New Delhi: Argentina on Wednesday pulled out of its ‘friendly’ football match with Israel, apparently due to widespread political pressure over Israel’s recent killing of Palestinians in Gaza. Captain Lionel Messi’s team was to face Israel for its final warm-up match at the Teddry Kollek stadium in west Jerusalem on Saturday, June 9, before heading to Russia for the FIFA World Cup scheduled to begin next week.According to Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association, the match was cancelled due to security reasons, not political ones, and in the interests of the“health, personal safety and the safety of the entire delegation”.“It’s nothing against the Israeli community, it’s nothing against the Jewish community,” he said. “I hope everyone sees the decision I’ve taken as a gesture for peace. Soccer transcends religion, transcends gender, because everyone plays soccer. We leave open the possibility of taking joint action in the future in Israel or in other parts of the world.”The Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires also confirmed that the match had been cancelled. “The Israeli embassy is sad to announce the suspension of the match between the Israel and Argentina national teams scheduled for Saturday 9 June, as a warm-up game for the Russia World Cup,” a statement from the embassy said, according to Middle East Eye.Argentina’s decision to cancel the highly anticipated match – tickets for which were reportedly sold out within 20 minutes – has upset authorities in Jerusalem and brought cheers in Gaza and the West Bank.The stadium that was due to host the match is in west Jerusalem. The Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state that will include the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.The match was originally slated to be played in Haifa but Israeli authorities contributed funding for it to be moved to Jerusalem, irking Palestinians further after US President Donald Trump’s recognition of the city as Israel’s capital.The cancellation comes after heavy campaigning from Palestinian rights groups and football enthusiasts, asking Argentina not to play the match with Israel. The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) in a statement thanked Messi and his team “for refusing to be used to serve a non-sporting goal”. The chairman of the PFA, Jibril Rajoub, said, “Values, morals and sport have secured a victory today and a red card was raised at Israel through the cancellation of the game.” Rajoub had earlier urged Messi to cancel the match, and had asked Arabs to burn posters of Messi if the Argentinian team went ahead with the game.Ofer Eini, president of the Israel Football Association, blamed Rajoub for the cancellation and said he would file a formal complaint against him with FIFA.“The association views with severity the physical and brutal threats that crossed every red line made by the head of the Palestinian association, Jibril Rajoub,” Eini said.The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), tweeted that Palestinian human rights activists had planned a rally in Barcelona to thank Argentina and Messi for cancelling the ‘friendly’ match.The Embassy of Israel in Argentina issued a statement, claiming that the match was cancelled due to “threats and provocations” against Messi. “The Israeli embassy is sad to announce the suspension of the match between the Israel and Argentina national teams scheduled for Saturday June 9, as a warm-up for the Russia World Cup,” the statement said.Argentinian striker Gonzalo Higuaín confirmed the cancellation. “In the end, they’ve finally done the right thing…” Higuaín told ESPN. “Health and common sense come first. We felt that it wasn’t right to go.”Some reports have said that Messi personally pushed for the match to be cancelled.Israel’s defence minister Avigdor Lieberman tweeted that it was “a shame that Argentina’s footballing nobility did not withstand the pressure from Israel-hating inciters.”“We will not yield before a pack of anti-Semitic terrorist supporters,” Lieberman said.According to media reports, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Argentinian President Mauricio Marci, urging him to request the Argentinian team to reconsider its decision. Marci is reported to have replied that he had no control over the team’s decision.Argentina, which holds the fifth spot in the FIFA rankings, is vying for its third title in what could be its 30-year-old captain’s last World Cup. This cancellation may have cast a shadow over Argentina’s prospects for the title, as the team is struggling to recover from the shock of the heavy defeat – 6-1 – to Spain in March, and having to drop its first-choice goalkeeper, Sergio Romero, because of an injury. The team is set to play its first match in Russia on June 16 against Iceland.The politics around the match and Argentina’s decision to pull out have highlighted the intensified tensions in Gaza, where at least 120 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during recent protests. The protests were triggered by Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Argentina’s pulling out of the match with Israel comes months after Britain’s threat to boycot the FIFA World Cup in protest over Kremlin’s suspected nerve-agent attack on a former secret agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in March this year.(With inputs from Reuters)