"Sport is Part of Our Resistance"
On the 23rd of January 2024, the Palestinian football team reached the knockout stages of the Asian Cup for the first time in their history.
Football is, and has always been, a source of hope in dark times. I’ve spoken about my own experience of this previously here, but this is far from a unique experience. Against the backdrop of a 75-year occupation which has intensified in recent months, this Palestinian squad has provided hope to a people who have perhaps never needed it more.
Their group stage campaign got off to a shaky start. Tamer Sayem’s well-placed header in first-half injury time proved to only be a consolation in a 4-1 defeat against an impressive Iran side, who started quickly with two goals in the opening 15 minutes, and controlled the game throughout. There was, it has to be said, a slight air of condescension in the coverage of Palestine’s performance in that first game. They would soon show that they weren’t just there to make up the numbers.
Their second match, against the UAE, brought them only their third point in Asian Cup history, and their second ever goal, as Emirati defender Bader Abaelaziz diverted a Seyam cross into his own net to cancel out Sultan Adil’s early opener. Despite the slightly comical nature of their goal, the draw was the least Palestine deserved, having proved themselves to be the better team after Khalifa Al-Hammadi’s 37th minute red card. Granted, with a numerical advantage for almost an hour and having missed a penalty, Palestine could have expected more from this game, but a draw against a team ranked 34 places above them in the official FIFA rankings was nothing to sniff at. They headed into their final group game against Hong Kong, knowing that a victory would give them a fantastic chance at qualification.
It didn’t take long for the Lions of Canaan to set themselves on that path either. It only took 12 minutes for Oday Dabbagh to nod home a floated cross from Mus’ab Al Battat, and he would have had a second too if not for some fine goalkeeping. Palestine made a similarly quick start to the second half by scoring twice within the opening 15 minutes, firstly through another converted Al Battat cross, putting Zaid Qunbar on the scoresheet this time, and then through Dabbagh cushioning the ball past Ka-Wing Tse after a looped shot from Seyam crashed off the crossbar and into his path. Although a late consolation for the UAE in their match against Iran would prevent Palestine from qualifying automatically in second place, their four points and goal difference of zero proved enough to set up a round of 16 clash with Qatar.
This feat is made even more impressive considering the fact that Palestine up against a permanent injury crisis. For most teams, a typical injury is a pulled hamstring stretching for a cross, a torn ligament when a stud is caught in the turf, an accidental clash of heads. For many Palestinian footballers, careers are ended off the pitch, and entirely intentionally. In 2018, the group Visualising Palestine created an entire starting XI of players who’s careers had been ended by the occupation. These included Muhammed Obeid, 23, shot in both knees as he peacefully protested for his ancestral right to return during the Great Return March. Mahmoud Sarsak, 22, arrested and held without charge for three years while on his way to join his national team, and who had to go on hunger strike to win his freedom. Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, who was shot eleven times, ten in his legs, by Israeli soldiers while passing a checkpoint on the way home from training at his club.
This Palestinian squad go into their nation’s first ever knockout match in this competition tonight against the host nation, Qatar. They do so representing a country that is in the midst of a genocide. They do so representing a country that so much of the world has turned its back on. They do so knowing that they have already made their people proud.
Whether or not tonight goes their way, this squad have made it this far in the face of challenges that no team should ever have to fight through. They are an inspiration, not just to the Gazans currently facing Israeli bombardment, but to everyone who knows their story.
Free Palestine.