Palestinian kin play political football in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM: Aqal passes to Aqal, who finds Aqal in space out wide. He squares to Aqal, who smashes home a strike, sending the crowd of yet more family members into hysterics.
The match inside Jerusalem’s walled Old City was part of a monthlong football tournament in which the largest Palestinian families play each other to be dubbed champions of the city.
Building on the inaugural tournament two years ago, participants say this year’s event holds particular symbolism after US President Donald Trump’s controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Palestinians saw the December decision as an attempt to deny their claims to the disputed city. They view its eastern sector, where the Old City is located, as the capital of their future state.
For players and fans, the tournament is a defiant display of Palestinian pride – and footballing skill.
“We feel this is our land, so we want to stress we are the owners of the land by having a Palestinian tournament here,” said organiser Muntaser Edkaidek.
It is also a display of family ties that informally govern east Jerusalem’s 300,000 Palestinians.
In Jerusalem, family history is often entwined with the city’s unique religious and political heritage.
The Khaldis claim to be descendants of one of Prophet Mohammed’s closest companions.
The Joudehs and Nuseibehs, both Muslim families, have for centuries safeguarded the keys to the church in the Old City built where Jesus Christ is believed to have been crucified and then buried.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem along with the West Bank in the 1967 SixDay War and later declared the entire city its united capital.
Since then, Palestinians say they have been denied the full range of rights and benefits given to Jewish citizens.
More than 200,000 Israelis now live in mostly modern, newly built blocs east of the 1967 armistice line – decried as illegal settlements by the international community, but thriving and growing under Israeli law.
The Old City is only one square kilometre, but hosts some of the holiest sites in Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
It is also a functioning neighbourhood of more than 35,000 people, with homes, schools and shops tightly packed in.
Reaching the match involves winding through labyrinthine streets before the road opens onto a floodlit fake grass pitch flanked by the 16thcentury walls of the Old City.
A single stand can host a hundred or so fans.