‘We have the right to express our feelings’: Palestine embrace Bohemians friendly
League of Ireland club welcome women’s national team over for their first match in Europe which carries great significance
“We have a reason to tell the people that we are human beings,” says Mira Natour, a defender for the Palestine women’s national team, as she reflects on their friendly against Bohemians in Dublin on Wednesday night. “We have rights the same as you, to play, we have the right to express our feelings, we have the right to be recognised by the world. With this event, we’re telling them we exist.”
It will be the first time the Palestine team have played in Europe and their League of Ireland hosts have sold out, with a 4,500 crowd expected at Dalymount Park. Bohemians are fan-owned and their membership’s strong allegiance with the Palestinian cause mirrors a sentiment shared by many in Irish football and the country as a whole.
Palestine flags are often seen at Bohemians matches, and in advance of the 2023 season they released a Palestine-themed away jersey. Palestine Sports For Life, which operates in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, was handed 10% of the proceeds from shirt sales, which went towards a project at the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. The jersey sold well and tentative conversations with the Palestinian Football Association about a friendly began.
Palestine flags are often seen at Bohemians matches, and in advance of the 2023 season they released a Palestine-themed away jersey. Palestine Sports For Life, which operates in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, was handed 10% of the proceeds from shirt sales, which went towards a project at the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. The jersey sold well and tentative conversations with the Palestinian Football Association about a friendly began.
McCabe says the the global streaming of the match should serve as “an acknowledgement” of what has happened to the Palestinian people. “These people are deserving of the same rights and dignities as everyone else,” he says.
“You should live a life free of fear and free of persecution and you should have the ability to hope to do what it is you want to do. Being a footballer for so many people, for so many girls and boys, is the dream. The fact that sport has been taken away from so many people in the West Bank is sad.”
Continue reading https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/may/15/palestine-bohemians-friendly-football. Credit : Morgan Ofori.
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“There’s a Palestine that dwells inside all of us, a Palestine that needs to be rescued: a free Palestine where all people regardless of color, religion, or race coexist; a Palestine where the meaning of the word “occupation” is only restricted to what the dictionary says rather than those plenty of meanings and connotations of death, destruction, pain, suffering, deprivation, isolation and restrictions that Israel has injected the word with.”
― Refaat Alareer, Gaza Writes Back
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