Fifa president tries to stage Israel-Palestine handshake that goes all wrong

Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s attempt to orchestrate a handshake between Israel and Palestine football officials failed spectacularly in a heated moment at the Fifa Congress.

Infantino invited the president of the Palestinian football federation Jibril Rajoub to join him on stage alongside Israel FA Vice-President Basim Sheikh Suliman in Vancouver.

Both men had spoken in front of hundreds of delegates, with Suliman remaining in stage after his address.

After inviting Rajoub back on stage, Infantinio called for both men to stand closer to him with Rajoub declining the photo op, making his protests known. Unperturbed, Infantino put his hand on Rajoub’s arm and gestured for him to come closer again.

As Suliman stood motionless, Infantino and Rajoub’s conversation grew more impassioned conversation with the words largely not audible to those in the room or watching Fifa’s live stream.

Asked what Rajoub said when he refused, Palestinian FA Vice-President Susan Shalabi, who was in the room, told Reuters: ‘I cannot shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and ⁠genocide. We are suffering.’

As the two delegates stood apart, Infantino returned to the podium alone.

‘Let me please say something,’ Infantino said. ‘Let me thank the two representatives from Israel and from Palestine, who have the same rights, duties and obligations, who are members of FIFA. We will work together, let’s work together to give hope to the children, let’s work together for that. 

‘We have a beautiful under-15 tournament coming up, where we will invite all 211 countries to participate, all the children of the world, let’s do it for that. Let’s work together, you have my commitment, you have the support of the whole room.’

Infantino then hugged both men separately as they left the stage.

Infantino went onto confirm his intentions to stand for re-election for a third fill term as Fifa president next year.

But his attempts to orchestrate the he handshake were described as ‘absurd’.

Palestinian FA Vice-President Shalabi said: ‘To be put in a position where to ‌have a handshake after everything that was said, this ‌negates the whole purpose of the speech that the general (Rajoub) was giving.

‘He spent like 15 minutes trying to explain to everyone how the rules matter, how this could easily become a precedent where the rights of ⁠member associations are violated with impudence, and then we’ll just wrap this under the carpet. It was absurd.’