According to a report in The Times of London, the Palestinian national soccer team has recently qualified for a major international tournament for the first time in its history. However, according to the report:
Those things that most sides — club or international — would consider basic requirements can, for Jendaya and his players, be fraught with such difficulty that even attending a training camp or joining up with the squad for an international fixture can cost them their freedom. Palestine have found themselves unable to take players from Gaza to train in the West Bank, and vice versa, because of travel restrictions between the two areas. Some coaches and squad members have been prevented from joining up with the team for fixtures abroad because Israel refuses to supply them with exit visas and others have been detained for weeks upon their return.
The President of the Palestinian Football Association is quoted as saying that Israel had a “systematic” policy designed “to eradicate Palestinian sports,” while Asian Football Federation chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa refers to “the suffering of football in Palestine due to the illegal Israeli practices which are against all international charters and conventions.”
Perhaps The Times should have dug a bit deeper and included exactly why Israel has legitimate security concerns when it comes to freedom of movement for Palestinian soccer players. Take this case reported in June 2014 when a player on the Palestinian national team was indicted by the Israeli authorities after using the cover of a soccer tour out of Israel to meet with a Hamas terrorist in Qatar.
Israel isn’t bent on causing unnecessary suffering to Palestinian sportsmen for no reason. Unfortunately, due to some selective omission, this is exactly what Times readers will believe.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
