Sports and Politics: Palestinians, Arab States, and Normalization with Israel | iNSS

A bone of contention between the Palestinians and some Arab countries concerns visits by sports delegations to the PA in the framework of international sports events. The Palestinians have asked the Arabs not to include these visits among the prohibitions concerning normalization with Israel, but these requests were not always granted. The Palestinian-Arab debate over normalization reached a peak in September 2015, when Saudi Arabia, refusing to come to Faisal al-Husseini Stadium in the village of al-Ram just outside Jerusalem, submitted a request to transfer its game against the Palestinian team in the preliminary games of the 2018 World Cup.