Dublin - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

12Noon-2pm VIGIL at Israeli Embassy - FAIR PLAY FOR PALESTINE before Ireland plays Israel

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice

Thursday March 24, 2005 11:56

by Ciaron, Des, Elaine - DCW

087 918 4552

Palestinian footballers being denied human rights by Israeli state.

*Ireland play Israel in Israel this Saturday 5.30 pm
*Return Game in June in Dublin
*Below is the Guardian article about
Israel restrictions on Palestinian football team
competing in the same competition (World Cup
qualifiers)

*This vigil is prelude to further nvda when Israel plays the return leg in Dublin

*Vigil Saturday March 26th. 12noon - 2pm at the Israeli Consul, Pembroke Rd. Ballsbridge D4 (opposite Jurys Hotel)
*This vigil is an outreach to Irish soccer fans - we wish them to consider the human rights being denied to Palestinian footballers
*People attending should wear footy shirts if possible (any club, if you've got more than one, bring to lend to others at vigil)
*Bring a ball for a kick about, broad sidewalk opposite Israeli Consul on Pembroke Rd. (opposite Jurys)

FOR OCCUPIED PALESTINE JUST TURNING UP IS A STRUGGLE

Israel has barred five players from tonight's World Cup qualifier

Eddie Taylor in Bahrain
Wednesday September 8, 2004
The Guardian

When Palestine's squad gathered at their Egyptian training base in early August to prepare for tonight's World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan, only 11 players turned up; a week later injury had reduced their number to six. "And we have five coaches," their Austrian manager Alfred Riedl lamented.

Life has not been easy for Palestine since the country without a state was admitted to Fifa in 1998 but their build-up to a game they need to win to maintain a hope of progressing past the first Asian qualifying round has been particularly blighted. While the few fit players in Ismailia were sharpening up on an endless diet of drills and conditioning work, 10 members of the squad repeatedly trooped to the Israeli-controlled Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip in an effort to cross the border.

For two weeks they were greeted with day-long detention and eventual denial. Finally five of the squad were allowed to cross after endless shuttle diplomacy between the Palestinian Football Association, Fifa and the Israeli authorities.

"It was like a soap opera," said the central midfielder Morad Fareed, whose parents swapped the West Bank for Long Island, New York, in the late 1970s, and who first heard of the team after reading an article in the Wall Street Journal. "Every day you'd wake up thinking the guys are going to appear and that we can finally do some proper work. The five who did show up were three weeks late and there's a limit to what you can do with a dozen or so players. It's very frustrating and, at times, pure chaos."

Palestine currently lie third in their group after an 8-0 victory over Taiwan and a creditable draw against the Olympic semi-finalists Iraq, their sole defeat coming against tonight's opponents.

With the four million inhabitants of the occupied West Bank and Gaza subject to Israeli "security" restrictions, and with no professional league to sustain or develop a steady stream of talent, players are thin on the ground. As a result of the latest disruption a second training camp in Hungary was cancelled and a truncated substitute hastily arranged in Bahrain.

Their prospects are not enhanced by having to play all their home games in Doha, Qatar, some 1500km from Jerusalem where games are rarely watched by more than a few hundred Palestinian exiles.

Palestine's political plight has other effects. In Bahrain the striker Ziad Al-Kurd learned his house in Gaza had been demolished by the Israeli Defence Force because they suspected (and the player strenuously denied) the presence of a tunnel to Egypt. Tayseer Amr was unsure what property his family in Qalqilya would have left once the latest leg of the notorious security wall is built near his home.

"I call them my little heroes," Reidl said. "The ones from the West Bank and Gaza are often leaving behind a wife and three or four kids and a situation that is very dangerous. As a father I don't think I could do that. The fear is always there but these guys keep coming back."

After last month's suicide bombings in the Israeli town of Beersheba the prospect of the absent Gaza five joining the squad all but evaporated.

Riedl instructed the Palestine FA's website to issue a call for players not requiring Israeli permission to travel. "I don't care where they come from," he mused. "Germany, America, Honduras, wherever, as long as they have a Palestinian grandparent and play in the top two divisions of their country's league, we'll bring them over and have a look."

Previous recruitment drives, such as advertisements in Germany's Kicker magazine, had unearthed three members of the squad, including the bullocking Lebanon-born striker Wasim Abdulhadi. But the latest appeal generated few results. "I had one guy from Sweden email me," Riedl said, "claiming he was his team's star player and that everyone knows him. I find out he's 16."

Yet considering the unity of purpose, the team itself is a strange fusion of disparate groups that reflect the range of the Palestinian diaspora - and the team's desperate recruitment measures. Half the team is from Chile, the largest Palestinian community outside the Arab world, and the blend is not always easy. Cliques form naturally along linguistic lines and communication remains a problem, not least with an Austrian coach and his Hungarian assistant, Tamas Viczko.

Yesterday Tayseer Barakat, the Palestine FA's director of international affairs, said Fifa had denied a request to postpone the game because of the weakened team. Palestine's struggle continues.

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Comments (3 of 3)

Sweet FAI

by mo

Fri Mar 25, 2005 06:41

I must admit that the protests are a bit tardy - opposition to this game should have been instigated from it's announcment. The team should never have been allowed leave.

I hear some people say that sport and politics shouldnt mix, but what do you say when Italian footballers turn out on the field with slogans on their jersey demanding the release of one Italian journalist in Iraq.

She was released days later, with stories of how her captors enjoyed watching Roma.

Sport certainly has a part to play in politics and vice versa, unless you are a brain dead Manchester United fan.

For the Silence of the Well Funded & Resourced, We as Tardy Must Speak!

by Ciaron - DCW

Fri Mar 25, 2005 12:30

Israel Embassy, Pembroke Rd. (opp. Jury's) Sat 12noon-2pm

Yup, thought some NGO or more well resourced group would have been on to this one. The DCW have been snowed under with the trial in March....but better later than never. Did raise it at the relatively well attended WSM anti-war workshop and emailed out the proposal earlier this week with minimum response. There was a lot of Israeli media in Dublin this week, so earlier in the week would have been better. But as they say in the U.S. - that's all Monday morning quarter-backing...or retrospect is 20/20.

The good news is that the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Committee have responded to the late call and have emailed around their membership. So we should have a bit of a crew at the embasy on Saturday. Trying to put out a media release at the moment. It's more of a prelude to the return match in Dublin in June so we don't start flat footed.

Not calling for a boycott at this stage, calling for the Israeli FA and all civil institutions in Israeli societ y to demand human rights for Palestinian footballers (including the right to travel to international games theyhave been chosen for). If the Israeli FA are not proactive about their government denying such rights to Palestinain footballers, there maybe a need to send the call to
FIFA to disqualify Isarael from the World Cup as they are frustrating a competitor - Palestine - in fielding their strongest team in this same competition in which they are participating.

Well you may think Palestine is a long shot to lift the cup in 2006....but most of us thought Roy Keane was ridiculious in thinking that Ireland could have lifted it in 2002....in retrospect Roy may have had a better grasp on reality than most of us. Who would have thought Greece would have one in 2004. I remember Qatar getitng to the World Youth Final in 1986 (Ithink there central defender is now running the country)...it pissed down rain and they lost to the Germans.

It's a game of two halves....see you Saturday!

Press Release for Saturday's Vigil

Fri Mar 25, 2005 14:05

*Interviews
Phone Ciaron O'Reilly 087 918 4552
*Fair Play for Palestine Vigil
Saturday March 26th. 12noon-2pm Israel Embassy,
Pembroke Rd, Dublin

PRESS RELEASE
On Saturday March 26th 12 noon-2pm, members of the
Dublin Catholc Worker Community and the Irish
Palestinian Solidarity Committee will be holding a
protest vigil at the Israeli Embassy, Pembroke Rd,
Dublin. The vigil preceeds the 5.30 pm kick off
between Ireland and Israel in Tel Aviv. The vigil
demands that the Israeli government and military stop
denying the human right of travel to international
games, and preparations, to members of the Palestinian
national team competing in the World Cup.

In September, according to a "Guardian" report carried
by the Irish Times (see below), 10 members of the
Palestiain squad repeatedly made their way to the
Israeli-controlled Rafah crossing in the Gazza Strip
in an effort to cross the border to attend their
national squad traing camp in Egypt. For two weeks
they were greeted with day-long detention and eventual
denial. Finally five of the squad were allowed to
cross after endless shuttle diplomacy between
Palestinain Football Association, Fifa and the Israeli
Authorities. They were then due to play Uzbekistan in
a World Cup qualifier. Palestine are forced to play
their home games, 1500 kms from Jerusalem in Doha,
Qatar watched by a few hundred exiles. Their
preparations were hugely disrupted by the denial of
their human right to travel and a full complement of
their best players.

Ciaron O'Reilly of the Dublin Catholc Worker states,
"As football fans we are asking Irish football fans,
players and authorities to consider these issues
concerning the denial of rights by the Israelis state
to Palestinian footballers competing in the World Cup.

We call upon the Israeli F.A. and Isarael civic
society to demand of the Israeli government to respect
the rights of the Palestinian football team and
Palestian people. If such pro-active advocacy is not
forthcoming from the Israeli F.A., we call upon Fifa
to examine whether Israell should be disaqualified
from the World Cup competition for hampering a
legitmate competitor from legitimate preparations for
games and the ability to field their strongest side.
The Irish F.A., players, fans and government should
also examine these issues before the return leg in
Dublin and be forthcoming with a reponse that demands
full human rights for the Palestinian team competing
in the World Cup".

*Interviews
Phone Ciaron O'Reilly 087 918 4552
*Fair Play for Palestine Vigil
Saturday March 26th. Israeli Embassy 12noon-2pm

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12Noon-2pm VIGIL at Israeli Embassy - FAIR PLAY FOR PALESTINE before Ireland plays Israel

Comments (3 of 3)