"UN must Stop Palestinian 9 January Demand for Expulsion of Israel Football Association from FIFA"
  
Paris, 6 January 2017
  
Addressing the newly elected UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres - due to the currently vacant position of UN Special Advisor on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP) - the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels noted the role of the UNOSDP in its mission statement, as 'raising awareness about the use of physical activity in sport and play as powerful tools in the advancement of development and peace’...".  The Letter pointed out that on "13 December 2016, UNOSDP signed a partnership with the Football Association."

The Centre urged the Secretary-General "to condemn the abuse of football by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) in naming all its 21 clubs, teams, tournaments and stadiums in 'honour' of notorious terrorists, including Saleh Khalaf (aka Abu Iyad), responsible for the murder of two American diplomats and the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre of 11 athletes... Several of these glorified icons are members of Hamas - designated as a banned terrorist organization by the European Union, United States and other UN member-states."
  
Samuels alerted that "next week, on 9 January, the PFA will call for the expulsion of the Israeli Football Association (IFA) from FIFA (International Federation of Football Associations) - whose President was copied on the letter."
  
The letter stressed that "Palestinian football undermines declared United Nations values and the UNOSDP's mission statement on Sport for Development and Peace."
  
The Centre called on the UN to "take appropriate measures to end this travesty and to work with your Football Association partner and FIFA to stop, once and for all, these assaults on Israeli football, while also warning the PFA to remove these icons of terror from its clubs, teams, tournaments and stadiums."

"Neither the United Nations nor sport can be associated with this constant abuse of football - 'the beautiful game' - in the service of terrorism", concluded Samuels. 
  
Attached is a full list, (courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch <www.palwatch.org>) of the 21 Palestinian bodies that glorify terror.

Palestinian_Football_Clubs.pdf