Argentina has cancelled a football World Cup warm-up match with Israel, apparently under pressure over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.
Striker Gonzalo Higuain said they had “finally done the right thing”.
But Israel’s defence minister said it was “too bad” Argentina’s footballers did not “withstand the pressure of the Israeli-hating inciters”.
“We will not yield before a pack of anti-Semitic terrorist supporters,” Avigdor Lieberman tweeted.
The Israeli embassy in Argentina tweeted to confirm that the friendly, which was due to take place in Jerusalem on Saturday, had been “suspended”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Argentina’s president in an attempt to salvage the tie, but was told by Mauricio Macri that “there was nothing that I could do”, Israel’s Army Radio reported.
Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie had said he believed his country’s footballers “were not willing to play the game”.
“In the end, they’ve done right thing, and this is behind us,” Higuain told ESPN. “Health and common sense come first. We felt that it wasn’t right to go.”
The news was met with cheers in Gaza, where at least 120 Palestinians were killed and thousands more injured by Israeli forces during recent protests.
In Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Football Association issued a statement thanking Argentina striker Lionel Messi and his teammates.
“What happened… is a red card from the rest of the world to Israelis,” the association’s president, Jibril Rajoub, told a news conference on Wednesday.
Image copyright AFP Image caption At a news conference, Jibril Rajoub sat next to a sign saying: “From Palestine thank you Messi.”
Before the match was cancelled, Mr Rajoub had accused Israel of using it as a “political tool” and called on Palestinians to burn replica shirts bearing Messi’s name and pictures of him if he played.
The Israel Football Association said it viewed “with severity the physical and brutal threats, which crossed every red line, made by” Mr Rajoub.
It vowed to “do everything in its power in the world football institutions to make Rajoub and the Palestinian FA accountable”.
The campaign group Avaaz, which had called for the game to be cancelled, praised Argentina’s football team for what it called a “brave ethical decision”.
Media captionGaza’s deadliest day of violence in years
“This proves Argentina understands there is nothing friendly about playing in Jerusalem, when just miles away Israeli snipers are shooting unarmed protesters,” spokeswoman Alice Jay said.
Israel said its snipers had only opened fire in self-defence or on people trying to infiltrate its territory under cover of the protests orchestrated by the Hamas militant group, which runs Gaza.
Saturday’s friendly, which was to be Argentina’s final game before the start of their World Cup campaign in Russia later this month, was to be played at the Teddy Kollek Stadium in West Jerusalem.
The status of Jerusalem is highly sensitive. Israel regards the city as its “eternal and undivided” capital. Palestinians see the eastern part of Jerusalem – occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war – as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Palestinians were angered by a decision by promoters to relocate the Argentina football game to Jerusalem from Haifa, reportedly after the Israeli government contributed funding.
In December, US President Donald Trump infuriated Palestinians by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The US embassy was moved there from Tel Aviv last month.
Meanwhile, Palestinians have welcomed the Argentinian football team’s decision to pull out of a planned friendly match with Israel.
The head of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, told a press conference that the decision was “on the right track”.
“I think this is according to FIFA statutes and according to their principles and mission to promote ethics and values, and to build a bridge between nations rather than being a tool for political ends,” he said, adding: “the Israelis tried to use Messi and those stars from Argentina.”
Saturday’s match was set to be played at the Teddy Kollek Stadium in Jerusalem, which sits on the site of a Palestinian village, al-Malha.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) also thanked the team and striker Lionel Messi specifically for the decision, and called for Israel to be booted from world football for its abuses against Palestinians.
“We welcome news that [Argentina’s] ‘friendly’ football match with Israel has been canceled!” PACBI wrote on Twitter.
“The team responded to creative campaigning from fans around the world denouncing Israel’s sports-washing of its crimes against Palestinians.”
The Argentinians pulled out after widespread condemnation by Palestinian and human rights activists, which included a message by a Palestinian footballer wounded by an Israeli sniper during a protest.
Mohammed Khalil was shot in the leg in Gaza on March 30 during the first in a wave of protests demanding the right of return for refugees living in the besieged territory.
“I call on the Argentinian team and especially captain Lionel Messi – because he is very popular in Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip – to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and to boycott the scheduled game with Israel, which is occupying our land,” Khalil said.
American Palestinian lawyer Noura Erakat said that the decision by Argentina and the preceding campaign were unprecedented.
“This is major. If I’m right this is the first sports boycott of its kind. An indication of mainstream support for Palestine [and] a bold rejection of US/Israeli violent [and] exclusionary futures. Thank you [Argentina],” she tweeted.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to have called Argentinian leader Mauricio Macri in a failed bid to get the game reinstated.
Furthermore, Israel said it will file a complaint with FIFA, the global footballing governing body, against the Palestinians over the scrapped match.
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Argentinian star Lionel Messi is widely regarded as one of the best footballers in the world, alongside Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, and has a strong fanbase in Palestine and the wider Middle East.
