Palestinian FA Chair Jibril Rajoub on Monday "renewed calls for FIFA to exclude Israel" over games played in "settlements," expressing "disappointment" at FIFA's recommendations, according to ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS. Rajoub, along with groups such as Human Rights Watch, "have led efforts to have Israel suspended from FIFA or quit sponsoring Israeli matches in Judea and Samaria," claiming they are being held on "stolen land." A FIFA commission chaired by South Africa's Tokyo Sexwale was created in '15 to "try to resolve the dispute." In March, Sexwale presented his recommendations to Palestinians and Israelis in a session described as "stormy." He said that none of the three options offered by Sexwale "met Palestinian expectations," adding that he would "prefer that we go right away to sanction and to suspension (of the Israeli football federation)," though he declared himself "realistic." The first recommendation "proposes maintaining a status quo," which Rajoub said was "in violation" of int'l law. The second stresses that FIFA statutes "ban any federation from organizing matches on a territory that is not its own, without the agreement of the federation of the country concerned." The third would be to seek a compromise, "but efforts to do so have failed" (ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS, 4/4).
