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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/05/history-olive-trees-and-football-what-keeps-palestinians-strong/">counterpunch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">History, Olive Trees and Football: What Keeps Palestinians Strong</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ramzy Baroud</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">February 5, 2024<br></div>
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<div id="gmail-attachment_312459" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312459" src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/david-mclenachan-11kQ2vLtjE8-unsplash-1-680x510.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="333" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-312459" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Image by David McLenachan.</p></div>
<p>Despite the horrific war in Gaza and the unprecedented number of
casualties, millions of Palestinians in the Middle East and around the
world took a brief respite from their collective pain to watch their
national football team make history in Doha.</p>
<p>The Palestinian team, also known as Fada’ii – the freedom fighter –
scored a decisive win against Hong Kong on January 23. Even though the
‘Lions of Canaan’ finished in third place, following Iran and the UAE,
they still <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-national-soccer-team-reaches-asian-cup-last-16/">managed</a> to make it to the round of 16 of the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in history.</p>
<p>Like the FIFA World Cup, also <a href="https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022">held</a> in Doha in November 2022, Palestine was present in all AFC games, where Palestinian flags were waved by thousands of Arab fans.</p>
<p>Palestinian players came to Doha from Palestine itself, and also from throughout the Middle East – in fact, the world. They <a href="https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/palestine/appearances/camilo-saldana/961907">include</a> the Chilean Palestinian player, Camilo Saldaña, and the likes of Oday Dabbagh, a Jerusalemite who is currently <a href="https://daysofpalestine.ps/from-jerusalem-to-charleroi-how-oday-dabbagh-is-making-history-as-a-palestinian-footballer/">playing</a> professionally in Belgium.</p>
<p>Sports, for Palestinians, is a symbol of unity but also persistence.
Very few sports teams in the world have been through what these youth
have experienced, whether in the form of direct harm to them and their
families, or through their association with the Palestinian collective.</p>
<p>Yet, the fact that they can, against all odds, attend games,
participate in tournaments, equalize against such prestigious teams as
the UAE, and even win, is a sign that the Palestinian nation will never
be erased, not 75 years after the Nakba, or a thousand years from now.</p>
<p>A very long distance away, another Palestine-linked team, the Chilean Deportivo Palestino, <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221120-club-deportivo-palestino-chile-palestine-solidarity-on-the-football-pitch/">continues</a> to express its historic connection to Palestine, despite the distance, different geopolitical spaces, culture and language.</p>
<p>Before FIFA <a href="https://www.newarab.com/features/how-palestine-became-fifa-member-after-decades-neglect">admitted</a>
Palestine as a member in 1996, Deportivo Palestino served, at a more
symbolic level, as the Palestinian national team in exile. Its players
donned football jerseys adorned with Palestinian cultural symbols and
other historical references to Palestine – a map, the colors of the flag
and so on.</p>
<p>Quite often, the players would enter the Primera Division stadiums wearing the iconic Palestinian black and white keffiyeh.</p>
<p>Palestino is over 100 years old, and the history of the Palestinian
community in Chile is older than this. It was Palestinian Christians,
not Muslims, who established the community there, which refutes the
claim that the so-called Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one over
religion.</p>
<p>While faith and spirituality are critical signifiers in the
Palestinian national identity, Palestinians are driven by the kind of
values which allow them to find their common ground, whether they are in
Gaza, Jerusalem, Santiago or Doha.</p>
<p>While Palestinians, like the vast majority of people around the
world, are football fanatics, for them sports is not just about sports.</p>
<p>Imagine a football field brimming with Palestinians from different
religious, geographic, political, cultural and ideological backgrounds.
They come, whether as fans or players, motivated by a single objective,
celebrating their culture while emphasizing their national continuity,
as an immovable reality despite the ongoing attempts aimed at its
erasure.</p>
<p>Here, other symbols become relevant: The flag, as a banner that
unifies all Palestinians despite political factionalism; the keffiyeh,
the ancient peasant symbol, used to fight colonialism over the course of
many decades; the map, presented without lines, walls, fences or zones,
to remind them that they belong to a single historical narrative, and
so on.</p>
<p>In fact, there is more to symbolism. Arab and Muslim masses, all
rallying around Palestinians in their quest for freedom and justice,
also send a strong and unmistakable message: Palestinians are not alone;
they are, in fact, part and parcel of cultural, geographic, historical
and spiritual continuity that spans many generations, national flags and
even borders.</p>
<p>While millions of people are currently feeling the pain of Gaza,
expressing unprecedented solidarity with the suffering civilian
population, Arab masses feel that pain at a whole different level. It
feels as if the Arab and Muslim peoples have internalized the pain of
Gaza as if it were their own. In many ways, it is.</p>
<p>Yet, despite the indescribable pain and suffering of millions of
innocent civilians, there is always that historic certainty that
Palestine will, as it has always done, ultimately prevail over its
torment and tormentor.</p>
<p>Here, no other symbolism can serve the role of the powerful metaphor
as that of the olive tree. It is as old as history, as rooted as hope
and, despite everything that this tree continues to endure in the land
of Palestine, it will continue to produce some of the world’s best olive
oil.</p>
<p>Palestinian farmers do not simply see their olive orchards as a
source of income but as a source of strength and love. The late
Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, wrote in his seminal poem, “The
Second Olive Tree”: “If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted
them, Their Oil would become Tears”.</p>
<p>One day, Palestine will become a reality, free of pain, suffering and
tears. But even then, Palestine will continue to be a generator of
meaning that will keep future generations as conscious of their past as
they are eager for the future.</p>
</div><p>
<em>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “</em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><em>These Chains Will Be Broken</em></a><em>:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”
(Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim
University (IZU). His website is </em><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><em>www.ramzybaroud.net</em></a>
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