2022 World Cup A Loss for Israeli Regime: Activist
“The Zionist regime has lost with all its heavy investment with efforts and funds,” Firas Al Najim, Ottawa manager of Canadian Defenders for Human Rights, told IQNA while also referring to efforts of the regime to win the public opinion in the past years.
As Qatar is hosting the first World Cup in a Muslim nation, thousands of people have clearly signaled their anti-occupation sentiments by raising Palestinian flags or other symbols of the oppressed nation.
What follows is the full interview of IQNA with Al Najim on the topic:
IQNA: We have witnessed huge support for the Palestinian people and cause by people since the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. How do you evaluate support for Palestine? What does this support mean for the Palestinian people?
Al Najim: If the World Cup was hosted in most Western regimes, then the equation would have been different with supporting Palestine. In many games, they made it illegal to raise a Palestinian flag but when Russia went to war with Ukraine the West was exposed as they rose the Ukrainian flag in almost all events and institutions.
The Western regimes are biased and selective on who deserves human rights and support, unfortunately. But luckily this World Cup was hosted in a Muslim country that cares about Palestinian human rights and liberty and the freedoms they gave the fans opened the door to see how much people in the world care and support the Palestinian oppressed nation.
The support shows that there is much hope for the Palestinian people in their big struggle for liberation as they feel more encouraged to never give up and know that many people worldwide want to help them in their lawful struggle for freedom.
IQNA: What are the main messages of this for the Israeli occupiers?
Al Najim: The occupying media was being humiliated by the World Cup fans from many backgrounds and this was a clear message that the nations are not with many of those traitor regimes that normalized with the Zionist entity and sold out the Palestinian cause. The Zionists learned a great lesson from this World Cup the pro-Palestinian movement is growing and many people in the world oppose and truly hate them and want to assist the Palestinian people in their rightful struggle for full liberation.
IQNA: How far do you think the Israeli regime was shocked by this support?
Al Najim: The Zionist delusional mentality thought by investing in years of lobbying and bribing Western politicians that the public opinion would always be in their direction and interest and this showed another side that has been silenced and suppressed for many years. It was an opportunity in Qatar to see how public opinion has been shaped for the Palestinian cause. The Zionist regime has lost despite all its heavy investments and efforts.
IQNA: Do you think such reactions could affect governments' consideration of normalization?
Al Najim: The regimes that normalized are going to rethink how they will deal with their nation that is not in line with their agenda and this could turn very ugly in the upcoming battles with the Zionist regime where the nations will be very angry with their leadership. The nations of west Asia on a high level are in total opposition to normalizing with the Zionist entity and have been feeling the suffering of the Palestinian people and want to assist them in the liberation process.
