expelling more Palestinians for the World Cup? Slow ethnic cleansing has become par for the course.
Plans to expand settlements like Modiin have already begun to surface in Israeli media, with government leaks exposing Israel’s plan to expand fifteen settlements across the West Bank to make room for the millions of guests attending the 2030 World Cup. Israel of course bills this as an economic boon to Palestinians, promising Palestinian laborers that they will be granted additional work permits to build the new stadiums.
Israel has yet to announce the number of laborers needed for the construction, but based on previous tournaments, Israel will need at least 40,000 workers. Unlike Qatar, Israel does not need to hire foreign workers. It has a reserve of cheap laborers at its doorstep, where it grants Palestinian workers a short return to their original — now distorted — villages. In 2022, 204,000 Palestinians were working as wage employees in Israel. While wages from Israeli jobs have certainly been higher than the Palestinian Authority’s paltry minimum wage, working conditions for Palestinians in Israel are disastrous, suffering from a lack of safety measures, nonexistent insurance, and rampant violations of Israeli labor law.
Regulations concerning visitor visas for Palestinians with foreign nationalities have not been disclosed, but international critics have raised concerns that foreign nationals with Palestinian roots will continue to be discriminated against during the World Cup, given Israel’s institution of draconian restrictions last year on foreign travel for those of Palestinian origin.
More information about the 2030 World Cup will be announced by Israel in the coming years, but be prepared for the following headlines: “West Bank annexed to make room for World Cup”, “Expansion of Israeli settlements is inevitable despite the World Cup,” and “Israel announces Nas Daily as World Cup ambassador for Peace.”
What a wonderful idea! even better would be to have the event hosted jointly by Israel and Palestine! The israeli soccer league and the national team are examples of Jewish- Palestinian integration and cooperation. When Jewish and Palestinian players play on the same team and embrace each other after a goal is scored – there’s a powerful message there.