Pro-Palestinian Protest Targets FIFA Over Israel at World Cup Opening in Canada

Hours before the Canada-Bosnia match in Toronto, pro-Palestinian activists staged a protest near the stadium and the city’s main highway. On the first day of World Cup games on Canadian soil, they unfurled a large banner reading, “Expel Israel from FIFA,” saying they wanted a “visual message that cannot be missed” for FIFA officials and the public.

The protesters accused FIFA of double standards in handling international conflicts. They said FIFA’s own statutes bar countries from playing on occupied territory without approval, and argued that the governing body is violating its own rules, taking a political position, and “whitewashing Israel’s crimes through the broadcasting of the matches.” They also pointed to FIFA’s swift suspension of Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, saying it had avoided similar action in the Israeli case despite the war in Gaza and the confrontation with Iran.

The demonstrators said their main complaint was that “you cannot celebrate ‘fair play’ while Palestinian stadiums are turned into military detention camps and hundreds of players, coaches and referees have been killed.” They added that FIFA has not responded to them. “They simply ignored us completely. They took no meaningful action,” they said.

In a separate issue, Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Association, said the United States denied him a visa, preventing him from attending official World Cup events. Rajoub, who is currently in Mexico City, said he had not been allowed into the U.S., one of the tournament’s three host countries. “I do not believe it is fair to use football, or misuse it, to deprive footballers around the world of the right to come and participate,” he said. His remarks came weeks after he refused to shake hands with Basham Suliman, acting head of the Israeli Football Association, at a FIFA conference.