London, Oct. 1 (Petra) – Amnesty International has called on world football’s governing body FIFA and Europe’s UEFA to suspend the Israeli Football Association until clubs based in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are excluded from Israeli leagues.

"While Israel’s national team prepares to face Norway and Italy in World Cup qualifiers, the Israeli military continues committing acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 65,000 people including over 800 athletes, players and officials have been killed in a campaign of destruction, displacement and deliberate starvation of civilians," Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said in a statement on Wednesday.

She added that Israel is "ruthlessly expanding its illegal settlements and legalizing outposts in the West Bank as part of its unlawful occupation of Palestinian land," stressing that allowing settlement-based clubs to play in Israeli leagues "is a scandal more than a decade after repeated warnings." According to Amnesty, at least six clubs located in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories currently compete in Israeli leagues, in violation of international law and FIFA’s own regulations. Article 64.2 of the statutes states that "member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without its consent." //Petra// AF