March 26, 2026

The Boston Coalition for Palestine (BCFP) voted at its March 15 membership meeting to join the growing Anti-Fascist Football Coalition’s call to “Move the FIFA World Cup games out of the U.S.” and “Boycott the U.S.” Boston is one of the 11 U.S. cities scheduled to host World Cup games beginning mid-June. Following is BCFP’s full press release “for immediate release.”

On Palestine Land Day, the Boston Coalition for Palestine (BCFP) joins the international Anti-Fascist Football Coalition to demand that FIFA ‘Move the World Cup games out of the U.S.!’

BCFP supports ‘Global Sumud Flotilla’ to Gaza, setting sail March 29

The Boston Coalition for Palestine (BCFP) and the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition will hold a 5:00 p.m. press conference on Monday, March 30 (Palestine Land Day), at Boston City Hall Plaza to demand that FIFA move the World Cup Games out of Boston and out of the U.S. due to U.S. war crimes in Palestine, Iran, Lebanon Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan, Congo and elsewhere around the world. In addition, the Coalition, joined in action by over 50 organizations since its founding in October 2023, advises the world’s peoples to “Boycott the U.S.” as the U.S. is a dangerous place with escalating Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and militarized police violence in its cities’ streets.

FIFA itself became complicit with U.S. war crimes when its President Gianni Infantino outrageously awarded U.S. President Donald Trump the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize.” Trump and Infantino have the blood of thousands of Palestinian, Lebanese and Iranian children on their hands. FIFA has also become a “strategic partner” to Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which is plotting to build luxury hotels and sports stadiums on Palestinian land on top of Gaza’s rubble and mass graves.

Palestine Land Day (Yom al-Ard), observed annually on March 30, commemorates the 1976 murder of six unarmed Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces during protests against land confiscation in the Galilee. It symbolizes Palestinian resistance against Israeli settlement expansion and land appropriation — a declaration of unity against displacement by Israel, the U.S. and their “Board of Peace” conspirators like FIFA President Infantino, billionaire Zionist funders like Robert Kraft and real estate tycoon thieves and swindlers like Trump, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.

The city of Boston and state of Massachusetts should not turn over the public plaza for a “FIFA Fan Festival™” while the U.S. and Israel continue to murder Palestinian, Iranian and Lebanese football players with impunity. The millions of taxpayer dollars slated to be spent for police weaponry and surveillance technology and to enrich FIFA and Kraft’s Patriots organization should instead be spent on needed services for immigrants, people in need of housing and food and public health and education programs.

With the citizens of countries like Haiti, Ghana and Morocco scheduled to play in Boston prohibited from attending the games by Trump’s racist travel bans, and with ICE agents also targeting people from these countries, BCFP advises the world’s peoples to “Boycott the U.S.” Boston itself is in mourning this week for Emmanuel Damas, who was living peacefully and legally seeking asylum in Boston with his family until he was kidnapped by ICE in September 2025. Mr. Damas died in ICE custody of medical neglect on March 2 from an infected tooth.

The U.S., along with Israel should be banned from international sporting and other cultural events while they continue to slaughter civilians in Palestine and Iran with impunity. The “beautiful game” can not be used to legitimize host countries and national teams engaged in war crimes.

For further information about and to endorse the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition and the Black Alliance for Peace’s North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights: peoplescenteredhumanrights.com/move-the-games

BCFP Supports ‘Global Sumud Flotilla’ to Gaza, setting sail March 29

The Boston Coalition for Palestine demands Israel and the U.S. keep “Hands Off the Global Sumud Flotilla” when it sets sail March 29 to break the illegal siege and blockade of Gaza. The Spring 2026 flotilla — with over 100 boats and over 3,000 participants from over 100 countries — will carry tons of much-needed humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza. Gazans are in desperate need of aid as they continue to be slaughtered and denied vital food supplies by Israel Occupation Forces in the ongoing genocide.

Israel subjected participants in last summer’s flotilla to Gaza to kidnapping and torture inside Israeli prisons, including U.S. labor leader Chris Smalls, singer-songwriter Carsie Blanton and Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg. BCFP demands safe passage for the flotilla and an end to the siege and genocide in Gaza.

For more information about the Global Sumud Flotilla: globalsumudflotilla.org.