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I realize that many of you don’t care too much about some guys wearing shorts and chasing a ball, but you do understand the implications of human activities including military conflicts, and the significance of sports.
One of the most prestigious international soccer tournaments is the Copa Libertadores de America, a tournament of top South American teams, and recently from Mexico. Libertadores means liberators, and it was named to honor the leaders of the wars of independence from Spain, the famous one being Simon Bolivar.
A team called Palestino classified for the 2015 competition, and were congratulated by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas:
“On behalf of all Palestinians worldwide, I want to thank you for this joy that you gave us in this special moment when we are in a diplomatic struggle to finally achieving freedom, justice and peace like other peoples in the world.”
“You have raised our colors and have given us a voice in difficult times. We identify Palestino as our second national team for the Palestinian people. The club Palestino is a portion of Palestine in Chile, and you are players and also ambassadors of our colors throughout South America”
These original Palestino Jerseys use the silhouette of the map of pre-occupation Palestine for the numeral one – the team will not be allowed to wear them in Chile.
I had read the statement from Abbas in a Chilean newspaper and I found the quote above in The Times of Israel. Earlier this year, the map of Palestine before the occupation was included in the jersey of the team (above) which provoked the indignation of some Jewish organizations, who stated that the shirt incites “violence and hatred.” One of the soccer players responded “I wish that instead of worrying about a jersey, they worried about the children that die day after day in Palestine”
This soccer club was founded in 1920, which indicates that people were emigrating from a Palestinian state established a long time before the creation of Israel in 1948. Today Palestine does not exist as a recognized independent state, but the number of countries willing to recognize it as such is increasing.
The article “One Hundred Years of Palestinians in Chile” explains the emigration and development of this community. Here’s the introduction:
“Chile is located in the southern part of the world and inhabited by 16 million people. Ethnically speaking it is composed mainly of a mixture of Spanish colonizers and indigenous people. For more than 150 years, however, several foreign communities have been settling in Chile…a small group of Palestinian Christians, most of whom came from the Bethlehem area, began to settle around Santiago. .. They were often called “Turks” – a derogatory reference to the Ottoman occupying power in Palestine…”
It’s estimated that today Chile is the country outside of the Middle East with the highest number of people of Palestinian background. The latest wave of Palestinians refugees arrived from Syria five years ago. Palestinians nowadays represent a broad spectrum of the Chilean society, many of them prominent politicians, united in their quest for a Palestinian state.
A couple of young Palestinian friends living in Anaheim’s Little Arabia district, where a high number of Arab immigrants reside, did not know about their Chilean paisanos. They were elated at learning this history, that they have an extended family in unlikely places, but also sad that they don’t have a place for their own soccer team, a place that was taken away from them and where they are now treated as war enemies and second class citizens.
Thanks so much for sharing this! During this final stretch of the year, it’s great to uncover news that reaffirms our faith in humanity. And hopefully one day, the (other) Palestinean team WILL have a home field of its own.
They don’t have home field yet but this week they participated in a first major international tournament.
“…Palestinian Football has fought an indescribable battle in order to even compete on an international stage. They live under occupation, have had their training facilities destroyed, have coped with the detention of players, the deaths of teammates and the inability to move freely through Israeli militarized checkpoints in order to train and compete in matches…For months, the most prominent aspect of football in Palestine in the eyes of the world was the harrowing image created by artist Amir Schiby in honor of the four Bakr boys.
( …they were killed as they played football in the beach and killed by shells from an Israeli naval gunboat…)
http://www.thenation.com/blog/195169/after-86-years-palestinian-national-soccer-team-finally-arrives
This is for Weekend Open Thread, wherever it is?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/opinion/the-best-lawyers-money-can-buy.html?_r=0
Yeah, let’s make this the open thread. Why not!
Why has this OJ blog become so frickin’ boring?
Cuz me and Greg have been preoccupied for a couple weeks. Read my new desal story and take some drugs old man.
Oh, good! The filter must be working!
May I know the parameters of your filter? To the best of my recollection I have not used any directly profane language recently.
There’s no filter on what you can write. But I have already said too much.
Greg, as a former New Yorker, what is your take on Mario Cuomo’s legacy?
Mario Cuomo Gave Some Great Speeches. But What Did He Actually Accomplish?
http://www.thenation.com/article/194385/cuomos-words-and-deeds
I liked him a lot, but I thought that he should have run for President in 1992. What a different world it might have been. Plus, he should have done something different when it came to raising his son Andrew.
The protests against Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, triggering demonstrations with more than 100 Palestinians killed, reached the world of soccer: Argentina cancelled a pre-World Cup game in Israel:
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-argentina-israel-soccer-20180606-story.html
SO now I’m sure Argentina is getting called anti-Semitic.
Only by fools.
US-Palestinian MLS (Major League Soccer) player recent experience playing for his parent’s national team:
“The tough journey endured by his parents adds weight to the simple motion of pulling on the Palestine national team shirt. “It means a lot to them,” Albadawi explains. “It was pretty cool because they were able to come to Dubai and watch me in the Asian Cup. For my parents to see all the crowd and see all the Palestinian people, I think my mom almost started crying from all the emotions. My dad loved it as well – that for me was really special, seeing what it meant not only to my parents but to all the Palestinian people over there.”
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/07/fc-cincinnatis-nazmi-albadawi-on-stepping-up-to-mls-and-playing-for-palestine