Up until 2015, the Palestine Football Association (PFA) and its national team had been an afterthought both on and off the pitch.
Palestine was officially recognised by FIFA in 1998, but after some promising early success, the team went into a tailspin.
Jibril Rajoub took over the PFA in 2008, and despite increased funding, success proved hard to come by.
Those in charge seemed genuinely disinterested and outright hostile to the footballing apparatus.
Then, on 30 May 2014, Palestine qualified for its first-ever Asian Cup, and a media frenzy ensued.
It then became apparent to Jibril Rajoub that the football team could be used to deliver a powerful political message aligned with the Palestinian Authority's vision for a future Palestinian state. Shortly after Palestine's successful qualification to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, Israel launched a brutal 36-day assault on the Gaza Strip, which it named Operation Protective Edge . The brutality of the war far outstripped anything that came before it. Over 1,400 civilians were killed, nearly 600 of whom were children.
Among the dead was Ahed Zaqout, a former midfielder who had once captained the junior national team in a 1994 friendly against a side that featured Michel Platini and a pantheon of other stars.
Two years earlier, during another bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip, the Israelis destroyed the Paralympic Headquarters and Palestine Stadium.
The calls from civil society campaigns to ban Israel from competitive football grew louder in the aftermath.
The effort would be given a considerable boost when Rajoub decided to co-opt its messaging and formally present a motion at the 2015 FIFA Congress to ban Israel from international football.
The litany of complaints included the freedom of movement of footballers, attacks on football and sporting infrastructure, and the inclusion of five settlement clubs within Israel's league system.
Then FIFA President Sepp Blatter was vocal in his disapproval, labelling the PFA's efforts as an abuse of FIFA statutes and "inappropriate".
Much to his frustration, he did not have the power, even as the chief executive, to overrule the main chamber.
Instead, he sought to bring both sides together by staging a "peace match" and met with both Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the matter.
The motion that the PFA had put to the Congress could be passed with a two-thirds majority. The wheels were in motion until, at the eleventh hour, everything changed.
A flustered Rajoub took to the stage and gave a speech, explaining that he would withdraw the motion and propose an amendment in its place.
That amendment passed with 90% support of the chamber. Rajoub shook hands with his Israeli counterpart Avi Luzon, but in the aftermath, it was clear that the former general had been outwitted.
It became clear that the main sticking point — the presence of West Bank settlement clubs in the Israeli league — was not to be referred to the United Nations as the PFA wished, but to a separate committee.
That committee took over two years to deliver its decision, and when it did, the decision was not what the PFA expected.
The Palestinian then thought that FIFA's decision to block Russia from co-opting Crimean clubs into its league system had set a precedent.
FIFA thought otherwise and, in their statement explaining their decision, clarified: "Given that the final status of the West Bank territories is the concern of the competent international public law authorities, the FIFA Council agrees that FIFA, in line with the general principle established in its Statutes, must remain neutral with regard to political matters." Next steps In July 2018, the PFA's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was dismissed.
It was a chastening experience for the PFA and Rajoub, who abandoned the effort soon thereafter.
Civil society kept the fight alive, and while calls grew louder to ban Israel from the sport, there was no statement put out by the PFA in the immediate aftermath of Israel's genocide in Gaza .
The first official communication came on 31 January. It did not come from the desk of the PFA but rather the West Asian Football Federation, the subconfederation of Arab teams in Asia.
The letter sent to a 211 member association asked teams to take a stand "by condemning the killing of innocent civilians, including players, coaches, referees, and officials, the destruction of the football infrastructure, and taking a united front in isolating the Israeli Football Association (IFA) from all football-related activities until these acts of aggression cease."
The FIFA Congress in Bangkok that year was supposed to result in a decision from FIFA, but that was only the first of a half-dozen delays deemed necessary to consult experts or refer the matter to a committee.
For his part, Rajoub took a light touch with the lobbying effort. He was a late arrival at the 2024 FIFA Congress in Bangkok, having spent the majority of the week in Dublin with the Women's national team ahead of their friendly against Bohemian FC.
FIFA did take action last month, but the punishment levied on Israel amounted to a slap on the wrist.
The PFA has since renewed its call for Israel to be banned from international football after a FIFA disciplinary report found "multiple breaches" of anti-discrimination rules by the IFA. FIFA fined the IFA 150,000 Swiss francs, a decision Rajoub described as "significant" but ultimately insufficient, arguing it falls short of meaningful accountability.
Rajoub pointed to what he described as systemic racism within Israeli football, including the conduct of Beitar Jerusalem supporters, as well as the continued inclusion of clubs based in illegal West Bank settlements in Israeli leagues.
He also highlighted the devastating impact of Israel's genocide on Palestinian sport, claiming that more than 1,000 athletes and hundreds of sports facilities have been affected since October 2023.
Despite this, FIFA opted not to take action on the issue of settlement clubs, a decision that continues to draw criticism given longstanding international legal concerns.
Instead, it sang from its 2017 hymn sheet, stating: "FIFA should take no action… given that the final status of the West Bank remains an unresolved, highly complex matter under public international law."
This might have been an oversight by FIFA, as international law had definitively ruled on the matter in the interim years.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice determined that Israel's presence in the Occupied Palestinian territories was unlawful. The court demanded an end to the occupation as rapidly as possible, the evacuation of all settlers, and reparations.
Flummoxed by FIFA's inaction, the PFA has now vowed to bring up the matter at the next FIFA Congress and, should that fail, appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. UEFA pressure The tactical approach is no different from the one the organisation took a decade ago, but there is hope that the outcome might be different.
In the three previous instances when FIFA was forced to ban one of its Member Associations, only one was the result of legal procedures. Yugoslavia's ban on the eve of its participation in Euro 92 resulted from the Security Council's passing Resolution 757.
Given the United States' veto power, it is unlikely that a similar scenario could play out again.
In the case of South Africa and, more recently, Russia, the organisation was forced to choose: either ban one member association or risk losing dozens of others — and the sponsors that come with them — due to a boycott.
In Russia's case, the catalyst was Poland Captain Robert Lewandowski, who refused to play against Russia in a World Cup qualifier in the weeks following the invasion of Ukraine . His act was backed up by the captains of the other national teams in the group, Sweden and Czechia. The dominoes fell across Europe after that, and Russia's position became untenable.
Sensing that the European governing body of football — UEFA — might be more likely to take action against Israel, campaigners such as Game Over Israel have shifted their attention and resources.
Public opinion in many European countries is decisively against Israel's participation in sporting and cultural events.
A UEFA Nations League match between Israel and Ireland, slated for 4 October, could be the spark that lights the fire — 63 percent of Irish footballers favour a boycott, and several prominent coaches, including former national team managers Stephen Kenny and Brian Kerr, have also backed the call.
It remains to be seen, however, whether the decision regarding a ban will be adjudicated in the courts or forced by the real stewards of the sport — the players and the fans. Bassil Mikdadi is the creator of Football Palestine and an international football pundit. His work has been featured in the BBC, The Totally Football Show, and The Guardian