A Word to the Wise. Never mix sports ANd politics...

except iN pAlestiNe they did just thAt, by hostiNg AN iNterNAtioNAl footbAll tourNAmeNt ANd NAmiNg it After the biggest politicAl disAster iN the couNtrys history. heres Why they did it.
Wo r d A n d p i c t u r e s by o r l A n d o c roWc ro f t

speciAl report

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 d 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 an hour to go before kick-off. In Palestine, nothing is easy. Nothing is direct either, and it is fair to say that my travelling companions 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 Hebron in the south to stretch to five. But the hour detour through a remote village so that one guy could change his shirt? Thats difficult to justify on the road to a crucial football game for the national squad. We couldnt have known it at the time, but the match would be worth the wait. It ended with Palestine scoring a historic victory over Tunisia in the final of the first-ever Arab tournament on Palestinian soil. The victory may not have been pretty nil-nil after two hours of football rarely is but the fans piling onto the pitch of the Dora International Stadium after an epic 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 challenges of operating in a country under occupation, caused Palestine to crash out of both the Olympics and the World Cup qualifiers. A pride-denting seven-nil beating from Iran last October was just one of the humiliations along the way. That run led to a change of management, with Jordanian Al-Wahdat veteran Jamal Mahmoud brought in to revitalise the team at the end of last year. The Al Nakba Cup, hosted by Palestine and played between nine Arab and South Asian teams at the end of May, was the opportunity for Mahmoud to showcase his new squad. It was also a chance for Palestine to highlight the anniversary of Al Nakba The Catastrophe when Israel was founded in 1948 and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were 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 the Palestinian Sports Journalists Association and Gaza resident, Hassain Alian my fellow passenger on the long bus ride from Ramallah on this rapidly darkening night in the West Bank has been present for most of it. Alian was a witness to Palestines acceptance by the International Olympic Committee in 1995, as well as by FIFA in 1998. Prior to that milestone, Palestines home matches had to be played in other Arab cities, such as Cairo, Amman or Dubai. But even since then, he says, there has not been a concerted effort to push Palestines sporting profile. This is something that tournaments such as Al Nakba will try 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 two countries on a number of levels. We dont want to oppose sport in our dispute with the Israelis. We think that we can teach our young generation a new way for the mutual relationship between us and the Israelis, he says as the bus rattles south down the potholed highway through the West Bank. Alians optimism is admirable, given his status as a Gaza resident. The forty- by eight-kilometre strip of land has been

106

esquire

september 2012

september 2012

esquire

107

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 Palestines problems 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 an updated 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, or Palestinian players living in Sweden or the USA.

Clockwise from top left: Fans gather in Hebron; striker Fahed Attal chases down a rival; the team before the semi final against Indonesia; Israels Apartheid Wall outside Ramallah.

is it Not better to mArk Al NAkbA by eNcourAgiNg our youNg people to develop their sportiNg spirit? We thiNk it is much better thAN throWiNg stoNes.
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 twenty years 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.

m y i n t r o d u c t i o n t o pA 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 stands 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, seventyfive minutes into the semi-final, with Palestine struggling to beat a surprisingly strong Indonesian side. His glare, and frosty yes,
108
esquire september 2012

Alian would prefer that Palestine recognised the catastrophe in 1948 with a football tournament rather than with Palestinians fighting Israeli soldiers on the streets. Is it not better to mark such an occasion by encouraging our young people to develop their sporting spirit? he asks. We think it is much better than 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 most young Arabs, avid football fans, the game is a good way to engage with disaffected youth a point that is best for all sides. I hope that one day they will give us free movement, and if we start cooperating with them in the field of sport this will accelerate it in the social, political and economic fields. They should know that sport is supported by the majority of the community, he says. You will avoid them going to the radicals, and choosing the 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 indeed games between the two national sides, I sense that we have reached it. Alian leans forward, raising a finger, clearly agitated. Listen, Im not against playing Israeli teams, but such matches should be preceded by trust building. This cannot be achieved 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 that was highlighted this spring by a seventy-day hunger strike by upwards of 1,500 jailed Palestinians. The strike, which was only ended in May after a deal was brokered by Egypt between the prisoners and Israel, was motivated by detentions without trial, solitary confinement and a refusal to allow family visits to the jailed men. Sarsuk, the footballer, was a key part of the protest. It is not possible to play in Tel Aviv or to invite some Israelis to Ramallah while ten thousand of our people are inside their jails, while every day there is violence and demolitions on the Gaza border, while every day they come into Palestinian Authority territory and they come to Ramallah at night to take prisoners. This cannot help to deliver our goal, says Alian. And yet in spite of all these problems, Palestine is more upbeat about its national team than it has been for more than a decade. Mahmoud and his squad are looking forward: a new season in the Palestinian league has just begun, and the players that won Al Nakba went on to hold their own in the Arab Nations Cup, where they competed against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The local players are back with their club sides, while expats like Bishara have gone abroad once again; in Bisharas case to the appropriately-named 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 journalists from overseas, more teams to compete. As the Al Nakba press officer, Nabhan Khraishi, tells me over lunch in Hebron, holding the tournament on home soil, using FIFA match officials and attracting journalists to the West Bank, means the tournament has 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, playing elsewhere in the world as well as here and they could play for the national side. We need to focus on our young players, and build a good team. That is our mission.
september 2012 esquire

109