The past few days have seen escalating threats against Argentina’s National Football team, led by Palestinian Football Association President,Jibril Rajoub--including burning Argentina’s global football icon Lionel Messi’s jerseys--if a friendly match against Israel in Jerusalem was not canceled. Rajoub called any match betweenJews and Arabs “a crime against humanity”.
Intimidated by the mounting boycott (BDS) campaign, leading to such acts as being burning Argentine flags and blood red tee shirts being wavedthroughout Buenos Aires, Ramallah and Barcelona, the Argentina Football Association canceled the match.
“By kow-towing to terror, Argentine football has set a dangerousprecedent and politized the beautiful game,” lamented Dr. Ariel Gelblung, the Simon Wiesenthal Center`s, Buenos Aires-based LatinAmerican Representative. “Boycott isn’t appropriate for the football pitch and nor is ethnic, religious, and gender defamation,” he added.
In Paris, the Center’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, added that, “The Wiesenthal Center's11 Points Plan Against Racism in Football in Latin America was initiated with strong support from the Argentine Football Association. Samuels continued, “We havelong identified that the same Jibril Rajoub has named football clubs, tournaments and stadiums in honor to Palestinian terrorists.”
In Los Angeles at the Wiesenthal Center’s international headquarters, Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper, added, “It is tragic thatArgentina caved to terrorist-supporting bullies. They have now opened to door wide-open for escalating intimidation and blackmail as the sports world gears up for the World Cup."
Center officials concluded, that “the world should be horrified that in this game, threats, intimidation, and terror are thewinners.”
For more information, please contact the Center's Communications Department, 310-553-9036. Join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the UnitedStates. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
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