Argentina has canceled its final World Cup warmup match against Israel as a political pressure campaign by Palestinian terrorist groups and the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement grew ahead of Saturday's scheduled fixture in Jerusalem.
The June 9 match at Jerusalem's Teddy Kollek Stadium – which has attracted huge interest among Israeli fans mainly because of Barcelona great Lionel Messi's planned participation – was to be Argentina's last game before they kick off their World Cup campaign in Russia on June 16.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke twice by phone with Argentine President Mauricio Macri to ask him to persuade the team not to cancel their visit, but Macri said the matter was out of his purview.
Senior aides to the prime minister lambasted Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev for her decision to move the match to Jerusalem from its original venue in Haifa.
"Why was it necessary to move the match to Jerusalem?" one aide asked.
According to Regev, once Argentina's national team announced it would play in Israel, various terrorist groups began sending messages to its players and their families that included clear death threats. Among other things, players were also sent video clips and photographs of dead children.
Regev had expressed hope that "the Argentine players won't give in to terrorist threats and the BDS organizations."
The Israeli Embassy in Argentina issued a statement, saying, "The threats and provocations directed at Leo Messi, which rallied his teammates around him, are not foreign to Israelis, whose star athletes have been the targets of violence and attacks on more than one occasion. The embassy is sad to announce that the game in question scheduled to take place on June 9 is canceled."
Israel Radio quoted an unnamed diplomatic official who said the chances of salvaging the match were very slim.
According to media reports in Argentina, pro-Palestinian protests that had followed the team's training sessions in recent days were the straw that broke the camel's back. Photos on social media showed a protester holding an Argentina shirt stained with "blood."
Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said, "As far as I'm aware, the players didn't want to play." Faurie explained that the players' motivations stemmed from the threats they had received.
"They've finally done the right thing," striker Gonzalo Higuaín said in an interview with ESPN, confirming reports the game had been canceled.
Argentine Football Association Vice President Hugo Moyano said threats to the team as they trained in Barcelona were affecting the players' families.
"I think it's a good thing that the match between Argentina and Israel was suspended," Moyano told Radio 10 in Argentina. "The right thing was done, it's not worth it. The stuff that happens in those places, where they kill so many people, as a human being you can't accept that in any way. The players' families were suffering due to the threats."
The Palestinians celebrated the cancellation.
In Gaza, people cheered and in Ramallah in the West Bank, the Palestinian Football Association issued a statement thanking Messi and his colleagues for canceling the game.
"The Palestinian Football Association thanks Argentina's players led by star Messi for refusing to be used to serve a non-sporting goal," it said in a statement.
PFA Chairman Jibril Rajoub said the decision was a "slap to the Israeli government. … Values, morals and sport have secured a victory today and a red card was raised at Israel through the cancellation of the game."
Rajoub called a news conference for Wednesday in Ramallah outside the Argentinian representative's office, in which he will detail the efforts put forth to force the game's cancellation. On Sunday, he had called for Palestinians to burn replica shirts and pictures of Messi.
Political blame-game
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman criticized the decision, tweeting, "It's a shame that soccer players from Argentina caved to pressure by Israel's haters. We will not cower before anti-Semites who support terrorism."
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday morning blasted the government and its handling of the event.
"The biggest problem with this government is that everything it does is shabby. The way to get tickets to the match was shady, the fight against BDS was transferred to the Public Security Ministry for political reasons, the culture minister dresses up as the foreign minister to push herself on camera, and in the end no one does the work and Argentina won't be coming to Israel," said Lapid.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio that "the Argentine players were worried they'd be attacked in Jerusalem. Instead of checking with us they chose to cancel. What we had here was incitement and threats of violence by the Palestinians and the terrorist Jibril Rajoub."
Joint Arab List MK Yousef Jabareen said, "The right-wing government needs to understand it cannot trample over United Nations resolutions and the rules of international law and expect the world to ignore it. From the outset, the government politicized the match and pushed for its relocation to Jerusalem for political purposes, and it is now paying the price for this politicization. Under the shadow of the mass killing in Gaza, settlement expansion, and the complete denial of the rights of the Palestinian people, the game's cancellation is a fitting global response to the government of occupation and oppression."
MK Ahmad Tibi, also from the Joint Arab List, tweeted, "Another victory for Messi (and the Palestinians), 1-0 on an own-goal by Miri Regev at the last minute."
Yesh Atid MK Haim Jelin, a native of Argentina, hailed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but said that "Haifa should have been allowed to host the match."
The cancellation is just one more obstacle for Argentina, who were beaten finalists at the World Cup in Brazil four years ago and whose preparations have been troubled this time around.
