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Cultural
Dimensions |
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Film documents
hardships facing Palestinian football team
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KUALA LUMPUR: Chilean
film-maker Marcelo Pina watched as Palestinian national soccer
captain Saeb Jundiya was pushed against a wall and searched by
Israeli soldiers just two blocks from his Gaza home.
“That was the second time in a couple of months it happened to him,”
said Pina, who is filming a fly-on-the-wall documentary on
Palestine’s failed bid to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
Striker Ziad Al Kourd returned from the team’s World Cup qualifier
in September against Uzbekistan in Doha to find his house in the
Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah had been demolished. Israel, which
said its army had been clearing an area of land while searching for
arms-smuggling tunnels, has since deemed Al Kourd a security threat
and banned him from travelling.
Key player Adel Al-Farran lives in appalling conditions in a refugee
camp in Nablus.
Soccer provides only brief respite from the trials of conflict for
many of the Palestinian national team, half of whom live in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. Unlike players who represent a sovereign
country, the Palestinians must first contend with Israel, which
controls many aspects of their daily lives, before they can compete
on the pitch.
Israel has imposed travel restrictions on Palestinians in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip as it clamps down on militants in a
four-year-old uprising in which more than 3,000 Palestinians and
nearly 1,000 Israelis have died.
Slum conditions: “We’ve been able to see the difficulties faced by
the country’s top players, some of them living in slum conditions,”
the Chicago-based Pina told Reuters. “To merely play the game is
difficult. Getting out of the country, getting back in, transport.
“It’s not easy when you’re an occupied country. You can talk about
how success in football can lift a nation, which is true, but it’s
not that simple.” Pina said growing up in Pinochet-led Chile had
helped him to empathise with people in other countries living under
similar difficulties.
“There’s also the fact that Chile is home to a large population of
people whose ancestors had emigrated to South America from
Palestine,” said the 31-year-old Pina. “We now have the chance to
highlight their problems. It goes beyond football. We want to show
the world the difficulties faced by these people.”
Some 300,000 people in Chile claim Palestinian ancestry and many
maintain links with Palestinian relations. FIFA, which recognised
the Palestinian team in 1998, has allowed them to play their World
Cup Asian zone qualifying “home” games in Qatar for security
reasons.
But, with just seven points from five matches, the team have no hope
of qualifying from Asian group two. They had hoped to emulate the
success of Iraq, who overcame extreme hardship to reach the
quarter-finals of the Asian Cup and the Athens Olympics semi-finals
this year. Two victories over Taiwan – one an 8-0 demolition – in
their World Cup qualifying group bear testimony to the Palestinians’
potential.
Financial help: Their modest success is largely thanks to half a
dozen players with Palestinian ancestry recruited in South America
and the financial help of local businessmen. Many Palestine players
play their club football in Kuwait, Lebanon, Indonesia and the
United States. For these players, travel to and from games is
straightforward.
For players such as Jundiya, travel can be fraught with problems.
Often they are prevented from travelling by Israeli forces. Pina
said he would never forget the sight of the Palestinian captain
entering his home country riding a donkey.
“After the Uzbekistan match, it took us 40 hours to cross the
Egyptian border into Rafah,” he said. “It was only 100 metres from
the Egyptian side to the Palestine side. It was jammed with traffic
that was not moving. “So the players, with their luggage, had to
travel that distance on donkey.” An Israeli army spokeswoman said
Palestinian sports representatives needed to give notice of their
travel plans.
“Any athlete who needs to leave to participate in competition abroad
must coordinate their exit (in advance) and as long as they pass the
security background checks there is no problem,” she said. Reuters.
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