Letter: Amnesty International’s demand of the IFA to exclude Israeli football players from world competitions is another manifestation of the hysteria that has gripped Northern Ireland

I hope that the Irish Football Association reject the demand from Amnesty International that the IFA seek the exclusion of Israeli sportsmen and women from Fifa and Uefa football competitions as a consequence of the Israeli government’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza.

To hold Israeli Jewish, Christian and Muslim people responsible for the Israeli government response to the Hamas atrocities of October 7 and to seek the exclusion and isolation of Israeli people, particularly Israeli Jewish people is I believe anti-semitic.

I have engaged with Amnesty International on matters of anti-semitism and discovered that Amnesty has no working definition of or, I believe, understanding of anti-semitism against which to test Amnesty’s advocacy.

It would appear to me that Amnesty’s demand of the IFA to exclude Israeli football players from world and European football competitions is just another manifestation of the hysteria – much of it anti-semitic – that has gripped so much of Northern Ireland: advocacy, trade union, political, academic, media, cultural, arts and sporting life.

I sincerely hope that the IFA firmly rejects Amnesty International’s demand.

Gerry Cullen, Independent Left, Dungannon