The Palestine Football Association (PFA) chief, Jibril Rajoub on Sunday called on football fans in the country to burn pictures of Argentina striker, Lionel Messi and replicas of his shirt if he plays against Israel in Jerusalem next weekend.

Two-time world champions Argentina will play at Jerusalem’s Teddy Kollek Stadium on June 9 in a World Cup warm-up match which has attracted huge interest among the Israeli fans, mainly because of Messi’s planned participation.

But the Palestinians are not happy that the match will be held in Jerusalem and Rajoub had last week, written to Claudio Tapia, the head of the Argentinian Football Association, accusing Israel of using the match as a “political tool”.

In the letter, Rajoub, while noting that Messi has millions of soccer fans across the Arab and Islamic world, Asia and Africa, declared a campaign against Argentina and particularly against the Barcelona ace should they go ahead with the match.

“He’s a big symbol so we are going to target him personally and we call on all to burn his picture and his shirt and to abandon him. We still hope that Messi will not come,” Rajoub said.

“The stadium that will 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 Israeli government has turned a regular sports match into a political tool. As was widely covered in Argentinian media, the match now is being played in order to celebrate the ‘70th anniversary of the State of Israel’,” he added.

The Argentines have made four previous pre-World Cup stopovers in Israel since 1986. The team has been drawn in World Cup Group D and will open its campaign against Iceland in Moscow on 16 June, before taking on Nigeria and Croatia.