Originally published on the CGS blog on August 1, 2014.
If I began by saying that the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is longstanding and complicated, that would be trite and tired and everything you already know. If I was to say that social media, citizen journalism, and shifting geopolitical landscapes have made the conflict both increasingly confusing and accessible, I would be guilty of the same.
This summer, I didn’t plan to focus on sports as much as I have. Sports – playing them, watching them, admiring them – are something I take for granted. A growing awareness of marginalization, inequality, and oppression has complicated my pleasure but not suffocated it. I remain an avid participant and a committed fan. I called turning twenty-three my “Jordan Year” and would be embarrassed to reveal the price of my new Real Madrid jersey.
As Israel’s Operation Protective Edge marches onward, civilian deaths and human suffering sink spirits like lead. It’s bleak. It’s miserable. I cannot fathom the contours of living it firsthand – as an Israeli or a Palestinian, listening for rocket sirens or “knock-knock” bombs.
Of all that I have read on Protective Edge, nothing shook me like the story Ayman Mohyeldin reported about the four Palestinian boys who were killed on the beach. By now, I think my writing shows I am a committed fan of the World Cup and football internationally. Football is the tacit human right. Hearing that these children died playing football with Mohyeldin during the World Cup was jarring. It underscored the grind of life under occupation – something as pedestrian as kicking a ball is a luxury, a release, a remarkable feat.
My last girlfriend in college was an impressive British-Palestinian girl who came from an equally impressive family. Her father runs a charity based in the UK called PACES – Palestine Association for Children’s Encouragement of Sports. Their mission is to provide healthy afterschool programs for Palestinian girls and boys. Their camps in Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan offer the children – boys and girls – a chance to represent Palestine at tournaments in Europe. There is a component that focuses specifically on empowering young girls, and the opportunity to direct energy toward healthy competition serves as a kind of therapy for many of these marginalized youth. Honestly, it’s incredible when you hear these stories.
I think about PACES and their work when Israeli-Palestinian relations shift from bad to worse. Part of it, I will confess, is because of affection for someone I care about and for her family. Adding to that, though, is the hard reality of life under occupation. There are no Friday Night Lights, AYSO on the weekends, or chances to imagine yourself the hero you admire. The white lines marking the boundaries of the pitch are displaced by green lines, red lines, headlines. Life under occupation is more than limited water and movement and food coming in and out – it’s diminished laughter and rivalry and triumph.
To the maximum extent possible, I’ve avoided right-versus-wrong analysis and a judgment on the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The realities that Israelis and Palestinians endure are each unfair in their own respects. I object to the targeting of civilians; neither Israelis nor Palestinians should face that. Like anyone else in this organization, I am against killing and would always lobby a peaceful resolution.
After a summer researching FIFA, the World Cup, climate change, violence against women, discrimination against the disabled, and the turmoil in Central Africa, I am painfully clear on the complexity of international issues. Nothing is so easily resolved – and especially not by any one country. No more Israeli kids in bunkers and no more Palestinians afraid of the beach.
I wonder if “global solutions” can be articulated in local language. Instead of grand visions of world governance, maybe we can use PACES and the reality of traumatized children and the story of these four dead boys to craft our vocabulary. At this point, I would be happy with, “Every child can play soccer without fear of anything.”
