The Executive Council of FIFA, the international football association, has agreed to delay a vote to ouster the Israel Football Association from the organization. The request to expell Israel hs been submitted to the FIFA annual Congress in Bahrein on Thursday by the Palestinian Football Association presoident Jibri Rajoub.

The resolution demanded that teams from Israeli settlements be removed from their league and threatened Israel’s participation in FIFA tournaments.

The Council made its announcement shortly after the chairman of the Monitoring Committee on Israel-Palestine, Tokyo Sexwale, presented his report and recommendations on the matter ahead of the FIFA Congress in Bahrain on Thursday.

In a text posted on its website, FIFA stated: “The FIFA Council considered that at this stage it is premature for the FIFA Congress to take any decision.”

FIFA has recognized the Palestinian Footbal Association (PFA) as one of its 211 national associations since 1998. The Palestinian Authority insists that FIFA bylaws which prohibit one league using land belonging to the country of another league be applied to the six Israeli soccer clubs in the West Bank.

The Israel Football Association maintains that the application of the bylaw to the West Bank teams would put FIFA in the position of determining Israel’s borders, which is beyond its purview.

The Israeli government argues that the settlements were built in Area C of the West Bank, where Israel has full security and administrative control under the Oslo Accords, and should not be deemed unlawful.

The FIFA joint monitoring committee, which is made up of delegations from both leagues, has met for the last two years without finding a compromise position.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjain Netanyahu spoke to FIFA president Gianni Infantino over the weekend, asking him to remove the Palestinian demand to impose sanctions against the six settlement teams from the Congress agenda. The Prime Minister said: “If the decision against the teams from the settlements passes, it will make sports a source of division, instead of a source of conflict resolution. It could ruin FIFA.”

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder commended the executive council for deferring its decision.

“On behalf of the World Jewish Congress, I commend the FIFA Council for recognizing that the ongoing conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian football associations is a complicated matter deserving of more time and consideration, and for understanding that decisions of this nature must not be made rashly or prematurely,’’ he said.

Lauder stressed that “politics, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have no place in sport – these are issues meant for the negotiating table, not the football field.’’

‘’FIFA’s position as the most prominent regulatory body in the sporting world, one which bridges divides between countries and peoples, must be safeguarded. By keeping politics out of football, FIFA’s central role in the effort to promote respect among nations through sports will be secured.”

Just days before the FIFA Congress meeting in Bahrein, the Palestinian Football Association choose to use football to honor and promote terror.

Accoerding to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the official Palestinian Authority daily Al Hayat Al-Jadida reported that the PFA continued its supervision of the annual football tournament named after Abu Jihad - Khalil Al-Wazir, the arch-terrorist responsible for the murder of 125 Israelis.

"The Jerusalem Al-Nasser club has successfully organized the Prince of Martyrs Khalil Al-Wazir [Abu Jihad] Championship for the 23rd consecutive year... This is under the supervision of the Central Branch of the [Palestinian] Football Association and under the joint auspices of the Central Branch of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth and the Jerusalem Clubs Association."