How Palestinian football team reached global stage against all odds

Last week, the Palestine national football team kicked off their opening game at the AFC Asian Cup with the hope of giving some happiness to the people of Gaza.

The tournament takes place amid continued Israeli onslaught that has killed more than 24,000 Palestinians, displaced more than two-thirds of Gaza's population and left 60 percent of the besieged enclave's infrastructure damaged or destroyed.

In the leadup to the tournament, several Palestinian footballers playing for 'the Lions of Canaan' were affected by Israel's war that broke out after Hamas' incursion into Israel on October 7.

While most international footballers would typically go through the last-minute rituals that include taking care of injuries, sports massages and hydrating their bodies to ensure peak physical condition to endure the 90-minute game, Palestinian players have other things to worry about.

A day before the team's first game against Iran in Group C, striker Mahmoud Wadi received the news that his cousin was killed in Gaza. Later, he told journalists that maybe victory at the tournament can bring his people some joy.

On Sunday, around 28,000 fans packed the Education City Stadium with Palestinian solidarity in full display. Many donned the keffiyeh and the red, white, green, and black soccer jerseys, which turned a stand into a giant Palestinian flag.

Palestinian supporters unfurled flags while a tribute was paid to the victims in the besieged enclave of Gaza.

Thousands of miles away from the stadium, for members of the Palestinian diaspora, it was a moment of pride, despite the loss of the first game to Iran, one of the highest-ranked teams.

In the second group game against the UAE, Palestine displayed attacking prowess and strong resilience. Palestinians in the diaspora including those in South America remained glued to their TV screens for the duration of the match.

"The importance of the Asian Cup for the Palestinian football team lies in the fact that, first of all, the eyes of the world will be on the performance of this team representing the Palestinian people who are currently under attack and are being killed in a brutal way," says Nicola Hadwa, a geopolitical analyst who is also a former footballer and coach.

Born shortly after the Nakba, or catastrophe - as Zionist militias forcibly displaced some 750,000 Palestinians to establish the State of Israel in 1948 - Hadwa, who is in his 70s, says Palestinian participation in the tournament is an emotional matter for him.

"I was actually born in occupied Palestine. I was born in a town called Beit Jala, which is next to Beit Laham (Bethlehem), very close to Jerusalem, so the present, the past, the future of Palestine is a daily concern," the Chilean-Palestinian tells TRT World.

Born in the early 1950s while the West Bank was part of Jordan and before Israel's 1967 military occupation of the territory, Hadwa’s family's journey is similar to that of many Palestinians with direct experience of living under the initial years of a military occupation.

While he was young, his family relocated to Chile, as part of the first wave of Palestinian refugees to leave their homeland.

Today, the Palestinian footprint in Chile is strong with a diaspora of more than 500,000 people.

In Hadwa's case, the desire to reconnect with his Palestinian roots began in his teens. He became a member of different groups backing the Palestinian cause in the region.

And it was football to which young Palestinians men gravitated to. Away from their homeland, football became a uniting force.

As a young man, Hadwa qualified as a commercial engineer. He then went on to become a goalkeeper and studied at Chile's National Football Institute, part of the country's national football federation.

Even after he hung up his boots, Hadwa kept his affiliation with the game.

"I managed professional clubs in Chile, but I always had in mind how I could help as much as possible to develop football in my country, which is Palestine," he says.

In the early 2000s, Hadwa took on a coaching role at the domestic football team, 'Club de Deportes La Serena' in Chile's northern mountainous Coquimbo region, located more than 450 km north of the capital Santiago.

The Palestinian Football Federation learnt about his involvement in managing a team and then-Palestinian ambassador to Chile, Sabri Ateyeh, contacted him for help.

That paved the way for the Palestine national team to head to Chile for important preparation for the Arab Cup in Kuwait in 2002. At the same time, Hadwa became responsible for managing Palestine’s national team as its first professional coach.

Assuming the role in the early 2000s, Hadwa says he had “high hopes” following all the efforts the technical staff had put into developing the team that historically faced numerous setbacks.

A symbol of struggle

In Palestine, football emerged in the late 1920s while its governing body was established in 1952. But it was not until 1998 that the world’s governing body for football, FIFA, recognised the Palestine’s Football Association which at the time was managed on the field by Argentine Ricardo Carugati. The process culminated in the FIFA boss, Sepp Blatter, visiting Rafah.

At the start of his tenure, Hadwa says there was a clear strategy to use the team’s presence on the field as a symbol of their struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people.

Despite football providing much needed hope to the Palestinians, the team faced challenges posed by the Israeli occupation.

Israeli policies have deeply hampered the growth of Palestinian football due to the curbing of freedom of movement for players, coaches, officials, and equipment getting in and out of the territories.

As a manager, Hadwa says his spell in charge of ‘the Lions Of Canaan’ involved a different approach around the selection of players.

Hadwa and his staff gave opportunities to precocious Palestinian talents, looking beyond the occupied territories

He says they sought to unite the "youth" from Gaza, the occupied West Bank and the diaspora.

"That Palestinian team included all the Palestinians across the world, which is the reality on the ground," says Hadwa.

He says there were many footballers with Palestinian heritage who, according to the FIFA rules, could represent the Palestine national team. Most notably, he says this included players from different parts of the globe including Argentina.

Palestine-Argentine striker Alejandro Naif, who played for several regional domestic clubs in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Honduras ended up playing for the national team.

"So the Palestine football team was representative in its true magnitude. The true existence of the Palestinian people,” he adds.

Participation in the 2002 Kuwait game infused a new life into the Palestinian team, which was able to draw three games against superior teams of Kuwait, Jordan and Sudan.

Over the years, the Palestinian team did well in Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan, where Palestinians collaborated closely with the Jordanian domestic club - Al Wehdat SC. Based in Amman, the club has a strong Palestinian footprint, being closely identified with Jordan’s Palestinian diaspora and is named after a prominent refugee camp in the capital.

From 2002-2004 Hadwa guided the team on the pitch, counting on the "tremendous strength" and "dedication" of players like former captain Ramzi Saleh.

Saleh, who was a goalkeeper, enjoyed an illustrious playing career and during a friendly tournament in the Philippines in 2014, he underscored the impact of decades-long Israeli aggression. "We want to send a message to the world, to tell them that the Palestinian people exist despite all the Israeli obstacles, the destruction, the martyrs."

Hawa says Ziyad Al Kord was another important player during his time in charge. Later in his career, the striker was denied the ability to travel outside the occupied territories and had his home reportedly destroyed by Israeli Forces.

Other players in recent decades have felt the full barbarism of a military occupation.

In 2004 Israeli forces killed midfielder Tariq al Quto. Some five years later, three promising Palestinian players Ayman Alkurd, Shadi Sbakhe and Wajeh Moshtaha were killed during Israel’s war on Gaza or ‘Operation Cast Lead’. In the same year an Israeli sniper killed Saji Darwish, an 18 year old, set to become a key international player for Palestine.

In 2014 an Israeli air strike killed Palestinian Footballer, Ahed Zaqout while in the same year, young players Jawhar Nasser Jawhar and Adam Abd Al Raouf Halabiya were deliberately shot in the feet. The incident happened after a training session, as the players had been attempting to cross an Israeli military checkpoint into the occupied West Bank.

Hadwa stepped down as a manager in 2004.

He went on to manage top Chilean domestic team, ‘Club Deportivo Palestino’ a side based in the capital Santiago that honours the Palestinian community’s heritage in the country.

He says they have had some professional players of Palestinian origin who have represented the national team. Most recently at the Asia Cup, Chilean footballer Camilo Saldaña who played at youth level for Chile opted to play for Palestine and made his debut against Oman in October 2023.

Now, amid Israel's war on Gaza, some of the football pitches in Gaza have been used as detention sites and mass graves while over 60 footballers have been killed.

Looking back on his time managing the national team with “great affection,” Hadwa believes the Asia Cup offers a different view of Palestinians globally with the footballers’ performances, undermining what he calls the "permanent Zionist propaganda" of showing Palestinians as brutish people.

During his tenure, Hadwa recalls the warmth from those unable to return to historic Palestine but were able to share in brief moments of national pride.

“We have the most beautiful memories of those days, mainly with the Palestinian people who were in the diaspora,” says Hadwa. “We were very, very close to qualifying for the Athens Olympics. Unfortunately, we couldn't, but hey, we tried.”