A Seattle soccer group calling itself the Fedayeen Football League has been hosting weekly matches in city parks while drawing criticism from Jewish and Iranian-American community members who say its imagery and messaging glorify terrorism, violence and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The league, which launched in May, describes its gatherings at Seattle public parks as opportunities to “play football, connect with Palestinian organizations and hang out.”
The group’s next scheduled event is June 12 at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Promotional materials circulating online and in social media posts associated with the group have included imagery of armed militants draped in keffiyehs, missiles striking urban areas and clips from news articles referencing attacks on Israel and the deaths of Israeli soldiers.
Photos shared by the group on social media also show participants playing soccer and posing with Islamic Republic of Iran and Palestinian flags, with one image showing a participant giving what appeared to be the “T” hand gesture popularized by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. (JNS sought comment from Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and asked Seattle Parks and Recreation if the group reserves space in the parks.)
David Solovy, a Seattle resident and former Israel Defense Forces soldier, told JNS he encountered the group carrying the flags at Green Lake Park in North Seattle. He said one of the members recognized him from his pro-Israel activism, and that the group started chanting “death to Zionists” and called him a “baby killer.”
Rose Marandiz, who fled the Islamic regime in 2001 and now lives in Seattle, criticized the group’s use of symbolism associated with the Iranian government.
“These idiots are parading around with the flag of a murderous regime while they hide under the guise of collective liberation,” she told JNS. She also pointed to men and women within the group playing soccer together, saying such activity would be prohibited in Iran.
“This is Western leftist privilege at its finest—wrong, ignorant and proudly confident,” she said. “I have second-hand embarrassment seeing this. I’m disappointed in the American people, especially my Seattle neighbors, for not seeing the group for who they really are. Neo-Nazi terrorist sympathizers.”
Randy Kessler, executive director of StandWithUs Northwest, told JNS that “the term ‘Fedayeen,’ Arabic for ‘those who sacrifice themselves,’ was chosen as a deliberate provocation.”
“The term has been used to describe armed Palestinian groups who carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, including bombings, hijackings and massacres, from the 1950s onward,” Kessler said. “Groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other designated terrorist organizations used this term to describe their fighters.”
“Naming a sports team ‘Fedayeen’ normalizes and glorifies political violence and terrorism,” he told JNS. “This group should be condemned by anyone who supports peace and tolerance.”
Regina Sassoon Friedland, director of the Seattle chapter of the American Jewish Committee, called on the community to reject the normalization of extremism, calling the soccer club’s promotional materials “offensive, dangerous and completely unacceptable.”
“Sports should bring communities together, not celebrate martyrdom, showcase terrorist imagery, glorify missile attacks or promote the symbols of regimes that support violence and extremism,” she told JNS. “At this time of surging antisemitism and political violence, it is particularly troubling to see this. We should be building bridges through sport, not importing hatred and glorifying violence.”
