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| The Palestinian national soccer team, a source of pride for many,
has been under attack by the Israeli state. (AP Photo/Tara
Todras-Whitehill) |
Their names are Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, and Adam Abd al-Raouf
Halabiya, 17. They were once soccer players in the West Bank. Now they
are never going to play sports again. Jawhar and Adam were
on their way home from a training session
in the Faisal al-Husseini Stadium on January 31 when Israeli forces
fired upon them as they approached a checkpoint. After being shot
repeatedly, they
were mauled by checkpoint dogs
and then beaten. Ten bullets were put into Jawhar’s feet. Adam took one
bullet in each foot. After being transferred from a hospital in
Ramallah to King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, they received the news
that soccer would no longer be a part of their futures. (Israel’s
border patrol
maintains that the two young men were about to throw a bomb.)
This is only the latest instance of the targeting of Palestinian
soccer players by the Israeli army and security forces. Death, injury or
imprisonment has been a reality for several members of the Palestinian
national team
over the last five years.
Just imagine if members of Spain’s top-flight World Cup team had been
jailed, shot or killed by another country and imagine the international
media outrage that would ensue. Imagine if prospective youth players for
Brazil were shot in the feet by the military of another nation. But,
tragically, these events along the checkpoints have received little
attention on the sports page or beyond.
Much has been written about the psychological effect this kind of
targeting has on the occupied territories. Sports represent escape, joy
and community, and the Palestinian national soccer team, for a people
without a recognized nation, is a source of tremendous pride. To attack
the players is to attack the hope that the national team will ever truly
have a home...
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