It was May, 2014, and the final of the AFC Challenge Cup. Eight of Asia’s lowest ranked teams had competed and the winner would qualify straight into the Asian Cup finals, Asia’s equivalent of the European Championships.
It was a shortcut to the continent’s biggest finals for Asia’s minnows. Palestine beat The Philippines by a single goal, a brilliant second half free kick by Ashraf Nu’man. They had reached the final without conceding a goal, too.
But for the Palestinian national soccer team — a team recognized by FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, since 1998 but not yet as a fully fledged country by the United Nations — it meant more than progress on the pitch.
Ever since the Palestinian Football Association was recognized by FIFA — one of the first and only truly global organizations to recognize an entity called Palestine — soccer had reflected the shifting political situation around it: Occupation, allegations of terrorist links, arbitrary arrest, death, bombings, allegations of torture, hunger strikes, movement restrictions, exile, internecine warfare and failure.
Palestinian experience
On the pitch the eleven men were a microcosm of the Palestinian experience.
The goalscorer Ashraf Nu’man was from Bethlehem in the West Bank and had played for the champions Taraji Wadi al Nes before moving to the big money of the Saudi Premier League.
Hussam Abu Salah was born in Israel, one of the country’s Arab citizens who make up 20% of the population. He played in the thriving West Bank Premier League, now professional and attracting many more Arab Israelis who felt increasingly alienated in a country where many viewed its Arabs citizens with suspicion.
In the center of defense was Abdelatif Bahdari, a center back who had also moved to Saudi Arabia but was now playing in Jordan. He was from Gaza, where many Palestine’s believe their best soccer players come from.
But Bahdari had frequently been prevented from playing national team games. Israeli forces regularly detained players at the border, for alleged security reasons, as they tried to leave to meet the squad before important matches away from home.
Next to him stood Omar Jarun, a six foot five defender with a blonde mohawk.
Jarun looked like a hometown quarterback. Born in Kuwait but raised in Peachtree City, Georgia in the U.S., to an American mother and a Jordanian Palestinian father, he nevertheless identified as Palestinian.
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In the absence of a mosque, he would pray in a function room at a local hotel, rented by Peachtree’s small Muslim community. He speaks in a broad southern accent and speaks no Arabic.
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Read: Sarsak: False charges against me
An allegation the Israeli authorities strenuously deny. Israeli law allows Palestinians to be detained indefinitely and without trial. He was only released after going on hunger strike, where he lost half his body weight. He was never charged with any crime. “I spent three years in prison with no accusation,” Sarsak said in 2013 interview with CNN. “If I did have links I should have been brought to court. But in reality they had nothing on me. This was a false charge under which they kept me in prison. I lost three years of my life.”
And before the Challenge Cup success in the Maldives, the coach Jamal Mahmoud and his assistant were refused entry back into the West Bank and had to wait in Jordan for two weeks whilst one of the team’s players, Sameh Mar’aba, was arrested and held for eight months.
The Israeli authorities claimed he confessed that he had met leading Hamas figures in Doha and was found with a large amount of money, a cell phone and written messages. According to multiple reports, the Israeli security agency Shin Bet provided evidence to the Israel Defence Force’s legal department prompting Israel’s culture and sport minister, Limor Livnat, to write to Blatter, who had recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to raise the issue of Palestinian player restrictions and arrests.
In the letter, Livnat wrote: “I am confident that you will find this information worrisome and constituting clear evidence of the misuse of sports in a fashion that threatens the security of Israeli civilians.”
Back in May the PFA denied the charge and denied there was a confession. Mar’aba was again prevented from joining the squad in Australia after his release on December 6th. The PFA denounced the move in a statement on their website by calling the Israeli decision to prevent Mar’aba from joining the squad as “contrary to all international conventions and laws, especially the regulations of the International Olympic Committee and FIFA which ensure freedom of movement for all players around the world.”
However, Israeli authorities believe there was good reason for imposing travel restrictions on Mar’aba. “In May 2014, Sameh Mar’aba was charged with, inter alia, bringing Hamas funds into the region and contact with the enemy. Upon conviction, he was sentenced to prison.
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He was subsequently released on December 6, 2014,” a senior Israeli security source told CNN. “Under these circumstances and in light of additional information regarding Mar’aba, the professional echelon’s position is that his travelling abroad constitutes a risk to the security of the region and therefore it was recommended to officials from the Civil Administration not to allow him to travel abroad for security reasons.” Mar’aba, a promising young striker, will watch the tournament in the West Bank. He has denied the charges against him.
The conflict between the PFA and Israeli authorities again highlights the mistrust that has existed on both sides for decades. The Israeli authorities claim that travel restrictions are valid, whilst others believe that the restrictions can be seen in a different light.
“We’ve seen a marathon runner and young musicians prevented from travelling recently and the broad term “security” is used,” Chatham House’s Professor Yossi Mekelberg told CNN. “I don’t see the risk. It’s a bit questionable.”
“There is nothing dangerous about footballers traveling to a tournament,” Chatham House’s Professor Yossi Mekelberg told CNN. “We’ve seen a marathon runner and young musicians prevented from traveling recently and the broad term “security” is used — but again I don’t see the risk. It’s a bit questionable.”
There have been other loses too. Coach Jamal Mahmoud unexpectedly quit in September. Yet, for all the restrictions and privations, the improvements in Palestinian football, especially in the West Bank, have been huge. When the Palestine team take to the pitch in Newcastle on Monday it will be the culmination of a 17-year journey over some of the roughest terrain imaginable. But whatever the score, the goal has been achieved. The Palestinians, for once, will begin as equals to those around it.
