Sep 15, 2015

A scoreless soccer game can hardly be considered a victory, but for the Palestinian national team, tying the powerful team from the United Arab Emirates on Palestinian soil was a double victory. Even the leading newspaper in the UAE, The National, described the match as such. On Sept. 8, the Abu Dhabi daily called the results of the historic game, held on the outskirts of occupied Jerusalem, a win for the Palestinian team. It is rare to be able to use the word “historic” to describe a soccer match, but the FIFA World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying match between Palestine and the UAE was truly momentous by local standards.

For an Arab soccer team to agree to cross borders controlled by a country with which they are officially at war takes courage, and in this case, reflected genuine support and solidarity with the Palestinian people. UAE coach Mahdi Ali echoed his support for holding the match in an interview with the Emarat Sports website on Sept. 8, saying, “As Emiratis, we consider ourselves victorious just by being in Palestine, which I wish to see as a free and independent state.” After the game, Ali, along with a small group of administrative officials, visited and prayed at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Ensuring the visit to Palestine was not easy. Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Association, had been exerting great effort to have official home games played in Palestine. After confronting difficulties with Israeli officials during the FIFA congress held in Zurich on May 29, he was assured that games would not be blocked. FIFA guaranteed Rajoub that the Israelis would not put restrictions on visiting teams or on the movements of Palestinian team members, in particular players from Gaza.

A FIFA-appointed monitoring committee headed by Tokyo Sexwale, a well-known anti-apartheid South African activist, was entrusted with ensuring that games take place without problems. Sexwale held meetings with Israeli and Palestinian representatives Aug. 26, and agreement was reached on a mechanism for a continuous dialogue to resolve any issues that might arise.

The 43-member UAE team, along with administrative staff and journalists, crossed the King Hussein Bridge from Jordan on Sept. 6. Mohammad Qadri, a sports reporter and head of Jordan’s Sports Channel, described the trip to Al-Monitor as having gone smoothly. “On the Jordanian side, the players didn’t have to leave the bus, and on the Israeli side, they processed the players in record time,” said Qadri, who frequently travels to Palestine. “The trip from the Grand Hyatt in Amman to the Movenpick in Ramallah took around four hours.”