Activists are demanding accountability for the genocide and campaigning for Israel to be expelled from European football.
Calls for Israel to be suspended from European football activities are growing again as the Israeli team resumes qualifying activities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup a day after the Gaza ceasefire took effect.
Human rights group Game Over Israel on Saturday called on UEFA to suspend Israel until it stops abusing Palestinians.
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As the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip takes effect on Friday, Game Over Israel campaign director Ashish Prashar stressed the need to hold Israel accountable for its actions.
He said Israel had “no place in international football” after the devastation it inflicted in the Gaza Strip, which major rights groups and UN investigators have described as genocide.
“Even if the bombs and bullets stop, genocide is a crime against humanity and probably the most serious crime that a state or a project can commit,” Prashar told Al Jazeera.
“Remember what Europe did after World War II? Nazi Germany was suspended from football and the Nuremberg trials took place.”
Game Over Israel has used billboards in major cities around the world to get its message across. The latest billboard was unveiled in Milan and is addressed to UEFA president Alexander Ceferin.
“Israel is committing genocide. Stop Israel now. It’s your moral obligation.”
The campaign carried the same message in a full-page ad in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times.
From Times Square to Milan 🇮🇹, soccer fans have had plenty of fun! ️😡 Stop allowing soccer to genocide sportswash. The world sees this and we are calling for a complete boycott of Israel across the football world. The Federation can no longer hide. Pause Israel. #GameOverIsrael @UEFA pic.twitter.com/pbQSmn1pia
— gameoverisrael (@gameover_israel) October 11, 2025
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine John Dugard said it was legally necessary and urgent for UEFA to ban the Israeli Football Association (IFA).
“UEFA risks becoming complicit in perpetuating war crimes by continuing to host Israeli teams,” Dugard said in a statement.
“To protect the integrity of the sport, we urge the immediate suspension of IFA and all member teams from UEFA competitions until Israel ends its genocide and its illegal occupation and fully complies with its obligations under international law.”
In addition to the atrocities in Gaza, Israel allows teams based in occupied West Bank settlements to compete in professional leagues, in violation of FIFA rules, which is illegal under international law.
FIFA regulations state that “no member association and its clubs may play on the territory of another member association without the approval of another member association.”
There is international consensus that the West Bank is Palestinian territory illegally occupied by Israel, supported by United Nations resolutions and the opinions of the International Court of Justice.
FIFA and UEFA suspended Russia days after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Mass incarceration is a red line. Systematic torture is a red line. Illegal occupation is a red line. Apartheid is a red line. And genocide is a red line above all else,” Craig Mokhiver, a former United Nations official, said in a statement.
“Israel has crossed too many human rights lines to be allowed access. To normalize this now would be to be complicit in ushering in a new era of terror in our world.”
This month, more than 30 legal scholars wrote a letter to Ceferin stressing the need to ban Israel.
Before the national team’s game against Israel on Saturday, hundreds of Norwegian fans waved Palestinian flags and banners in a protest condemning Israeli apartheid and genocide.
Norway won the match 5-0. Israel currently sit third in UEFA qualifying Group I ahead of Tuesday’s game against Italy, and are highly unlikely to qualify for the World Cup play-offs.
The United States, which will co-host next year’s tournament with Canada and Mexico, said it would block any attempt to ban Israel from the World Cup if it qualifies.
Israel has never participated in the FIFA World Cup in Europe. It came from Asia in 1970.
