Gaza: “Giving up sports is killing the hope in children”

A little over a week after the 10 Octobre ceasefire in Gaza, representatives from various sports organisations held a meeting at Deir al-Balah Club in the South of Gaza to discuss rebuilding the sports infrastructure. Sport Knowhow XL spoke with Nader Jayousi, technical director of the Palestine Olympic Committee. about support from international federations for Palestine, and the importance of sport, even when it seems to be irrelevant amidst the hardship of war, famine and destruction.

by: Leo Aquina

Where is the Palestine Olympic Committee based at the moment?
”I’m based in the West Bank. The headquarters of the Palestine Olympic Committee in Gaza is gone, completely destroyed. In Gaza, about 97 percent of the sports facilities is destroyed. Peace is still far away in Gaza. We still have over fifty casualties each day. It’s very important for the people in Europe to know more about what’s happening in Palestina and Gaza.

“After the ceasefire (10 October) there was a meeting at the headquarters of the Deir al-Balah Club in Gaza (on 19 October), one of the very few facilities that has not been completely destroyed. Over fifty officials and representatives from the Palestinian Olympic Committee, the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, and the Football Association discussed the future of sports in Gaza. It was very impressive. It’s still hard to travel from the north of Gaza to the south, where Deir al-Balah is situated. The fact that still over 50 people showed up, shows the determination of the people of Palestine to rebuild sports in Gaza.”

How important is sports In the midst of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza? 
“Even during the war, we had people who were organising competitions in the refugee camps in the south of Gaza, and now, while there’s still people getting killed and bombed in Gaza, the people got together to have this meeting. Some might say that there’s more important things. They might say: let’s see how we bury our people, how we’re going to get food and clean water, how we’ll restore the roofs over our heads. These are the essential requirements now in Gaza. Negative people may look at this meeting and ask: why are you doing this? It’s no time for sports now. But this meeting shows that these people are aware of the importance of sports. It shows that we are not going to give up on our children. We’re going to help them build a new future and we understand that we cannot do that without sports. If we quit sports, we’ll kill the hope inside these children. As long as we can tell a kids in Gaza that one day they can carry the flag at an international competition and have their voices heard, we’re succeeding.

“Everybody in Gaza wants to take the initiative, because they understand that if we bury sports under the ground,  it's a sign of surrendering to the Israeli occupation, and more importantly, it's a sign of quitting on our own children.”

Where do you start, rebuilding a sports infrastructure in Gaza?
“The people who are responsible and in charge of the federations and the Olympic Committee gathered to list their resources and question what they can do within the available resources. We got a nice gesture from the IOC. They sent about five hundred track suits, five hundred volleyballs, basketballs and footballs. We are now wrapping them and making them ready to be shipped into Gaza.

“The IOC understands that the kids of Palestine need their support, that this helps greatly towards peace, towards hope, towards building a better future for these kids. Together with the tracks-suits and the footballs, they send a message to the kids: we stand by you to do sports and we’ll always try to protect you in whatever manners and whatever capabilities the IOC has. We thank our friends and colleagues in the IOC in general, and specifically former president, Mr. Bach, who had great understanding, just like the current president, Ms. Kirsty Coventry.”

Despite the war, Palestine was represented at international sports competitions over the past years. How did you manage to do that?
“As a technical director I led four delegations, the first one to the Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey 2022, then the Arab Games in Algeria, the Asian Games in 2023 in Hangzhou, China, and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, where we had the biggest Palestine delegation in Olympic history with eight athletes.

“After 7 Octobre 2023, no one could get in or out of Gaza. At the Asian Games in 2023 we had three athletes from Gaza in the team who couldn’t go back home. Our athletes in Paris didn’t come from Gaza, because that was impossible. We had athletes from the West Bank and athletes from the Palestine diaspora, who live and train in for example the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

“One of our top athletes from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, did not manage to go to Paris because he was stuck in Gaza for a long time. Mohammed Hamada is a weightlifter. He finished 13th in his weight category in Tokyo and he was in Gaza when the genocide started. He suffered from the famine, lost about 18-19 kilos of weight. He made it out of Gaza in January 2024, but he was not able to get back in shape and qualify for Paris. He just finished the World Championships 20th in his weight category. It’s only last month, at the World Championships, that he finally made it back to lifting the numbers he did years ago in the Junior World Championships. I’m sure that he could have made it into the top three at the Olympics In Paris if all of this had not happened.”

What do you think about the support from international sports organizations for the Palestine people over the past couple of years?

“We got good help from the from the international organizations, but I don't think that's the issue. What is the issue is that we all, all organizations sports or not-sports, should look deeply into what happened in Palestine. For Palestinians, sport is a message of peace, a message of hope, of contribution to the communities and society. That’s in line with the Olympic Charter. Anyone who is not committed to that Olympic Charter, should be considered to be taken out of competition. The position of Israeli athletes in international sports events should be reconsidered in that light.

“Take for example Peter Paltchik, the Israelian judoka and flag bearer at the Paris Olympic Games. He posted a photo of a rocket he signed with the word ‘Ippon and ‘From me with pleasure’ on his own social media, Is that a man who is eligible to carry a flag at the Olympic Games? Is that the representation of a message of peace?

“We highly respect the decision at the last meeting of our president Mr. Jibril Rajoub with IOC-president Kirsty Coventry in Lausanne (1 Octobre), which stated that both Israel and Palestine NOC’s are allowed to practice their sports within their recognized borders. That’s very important because the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, by international law, are occupied territory. This means that some big Israeli football clubs, who train on occupied land, should not be allowed in competition. The statement is very clear.

“Of course, I am in no position to decide what should be happening. I can just repeat that sports is a message of peace. The Olympics are built on ethics and values and anybody who breaks that commitment, should be taken into consideration as a case of breaching the Olympic Charter.“

What do you think, when you see that for example Russia is expelled from international competitions and Israel is not?
“I’m completely against the comparison between the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Palestine-Israel-situation. It’s not in my scope to discuss what’s happening in Ukraine and compare it to the Palestine-Israel case. We want people to look what’s happening and apply the law.“

This interview is also translated in Dutch