For the past few months, Irish Sport for Palestine (ISFP), which I am part of, has been campaigning for Ireland to boycott its football matches against Israel. We believe playing against Israel legitimises a genocidal regime and gives cover for international law violations, apartheid and war crimes. On Sunday, the match between the two teams went ahead in an almost empty stadium in Hungary.
Regardless of the final score (3-0) in Ireland’s favour, they lost the minute they stepped on the pitch to play Israel. They lost because they went against the majority of the Irish people who do not want these matches to be played. They lost because they succumbed to pressure to normalise genocide.
A February poll showed that 76 percent of respondents did not want the team to play Israel. In a survey of professional football players in the Irish men’s and women’s leagues also conducted in February, 63 percent said Ireland should not play Israel. The very spirit of Ireland, including Irish sport, is rooted in anticolonial resistance, so why should Irish football help legitimise a settler-colonial project?
One player, Gavin Bazunu, embodied that spirit with his courageous and principled decision to boycott the match. Instead of following his lead and taking into account the sentiments among other players and the Irish public, the leadership of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) deliberately created confusion around hypothetical sanctions. It also sought to use a communication with the Palestinian Football Association, which has long called for FIFA and UEFA to suspend Israel, as a form of tacit approval.
In the end, instead of taking responsibility for the decision, the FAI leadership decided to hide behind the players on the national team and have them vote on whether they should play. The players should have never been put in that position. Ultimately, the power and the blame lie with the FAI as well as UEFA and the Irish government, where there has been a total absence of leadership at every level.
Decision-makers at the top of the FAI have consistently proven themselves to be dishonest and untrustworthy. Last November, 93 percent of FAI members voted in favour of its board formally requesting Israel’s removal from UEFA. This was based on Israeli violations of statutes relating to illegal settlement clubs and antiracism policies.
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