7/31/2019 No sleep 'til Hebron: On the road with Palestine's national football squad

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A s t h e m i n i b u s c A r e e r s t h r o u g h t h e p o t - h o l e

r o A d s of the West Bank mountains, five young men from Gaza are

screaming into their mobile phones. Its getting dark, and were lost, with

hour to go before kick-off. In Palestine, nothing is easy.

Nothing is direct either, and it is fair to say that my travelling companio

would garner more sympathy if it was just the heavily-armed Israeli

checkpoints, bad traffic and an unfamiliarity with the roads of southern

Palestine that had caused the two hour drive between Ramallah and Hebr

in the south to stretch to five. But the hour detour through a remote villag

that one guy could change his shirt? Thats difficult to justify on the road

crucial football game for the national squad.

We couldnt have known it at the time, but the match would be worth

wait. It ended with Palestine scoring a historic victory over Tunisia in th

final of the first-ever Arab tournament on Palestinian soil. The victory mnot have been pretty nil-nil after two hours of football rarely is but t

fans piling onto the pitch of the Dora International Stadium after an ep

penalty shoot-out would certainly not dwell on that fact.

It has not been an easy couple of years for Palestines national team

A mixture of bad luck, perennial visa issues and the ongoing challenge

operating in a country under occupation, caused Palestine to crash ou

both the Olympics and the World Cup qualifiers. A pride-denting seve

beating from Iran last October was just one of the humiliations along

way. That run led to a change of management, with Jordanian Al-Wa

veteran Jamal Mahmoud brought in to revitalise the team at the end

last year. The Al Nakba Cup, hosted by Palestine and played between

Arab and South Asian teams at the end of May, was the opportunity f

Mahmoud to showcase his new squad. It was also a chance for Pales

to highlight the anniversary of Al Nakba The Catastrophe when

was founded in 1948 and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians wer

forced to leave their homes, most never to return.

It has been a long road to the tournament, which was held for

the first time in 2011 between clubs from various Arab and Asian

nations rather than international sides. In his role as president of thPalestinian Sports Journalists Association and Gaza resident, Has

Alian my fellow passenger on the long bus ride from Ramallah o

rapidly darkening night in the West Bank has been present for m

of it. Alian was a witness to Palestines acceptance by the Internat

Olympic Committee in 1995, as well as by FIFA in 1998. Prior to t

milestone, Palestines home matches had to be played in other Ar

cities, such as Cairo, Amman or Dubai. But even since then, he sa

there has not been a concerted effort to push Palestines sporting

profile. This is something that tournaments such as Al Nakba w

to change.

Indeed, Alian feels that the push by the Palestinian Football

Authority to improve relations with Israel has been integral not

just to sport in the country, but to the relationship between the

countries on a number of levels. We dont want to oppose spo

our dispute with the Israelis. We think that we can teach our y

generation a new way for the mutual relationship between us a

the Israelis, he says as the bus rattles south down the pothole

highway through the West Bank.

Alians optimism is admirable, given his status as a Gazaresident. The forty- by eight-kilometre strip of land has been

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7/31/2019 No sleep 'til Hebron: On the road with Palestine's national football squad

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effectively sealed off by Israel since Hamas won elections there

in 2008. But he points out that sport is having limited success

at helping to ease the relations with Israel. The fact that he was

even allowed travel from Gaza to the West Bank to attend the

tournament was progress. He and his colleague were also given

a twenty-four hour extension on their visas for the West Bank

which is Palestinian territory but occupied by Israel after

Palestine advanced to the final.

But these are small mercies, as Alian reminds me. The Israelis

can come to any sports field they like, and we dont mind, but it is

different for us. They dont need permission to come here. Unlike

me, by the way; I need permission not only to come to here but to

Israeli settlements in our land, he says.

If, as a journalist, Alian has borne witness to much of Palestinesproblems over the past decade, Roberto Bishara, as a player, has

lived it directly. The thirty-year old Chilean-Palestinian midfielder

had not played for the national side for five years until Al Nakhba,

but as part of the team that failed to qualify for the World Cup in

2006, he has experienced firsthand the frustration associated with

factors beyond the control of players on the pitch.

The Gaza players were not allowed to leave Gaza, and the

Palestinian Authority asked FIFA to delay the game but it was not

possible, he tells me in the lobby of the teams shabby hotel in

Ramallah after waving away my concerns regarding the worrying

gash in his right leg sustained during training. We had thirteen

or fourteen players, so we didnt have the seven extra players that

you need on the bench. During the whole period we were training

with half a team. It was a difficult time.

A recent bone of contention for Palestines football community

was the imprisonment of national team player Mahmoud Al

Sarsak, who, while under administrative detention in an Israeli

jail, undertook a three month hunger in protest. In the days

following the tournament, Amnesty International issued anupdated report on Sarsuks situation, warning that his health was

rapidly deteriorating. After being held for three years without

charge the only individual to be held under the Israeli unlawful

combatant law Sarsuk was finally released in July.

Despite these serious problems Bishara is more upbeat about

the future, particularly with new manager Jamal Mahmoud at the

helm. The game itself is increasingly taking centre stage for the

players, he says, particularly as the team gets better. Whereas the

chief motivation for the team used to be flying the flag to ensure

the Palestinian struggle was not forgotten, players now want to be

seen as good sportsmen in their own right.

But despite the teams success at Al Nakba, and the ongoing

strength of the domestic league which now boasts three

divisions and thirty-six teams in the West Bank Bishara says that

it is important to be realistic. It is very difficult to qualify for the

World Cup. We are just trying to improve so we can move higher

in the FIFA rankings, but it will take time, he says. The leagues

here in Palestine only started three years ago, so it has been

mainly amateur players and those from outside; people like me, orPalestinian players living in Sweden or the USA.

m y i n t r o d u c t i o n t o p A l e s t i n i A n c o A c h

J A m A l m A h m o u d had not gone quite as I had planned.

An innocent enquiry to a middle-aged Palestinian accountant

in the sta nds regarding the level of Mahmouds English skills

prompted my new friend to lean over to Palestines technical

area and scream the question at the coach directly. This, seventy-

five minutes into the semi-final, with Palestine st ruggling to beat

a surprisingly strong Indonesian side. His glare, and frosty yes,

suggested my interview prospects were thin.

I remember you... Mahmoud growled when I called the

following day, and promptly stood me up for our arranged

meeting that night. After that I figured we were even, and

in Ramallahs Mvenpick Hotel later night, the young coach

greets me as one would an old friend. It may have helped that

his former team, Jordans Al-Wahat where he served twentyyears as a player and a further seven as a coach were on the

television and winning.

Mahmoud is a legend in Palestine, having won four trophies

in the domestic league with Hilal Al Quds since arriving in the

country and injecting new vigour into the national team. On the

pitch he is an animated figure, known for his impassioned rants

in the technical area during games. And while the great and good

of Palestines football community schmoozed in the flash hotel

lobby in sharp suits, Mahmoud arrived in a track-suit, fresh from

training, keeping careful watch over his young players.

Mahmoud is clearly a man who puts football first. While

the politics of Palestinian football is of course ever-present,

it is the difficulty that Israeli occupation poses to him as a

football manager that is at the forefront of his mind. Asked

particularly about Israeli restrictions on players including the

aforementioned Sarsuk and the limited movement of many

players within Palestine, both from the West Bank to Gaza and

outside, he becomes agitated. We have many problems with

Israel, he says, insisting on a translator despite his decent English.The first problem is that we cannot collect our players, the ones

who live outside Palestine. We even have problems bringing

players who live in Gaza to Ramallah. We also have issues bringing

in the equipment we need, he says, shifting impatiently in his

chair. And he concedes that it is rarely far from the minds of

players and officials in the country. We are human. Of course it

is about the sport but politics and sport are linked, particularly in

Palestine, he says.

Naming the tournament Al Nakba inevitably led to criticism

of the Palestinian Football Authority over the border in Israel,

Alian tells me later the same evening. It was seen as using sport to

make a political point, he says, although he rejects the accusation.

is it Not better to mArk Al NAkbAby eNcourAgiNg our youNg peopleto develop their sportiNg spirit?We thiNk it is much betterthAN throWi Ng stoNes.

Alian would prefer that Palestine recognised the catastrophe

1948 with a football tournament rather than with Palestinian

fighting Israeli soldiers on the streets. Is it not better to mark

such an occasion by encouraging our young people to develo

their sporting spirit? he asks. We think it is much better tha

throwing stones. To mark our political occasions by sport is a

civilised message, about our way of thinking.

He also points out that in a nation where sixty per cent of

the population is below the age of twenty-seven, and, like mo

young Arabs, avid football fans, the game is a good way to eng

with disaffected youth a point that is best for all sides. I hothat one day they will give us free movement, and if we start

cooperating with them in the field of sport this will accelerat

it in the social, political and economic fields. They should kn

that sport is supported by the majority of the community, he

says. You will avoid them going to the radicals, and choosing

wrong path. I hope that they will get this.

There is a limit, of course, and when questioned about the

possibility of Israeli teams playing Palestinian teams, or inde

games between the two national sides, I sense that we have

reached it. Alian leans forward, raising a finger, clearly agitat

Listen, Im not against playing Israeli teams, but such match

should be preceded by trust building. This cannot be achieve

only by sport, it should be achieved by Israeli actions on the

ground, he says.

Alain cites the status of prisoners in Israeli jails, an issue t

was highlighted this spring by a seventy-day hunger strike by

upwards of 1,500 jailed Palestinians. The strike, which was o

ended in May after a deal was brokered by Egypt between th

prisoners and Israel, was motivated by detentions without trsolitary confinement and a refusal to allow family visits to the

jailed men. Sarsuk, the footballer, was a key part of the prote

It is not possible to play in Tel Aviv or to invite some Isra

to Ramallah while ten thousand of our people are inside their

jails, while every day there is violence and demolitions on th

Gaza border, while every day they come into Palestinian Auth

territory and they come to Ramallah at night to take prisoner

This cannot help to deliver our goal, says Alian.

And yet in spite of all these problems, Palestine is more up

about its national team than it has been for more than a decad

Mahmoud and his squad are looking forward: a new season i

the Palestinian league has just begun, and the players that wo

Nakba went on to hold their own in the Arab Nations Cup, wh

they competed against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The local pl

are back with their club sides, while expats like Bishara have

abroad once again; in Bisharas case to the appropriately-nam

Palestino in the Chilean first division.

As for Al Nakba, 2013 beckons and with it the opportunity

to get more football fans into the stadiums, more journalistsfrom overseas, more teams to compete. As the Al Nakba pres

officer, Nabhan Khraishi, tells me over lunch in Hebron, hold

the tournament on home soil, using FIFA match officials and

attracting journalists to the West Bank, means the tourname

done its job.

We need to show the world that we are a good team,

Mahmoud had told me the previous night, as we relaxed in

the hotel lobby following our interview. There are many

good Palestinian players. They are playing in America, playin

elsewhere in the world as well as here and they could pla

for the national side. We need to focus on our young players,

build a good team. That is our mission.

Clockwise rom top let: Fans gather in Hebron; striker Fahed Attalchases down a rival; the team beore the semi final against Indonesia;Israels Apartheid Wall outside Ramallah.