Israel has demanded that FIFA, soccer's international governing body, investigate the threats against Argentinian players that prompted them to cancel a match that had been slated to be held in Jerusalem this weekend.
Israel urged the world body to investigate Palestinian calls to burn shirts of soccer superstar Lionel Messi if he played in the match.
Palestinian soccer officials said they would have had no issue if the match had been played in Haifa, as originally planned, but it should not have been moved to Jerusalem.
In a press conference Wednesday, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev presented images of threats made against Messi, his family and fellow teammates.
Regev, who pushed for the game's venue to be moved to Jerusalem, dismissed accusations that her demand had caused the cancellation of the match.
"The cancellation was the result of one reason only, the threats made by terrorist groups against Messi, his family and other players on the Argentine team," she said.
"This is new-old terrorism that scares, deters and threatens athletes."
She said this was the same type of terrorism that had caused the 1972 Munich Olympics attack in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered.
Although threats were ostensibly issued against Messi over his team's match in Jerusalem, the Islamic State terrorist group began posting threatening pictures as early as last October of Messi as a prisoner behind a message saying: "You are fighting a state in which the word 'failure' does not appear in its dictionary."
Another picture posted by Islamic State showed Messi lying on the ground next to Brazil soccer star Neymar da Silva Santos Junior. The caption read: "You will not be safe until we live in Muslim states."
Other threatening images published by the group showed pictures of other players with statements such as "The ground will be filled with your blood."
Palestinian soccer officials on Wednesday praised Argentina and Messi for calling off the friendly match against Israel.
"The Israelis tried to use Messi and those stars from Argentina, and I would like to thank them and appreciate their decision, which I think was on the right track," Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
On display at the news conference was a placard saying "From Palestine, thank you Messi," with the Argentine and Palestinian flags, under a large photo of Rajoub posing with the FC Barcelona ace.
Argentine Football Association chief Claudio Tapia said earlier on Wednesday that there were "threats," but gave no details. He confirmed the match's cancellation and apologized to Israeli fans, saying it was due to security concerns.
"The actions, the threats, that have taken place have led us to decide not to travel. My responsibility as president of AFA is to look after the health and physical integrity and safety of the entire delegation and in my role I made this decision," Tapia said at a news conference in Barcelona.
"We took the decision not to travel to play the friendly against Israel, we apologize to all the Argentinians who live in the Israeli community and the Israelis that bought tickets so quickly to be able to see Argentina's national squad.
"Most likely we will put all our efforts, all our energy, into what is next, the World Cup."
He added that "we leave open the possibility that in the future, we can participate in events together in Israel related to soccer or sports, or in other countries."
A Hamas official mocked reports that Hamas threatened the players, calling the reports unrealistic and saying they do not deserve comment.
Husam Badran, a Hamas spokesman, said the group "applauds" the cancellation and reiterated Hamas' position that rejects "all forms of normalization" with Israel.
The Israel Football Association accused the Palestinians of crossing a "red line" and inciting anger toward the Argentinian players to scupper the match.
Rajoub's "aim was to harm our country through soccer," IFA Chairman Ofer Eini said.
"There is an issue of personal threats against players. If a politician publicly calls to burn a shirt, somebody could take it a step further. I don't think that the people who run world soccer can ignore this."
Israel's ambassador in Buenos Aires lamented the cancellation and said the main reason for calling off the match was the "fear" of the Argentine players.
Ambassador Ilan Sztulman told Argentine Radio Mitre that "Israel is completely safe."
"The reason is not political, the [Argentine] national team has no problem with the State of Israel – simply put, it was afraid," the diplomat said.
The match in Jerusalem's Teddy Kollek Stadium was to have been Argentina's final warm-up game before it kicks off its World Cup campaign in Russia on June 16.
