ZURICH -- The Palestinian and Israeli soccer federations took an uneasy path to reaching an accord at the FIFA Congress on Friday.
The Palestinians withdrew plans to force a vote on suspending Israeli from world soccer after weeks of talks involving FIFA and political leaders.
A ban would have prevented Israel playing international matches, though a vote was unlikely to succeed needing support of 75 per cent of FIFA member countries.
"I am here to play football rather than play politics," Palestinian soccer leader Jibril Rajoub said from the stage. "I don't want to score goals, I want to end suffering."
Rajoub eventually accepted his Israeli counterpart Ofer Eini's offer of a public handshake in the hall after an awkward stand-off lasting several minutes.
"Football is a uniting element, not a dividing element," Eini said earlier through a translator.
The handshake followed FIFA President Sepp Blatter steering away Rajoub's request for a separate vote registering protests against Israeli soccer.
The Palestinians have argued that Israel restricts movement of its players in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week a Palestinian player was briefly detained while leaving Israel to train in Tunisia. Israeli security officials said the player was detained because he had in the past served as a courier for Islamic militant group Hamas.
FIFA had agreed with Israel's soccer body that security concerns at a government level were out of their control.
The threat of a suspension vote had kept Blatter busy in diplomacy for several weeks before Friday's presidential election meeting, where he hoped to present FIFA as a united football family.
Still, Rajoub held firm and forced a debate less than an hour before the election began.
Rajoub said he withdrew the vote after heeding FIFA vice-presidents who urged unity over discord.
He then used his FIFA platform to call for free movement of Palestinian players, and urged Israel to expel five clubs who play on disputed territory from the national league.
"It's not an emotional issue for me, it's a life or death issue," Rajoub said from his seat in the hall as Eini stood on stage.
Israeli soccer officials toured Zurich hotels in recent days explaining their position to FIFA delegates. At one regional meeting on Wednesday, Islamic delegates from North Africa walked out in protest.
Pro-Palestinian activists protested outside the conference hall Friday.
U.S-mediated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed early last year.
Since then, the Palestinians have accelerated their campaigns to pressure Israel.
Associated Press writer Ian Dietch in Jerusalem contributed to this report
