Palestine keeper plans tribute at Wembley final
Lewis Adams – Bbc News, Essex And Ben Fryer – Bbc News, Essex
Sat, May 11, 2024, 7:41 a.m. GMT+2·2 min read
An Essex footballer says he will fly the Palestine flag high in tribute to his international teammates if his side wins the FA Vase.
Luis Shamshoum is set to become the first Palestinian player to line up at Wembley in the competition’s final on Saturday.
The 21-year-old said he knew of Palestinian teammates who had lost their homes amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Essex side Great Wakering Rovers will play Romford at the home of English football at 12:15 BST.
Shamshoum, Wakering’s goalkeeper, said he will be playing with those affected in Gaza “always close to my heart”.
He qualified to play for Palestine through his grandfather Nofal and has been called up to the international side on three occasions.
Tragedy struck recently when the team’s assistant manager was killed in an air strike, Shamshoum said.
“It’s terrible what’s going on over there and I don’t wish it upon anyone,” he told the BBC.
“No human being should have to go through what they’ve had to go through.”
Wakering qualified for the final after defeating Worcester City 5-4 on penalties after the two-legged semi-final ended in a 2-2 draw.
Continue reading https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/palestine-keeper-plans-tribute-wembley-
“Actually—and this was where I began to feel seriously uncomfortable—some such divine claim underlay not just ‘the occupation’ but the whole idea of a separate state for Jews in Palestine. Take away the divine warrant for the Holy Land and where were you, and what were you? Just another land-thief like the Turks or the British, except that in this case you wanted the land without the people. And the original Zionist slogan—’a land without a people for a people without a land’—disclosed its own negation when I saw the densely populated Arab towns dwelling sullenly under Jewish tutelage. You want irony? How about Jews becoming colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea?”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir