Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan is asking the International Olympic Committee to expel former Fatah official and current head of the Palestinian Football Association and the Palestine Olympic Committee Jibril Rajoub, Hadashot evening news reported Wednesday.
In June, Rajoub failed in an attempt to convince the world governing body of soccer, FIFA, to suspend and sanction Israel. Not only did FIFA vote down his proposal, it decided to launch disciplinary proceedings against him over his verbal incitement against Israel before this year's World Cup final, which led to the cancellation of a friendly match in Jerusalem between the Israeli and Argentinian soccer teams.
In August, FIFA decided that Rajoub's conduct merited a year-long suspension from the organization.
Erdan wrote to IOC head Thomas Bach this week and accused Rajoub of incitement.
He said the friendly match had been called off as a direct result of calls for violent attacks on the Argentine players and their families if the game went ahead. Erdan said Rajoub had orchestrated the campaign and "called on soccer fans to burn shirts and posters [of Argentina star] Lionel Messi, merely because he expressed a desire to play in Israel."
Following the announcement that the match had been called off, Rajoub called the decision 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 in Ramallah outside the Argentinian representative's office in which he laid out his efforts to have the game canceled.
"There is not supposed to be a place in professional international organizations for anyone who supports terrorism and violence and uses threats and scare tactics," Erdan wrote in the letter quoted by Hadashot.
Erdan called Rajoub's conduct antithetical to "every value of Olympic sport."
"The IOC must prove that it is not a political entity that allows someone who supports terrorism and violence a place among its members. We will continue to take action to expose the truth about those who support boycotting Israel," Erdan wrote.
Rajoub has served numerous prison sentences for terrorist activities and was involved in a plot to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He served as national security adviser to PLO leader Yasser Arafat as well as head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Force. During his tenure, he was accused of using the organization to quash opposition to Arafat.
In 2012, Rajoub opposed a request for a moment of silence at that year's Olympics in memory of the Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games, saying the planned memorial was "racist."
He also told the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese TV station Al-Mayadeen that if the Palestinians had nuclear weapons, "we'd be using them."
Rajoub is considered a contender, although not a leading one, to succeed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
