Palestinians fighting 'Israel' on a different battlefield; football
3 Min Read
To showcase the joy that the sport can offer, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) holds a youth soccer tournament in Rafah, with solidarity games taking place in towns around the United States.
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A Palestinian soccer player takes a shot on goal during a youth tournament hosted by the American Friends Service Committee in Rafah on April 28. (American Friends Service Committee )
Athletic activism is playing a major role in penalizing "Israel", The Nation reported. On the one hand, FIFA is being urged by several countries to ban the occupation from participating considering the war crimes it is committing in Gaza, and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which has been practicing aid from within Gaza since 1948, held this week a youth soccer tournament in Rafah, with solidarity games taking place in towns around the United States, to highlight the sport's beauty and humanity.
Dave Zirin believes that this should serve as a reminder to the world that young children deserve to live and play, rather than being casualties of a genocide perpetrated by "Israel".
The Palestine Football Association (PFA) announced that as of April 22, at least 182 athletes and sports officials had been killed amid Israel’s destruction of Gaza, including no less than 28 children.
An overwhelming number of the athletes killed were members of Gaza’s once-vibrant football ecosystem. Among the notable names are Hani al-Masdar, a former player and manager of the Olympic team, and Mohammed Barakat, Gaza’s first centurion of goals and a former national team player known as the “Legend of Khan Younis.”
In this context, the PFA called for the exclusion of the Israel Football Association (IFA) from FIFA due to the occupation's war on Gaza and many humanitarian rights violations, Independent UK reported.
Last month, the Israeli occupation entity's football association responded to the petition by claiming it had "always followed FIFA regulations and always will."
Zirin notes that despite support from some nations, any type of punishment is unlikely to pass since the 55-member United European Football Association will surely oppose such a resolution.
A 12-nation group of football associations in the Middle East called on FIFA and the UEFA to ban "Israel", Sky News reported in February, referring to the letter sent to the federation.
The group includes the football associations of Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, and is led by Jordan's Football Association, whose head is King Abdullah II's half-brother, Prince Ali.
The author contends that FIFA's decision to hold the discussion is a step toward responsibility for "Israel" and a reminder to the world of FIFA's inconsistencies. Following the war in Ukraine, Russia was sanctioned "faster than a Ronaldo penalty kick."
The AFSC has helped over 541,000 individuals in Gaza since October, and Zirin notes that while a soccer tournament has a similar aim, it aspires to restore peace and pleasure to lives that have been indefinitely disturbed.
Firas Ramlawi, manager of the AFSC's Gaza office and one of the tournament's organizers, expressed that the youth have seen "so much hardship and trauma over the last six months," citing the importance of experiencing moments of "joy and resiliency in the midst of all this pain."
Noor Nabulsi of AFSC urged the US administration to call for an immediate ceasefire and rethink its blind support for the occupation, adding that children in the West have their games canceled due to inclement weather while Palestinian children's games are threatened by Israeli strikes.
"The young people of Palestine deserve a future where they can grow and play in peace.”
