News / Palestine

Israel omitted from video footage of Asian Cup history

Thursday, 22 January 2015 4:29 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 22 January 2015 5:07 PM ]

A captured scene of the video released by Asian Football Confederation (AFC) about the history of the games

Israel has been omitted from a video recently released by Asian Football Confederation (AFC) recounting the history of the continental soccer games.

Israel was part of the games before Arab and Islamic countries demanded in 1974 that AFC expel the Zionist entity from the competition. The tournament in those days accommodated a lower number of teams and the Israeli football team even managed to win the games.

However, a video recently released by the AFC, which was reportedly made by an external agency, has omitted Israel from its content. No reason has been provided for the move, although it seems to be in line with AFC’s policy to not upset its huge audience in the Arab and Islamic states.

Also earlier in January, a giant publication house in the United States sold atlases with no territory named Israel to English-speaking schools in some Persian Gulf countries.

HarperCollins Publishers said including the name of Israel in the maps would have been “unacceptable” to customers in the Persian Gulf region. The publisher later regretted the decision under huge pressure from pro-Israeli media and lobby groups.

Arab Muslims in the Persian Gulf and Middle East see the Israeli entity as completely illegitimate as it was established in 1948 in the territories that were occupied illegally. Since then the entity has pursued a policy of expansion mainly through forced evacuation of people, expansion of settlements and waging war on defenseless civilians.

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