Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) soccer federation, announced Monday that PA sports activities will resume in September following a hiatus that began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
"We announce the resumption of sports activities and the football association's league beginning September 4," Rajoub announced during a press conference in Ramallah, as quoted by AFP.
The PA soccer federation has designated its initial tournament the "Thousand Martyrs' Cup," claiming to honor 1,014 Palestinian Arab athletes. Israeli officials have noted that many individuals categorized by the PA as athletes were active members of terrorist organizations.
The competition is planned to involve over 200 clubs, with 146 teams from Judea and Samaria, 44 from Gaza, and 36 from “Palestinian refugee camps" located in Lebanon, launching concurrently across all three regions.
Addressing the press conference, Rajoub remarked that the war "created difficult conditions for all Palestinians that led to the suspension of our competitions and activities."
He continued, "But we have not lost our Palestinian national will, nor have we lost our belief that sport will remain a symbol of hope and life."
Highlighting the financial difficulties faced by the federation and local teams, Rajoub urged FIFA and international sports governing bodies to support PA sports and guarantee players' rights to participate in "freedom and dignity."
Addressing previous comments regarding FIFA President Gianni Infantino's withdrawn proposal to open competitions to private investment, Rajoub remarked that "many today are questioning FIFA's commercial direction."
"But for Palestine, the issue is more fundamental … Our question is whether FIFA still has the courage to apply its regulations to everyone equally … without succumbing to political pressures," Rajoub claimed.
The PA soccer chief continues to push FIFA to penalize Israeli teams based in Judea and Samaria and suspend Israel's membership in the global sports organization.
"We are not asking for privileges; we are demanding legitimate rights guaranteed by international sporting laws and charters," he asserted.
Rajoub, who previously served a prison term in Israel for security offenses, has a long record of incitement and antisemitic statements. In past public statements, he claimed that Jews deserved the genocide perpetrated against them by the Nazis.
During an October 2011 address honoring terrorists released by Israel in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, Rajoub commended Hamas for the abduction of the Israeli soldier and celebrated the released terrorists as heroes. In another statement, he declared that if the PA possessed a nuclear weapon, it would deploy it against Israel.
In 2018, FIFA suspended Rajoub from official activities for one year due to incitement to hatred and violence after he called on soccer fans to burn jerseys and pictures of Lionel Messi to force the cancellation of a scheduled exhibition match in Israel. His subsequent appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was rejected.
More recently, US authorities denied Rajoub a visa to attend the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The visa refusal followed a high-profile incident during the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, where Rajoub publicly refused to stand alongside or shake hands with Basim Sheikh Suliman, the vice president of the Israel Football Association.