Coming in from the night air outside; strange electricity. It seems out of place here, the tingle, communicated in sounds that are not usual: The heavy fall of footsteps, amplified by haste and urgency; the screech of an air horn; excited chatter and the sound of hurried traffic. Somewhere in the distance there is a voice prevaricating on a loudspeaker. The distant, barely distinguishable Arabic vowels have a rousing quality to them; then at 9.45pm this Tuesday night, (7.45pm BST) everything goes quiet.
Palestinians love football. They even have a “national” team though they are yet unrecognised as a state. The team has a serious handicap in that they often can’t field some of their best players because they can’t get them permits to leave the Gaza Strip. It puts the IFA’s discontent about losing talent to the Republic of Ireland into context.
Here, as in many places, the national team plays second fiddle to club allegiances. Tonight is Champions League night; the 2nd leg of the semi final between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, the forth chapter in the April 2011 El Classico; a series of matches which have contained scenes of senseless ugliness, cynical gamesmanship and moments of utter beauty. If you are a young Palestinian male, it’s quite simple: you either support Barcelona or Real Madrid. To them, Manchester United, Chelsea and the mighty Liverpool are a mere side show. Tonight, as with the previous three matches, the streets of Tulkarm have come alive.
This match takes place in the context of Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinhio assigned to the stands for trouble making at half time at the Bernabeau in Madrid. After a controversial sending off in the first leg he held a press conference in which he suggested that FC Barca get special treatment in these sorts of competitions. Like most top level football managers, The Special One has an acute sense of what constitutes injustice. It causes one to wonder about the particular causes for complaint all the young men in Tulkarm tonight draped in his or his opponents team flag might have.
So what of a level playing field in the game of occupation? In the West Bank Palestinians live under military law, while neighbouring settlers (who often live on land taken from Palestinians by military order or legal chicanery) live under Israeli civilian law. According to Hagit Ofran from the Israeli organisation Settlement Watch, there is no good reason for this, save for single court case in 1968 where a settler living in Hebron disputed being tried under military law on the grounds that he was Jewish. The end result is two very different referees for each team on the field. This is surely a bad start to any match up.
Many say football is all about money these days, and the occupation is no different. The economics of occupation have been that of Israeli suppression of Palestinian economy for their own interests. Israel inherited a weak economy when they occupied the West Bank in 1967; and their policies ensured that it has remained economically stagnant since. Israeli policy toward the West Bank states “there will be no development initiated by the Israeli Government, and no permits will be given for expanding agriculture or industry, which may compete with the State of Israel.” Despite having ample potential for growth, The West Bank’s GDP (not including settlements) has fluctuated between 2-4% of Israel’s for the last 43 years, with the best years being just after occupation. It’s difficult to compete when the other team won’t let you play. In Gaza, with its own particular problems, the situation is a lot worse, there according to the UN, 80% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Without the potential for a sustainable economy in the West Bank, Israeli jobs have become essential to many Palestinians staving off poverty. However, with the construction of the separation barrier since 2003, and the implementation of a stringent permit system with checkpoints and quotas restricting numbers allowed to do the jobs Israelis themselves won’t do, getting a game is not easy. Various Israeli governments down the years have pursued a policy of reducing dependency on cheap Palestinian workers by importing even cheaper foreign labour. The border crossings themselves are horrific places, which only the very desperate would endure daily. Again, for Gazans its worse, the chance of a job in Israel is practically non existent.
As Jose will appreciate, the laws of any game must be applied fairly. Football loses all meaning if one side flouts the rules without consequence. To that end, Israel has been the Theirry Henry of international diplomacy, blatantly fouling while the referee turns a blind eye. The 4th Geneva Convention (signed in 1949 with Israel as a cosignatory) was designed to stop the mistakes that lead the world to war in 1939 from happening again. Israel breaks these rules with abandon, which is not surprising since their former Foreign Minister in Tzipi Livni was been revealed by Wikileaks as saying that she respects the law, but not international law, a statement which becomes perplexing when you discover that she is a lawyer.
Whether it be article 27 of the 4th Geneva Convention (which states that countries should not discriminate between race, colour, religion or creed), Article 49 (which refers to the transfer of populations into occupied territory: 80% of settlers in the West Bank are there because their government incentivized them), Article 53 (the destruction of property; and example of which is the 24,000 homes demolished in the West Bank since 1967), Article 50 (Collective punishment of populations, a small example of which was the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians following the recent murder of a settler family in Itamar recently) or any of the UN security council resolutions that have passed calling for an end to settlements and an end to the occupation, there is no effective accountability for Israel.
Many Palestinians ask why the UN did not sanction airstrikes against Israel when it was bombarding Gaza (using white phosphorus in the process) in the same way it did with Libya. Some more paranoid Celtic fans think that Rangers have the support of some Free Mason referees, for Israel, the support of American and European governments allows them to take a relaxed approach to the rules.
Every team needs a powerful strike force, and Israel certainly has that, with by far the strongest army in the region and one of the most advanced nuclear weapons programmes in the world. Their finishing is not so clinical though; violent Palestinian resistance has consistently been met with a disproportionate response. According to the UN, the recent operation Cast Lead in Gaza cost 1,383 Palestinian lives (mostly civilians), while Israel lost 9.
Driving through the streets after watching the action, we observe lads waving Real or Barca flags and wearing cheap replicas of replica strips as they stand in huddles and jostle at each other. Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera holds the rights to Champions League football here. The local Tulkarm TV station has bought them and is broadcasting the game free for all to see. On the news channels before and after the game, the main story is the unification of Hamas and Fatah, the two main political factions in Palestine who have been at war with each other but who are putting differences aside in the push for international recognition of Palestinian statehood in September.
And coming in from the outside, winds of change in the Middle East. Egypt continues to take tentative steps towards people led democracy (as opposed to Western supported dictatorship); Western diplomats try to find a resolution to the civil war in Libya and Syria continues to butcher its own people who are calling for change in government, losing power and credibility with each bullet fired.
G.B Shaw said that sport was “war without the guns”. Here under occupation, the most prestigious club rivalry in football seems to count for a lot. Football is a great vehicle for dreams; when the reality gets too much bear, there is always football.
It has a matchless ability to unite and divide; to reflect society’s schisms and provide a common language that reminds us of our shared humanity. On the field, Palestine is waiting for that Messi moment, an unstoppable flurry that breaks the deadlock and gets the world talking. It needs to be a moment that has their most bitter enemies in agreement that it while it may be painful to lose off the back of it, a beautiful thing like it deserves recognition.
When it happens, there will be plenty of Mourinihos grumbling and calling foul, but we can dream that they will be stuck in the stands with the noise of the crowd drowning them out.
After all, to paraphrase the great Bill Shankly; freedom from occupation is a matter of life and death, and nothing is more important than that.
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