Palestinians reject peace match
PALESTINIAN football officials have rejected a bid to team up with Israelis in a peace match against FC Barcelona in July.
PALESTINIAN football officials have rejected a bid to team up with Israelis in a peace match against FC Barcelona in July.
Barcelona president Sandro Rosell met with both Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Football Association president Jibril Rajoub to organise the match.
But after a successful meeting with Peres, Rosell’s plans were put on hold when Rajoub said there are “lots of obstacles” and that it’s “a good idea, a dream to become true if the occupation ends”.
Rosell said the club is hoping to use football as a way to promote peace in the region, much like it did when it hosted a joint Israeli-Palestinian team at its Nou Camp stadium in 2005.
“The idea is to help the two peoples to reach peace with a meeting in which Barcelona stars and players from the two sides would take part,” Rosell said.
Peres threw his support behind the idea, saying: “Real peace is between people and not just between governments, and as our children love Barcelona, so too do children in the Palestinian Authority.”
But the plans were rejected a day later by Rajoub, who said “this idea would cause a quake in the region if it were to take place, but it is too soon and the ball is in the Israeli camp”.
WITH AGENCIES
AJN Staff
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