Palestinian refugee camps are known for producing resistance fighters and footballers. But Israel’s ongoing onslaught in Gaza and the West Bank is erasing every aspect of Palestinian life, including sports.
Members of the Palestinian national team never just played to win. They played to bring Palestine to the world, and the world into Palestine.
But the new generation of aspiring footballers want to bring the World Cup home. If Morocco’s historic victories this year have taught us anything, it is that nothing is impossible.
If Israel is ever chosen to host the World Cup, the world must must know: Israel has as much respect for football as it does for Palestinian lives
This week the White House announced that it was beginning to develop a national strategy to combat antisemitism. It’s too soon to know what this effort will look like, but there are concerns it will include the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, which has been used to target critics of Israel.
We can rejoice that Morocco has catapulted Africa and the Arab World into World Cup history, but if we support Palestine, we must also support the Sahrawi people’s struggle for liberation.
As the World Cup enters its final 10 days, many can only guess at who might take home the whole thing. What can be said for certain, however, is that Palestine has won people’s hearts, and captivated the world’s attention like no other — and their team isn’t even playing.
The effort to maintain the illusion that the Abraham Accords are anything other than a military and trade agreement between an apartheid state and brutal dictatorships is facing serious obstacles. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Qatar, during the World Cup.