Protesters this Friday (12) extended a huge red banner over the World Cup logo, near a busy highway in Toronto, denouncing the association with Israel just hours before Canada’s first game.
Dressed in T-shirts reading “Jews for a free Palestine,” protesters climbed onto a nearby embankment and unfurled a banner reading “Expel Israel from FIFA.”
The banner was visible to drivers on the Gardiner Expressway — one of the busiest in Canada — on the way to the Canadian team’s debut against Bosnia and Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium.
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Other actions organized by a group of activists included demands for the release of prominent Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, captured by the Israeli Armed Forces in Gaza in late 2024.
Faisal Ibrahim, spokesman for the activists, accused FIFA of complicity with Israel’s actions against the Palestinians.
“Not only does FIFA turn a blind eye to the holding of Israeli Football Federation games in the occupied West Bank and illegally occupied Syrian territory, it also actively broadcasts these games, thereby normalizing occupation and erasure, which makes FIFA an active participant and complicit,” he told Reuters.
In March, world football’s governing body said it would take no action against Israeli clubs accused by the Palestinian Football Federation of allegedly competing based in Palestinian territory, citing the unresolved legal status of the occupied West Bank under public international law.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people, caused a famine and led to assessments of genocide by scholars and a United Nations investigation.
Israel vehemently denies accusations of genocide and classifies its actions as self-defense, after militants led by Hamas killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in an attack that took place in October 2023.
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UN experts also called on FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations to suspend Israel from international football.
