International Glance
FIFA has said it will not act against Israeli settlement clubs in the West Bank, but fined the Israeli FA (IFA) over discrimination.
At the 2024 FIFA Congress, the Palestinian FA (PFA) demanded Israel be suspended from the global game over the war in Gaza and that FIFA act against Israeli settlement clubs in the West Bank, which prompted FIFA to seek ‘independent’ legal advice.
On Thursday, following a meeting of the FIFA Council, the world governing body dismissed the PFA and its argument that Israel violates FIFA statutes by letting teams from settlements in the West Bank play in the national league, saying: “FIFA should take no action given that, in the context of the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the FIFA Statutes, the final legal status of the West Bank remains an unresolved and highly complex matter under public international law.”
However, in 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the West Bank, is unlawful.
The Court noted that it “considers that the violations by Israel of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force and of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination have a direct impact on the legality of the continued presence of Israel, as an occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful. This illegality relates to the entirety of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967.”
Vadym Filashkin, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, signed an order to forcibly evacuate children living on roughly 30 of the streets in the city of Sloviansk most vulnerable to Russian shelling on Friday.
On Tuesday, lists of names were nailed to wooden boards outside the gates of the Omid rehabilitation center, some typed on A4 sheets and others handwritten. Their edges curled quickly in the damp air, blurred by rain and a crowd of men running their fingers down the pages again and again, whispering names under their breath, as if repetition might produce a different outcome.
For over a year, Israel, Washington and even Lebanon’s government have been speaking as if Hezbollah has been broken for good.
President Donald Trump joked about the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Ongoing diplomatic efforts involving Ukraine, the US and Russia have been temporarily put on hold as Washington focuses its attention on escalating tensions in the Middle East, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
White House officials have grown increasingly frustrated with Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace, accusing her of complicating efforts to evacuate Americans stranded in the Middle East by attempting to conduct her own rescue missions, according to people familiar with the matter.
