BDS goal: Argentina team scraps Israel football match after Palestine pressure

Argentina's football association has cancelled warm up match against Israel after facing harsh criticism over the game from pro-Palestine activists and Palestinian officials.

Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain confirmed on Tuesday that the friendly match had scrapped in an interview with sports network ESPN.

"In the end we were able to do the right thing. We think it was best not to go Israel," Higuain said.

Demonstrations against the game have been held in recent days in Buenos Aires and Barcelona outside the Argentine national team's training camp.

The head of the Palestinian football federation called on sports fans to burn photos and T-shirts of Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi if he attended the friendly match.

Jibril Rajoub made the call after a demonstration in front of the Argentine representative office in Ramallah, where he asked Argentina to cancel the match.

The Arab League also urged Argentina to cancel the match, which was set to take place on the site of a Palestinian village in Jerusalem destroyed in the 1948 war.

The controversy over the match comes after Israeli troops killed at least 125 Palestinians and more than 10,000 have been injured since mass demonstrations began on March 30.

The demonstrations and violence peaked on May 14 when at least 61 Palestinians were killed as tens of thousands of Gazans protested the US transfer of its embassy in Israel to the disputed city of Jerusalem the same day.

No Israelis have been killed and only a few soldiers have suffered minor injuries.

The protests - dubbed "Great Return March" - have centred on the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, after they were expelled following the 1948 creation of Israel.