Palestinian refugee camps are known for producing resistance fighters and footballers. But Israel’s ongoing onslaught in Gaza and the West Bank is erasing every aspect of Palestinian life, including sports.
The Olympics opening ceremony featured a moving commemoration for Israeli athletes who tragically and needlessly died half a century ago (when the Israeli prime minister refused a prisoner exchange), but failed to highlight a tragedy going on now that the world could stop: the desperate plight of Palestinian athletes who have been shot, maimed, & sometimes killed by Israeli forces… The ceremony also ignored the hundreds of men, women, and children killed by Israeli forces in the lead up to the tragic 1972 event, and the hundreds more killed by Israeli forces the following day…
Some of Gaza’s 2,500 lower-limb amputees have created a football (soccer) team, and they have their sights set on the World Championship.