Gaza war puts sporting boycott of Israel back on the front burner

There are more and more calls from the football world calling international governing bodies to sanction Israel in regards to its attacks on Palestine Ahmed Mohammed al-Qatar and Udai Jaber’s burgeoning football careers came to a screeching halt in early August when the two 19-year-olds were shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Hebron during a protest against the war in Gaza. Days earlier, Ahed Zaqqut, a 49-year-old Palestinian football legend, who once played a French team captained by European football governing body UEFA President Michel Platini, died when his home in Gaza was hit by Israeli fire.

The deaths of the three players and the trauma of Israel’s heavy-handed, month-long assault on Gaza has not only cast a shadow over Palestinian football at a time that the Palestine national team was progressing with its qualification for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Club and upcoming participation in the Philippines’ Peace Cup.

Coupled with widespread international condemnation of Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war that has left almost 2,000 Palestinians dead and many more injured, they deaths have also focused the sporting world’s attention on problems Palestinian athletes face as a result of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza and fueled calls for a sporting boycott of Israel as part of a larger boycott, the disinvestment campaign. Among the often-gruesome images of the Gaza war that sparked widespread condemnation was video footage of four Palestinian boys killed in an Israeli attack as they were playing football on a Gaza beach.

Israel two months ago averted sanctions by world football body FIFA with the establishment of an...