When the Palestinian Olympic delegation of 5 athletes – adorned in conventional Palestinian apparel and carrying the Palestinian flag – crossed into Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium throughout the inauguration ceremony on 23 July, I used to be overcome with satisfaction and nostalgia.
I grew up watching the Olympics. All of us did. All through the month-long worldwide sports activities occasion, the Olympics had been the principle matter of debate among the many refugees in my refugee camp in Gaza, the place I used to be born.
In contrast to different sports activities competitions resembling soccer, you didn’t have to care concerning the sport itself to understand the underlying that means of the Olympics. The complete train appeared to be political.
Nonetheless, the politics of the Olympics is not like day by day politics. Certainly, it’s about one thing profoundly deeper, associated to id, tradition, nationwide struggles for liberation, equality, race, and, sure, freedom.
Earlier than Palestine’s first Olympic participation in 1996, with just one athlete, Majed Abu Marahi, we cheered – we nonetheless do – for all of the nations that appeared to convey our collective experiences or share a part of our historical past.
In our Gaza refugee camp, in a small, usually sizzling, merely furnished front room, my household, mates, and neighbours would collect round a small black and white tv set. For us, the opening ceremony was at all times essential. Although the digital camera usually allocates mere seconds to every delegation, a number of seconds had been all we would have liked to declare our political stances concerning every nation. It was no shock, then, that we cheered for all African and Arab nations, jumped in pleasure when the Cubans got here marching in and booed those that have contributed to Israel’s navy occupation of our homeland.
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Think about the chaos in our front room as a small crowd of individuals made loud and swift political declarations about each nation, making a case of why we must always cheer or boo, all concurrently: “The Cubans love Palestine”, “South Africa is the nation of Mandela”, “The French gave Israel Mirage fighter jets”, “The People are biased in direction of Israel”, “The president of this or that nation mentioned the Palestinians deserve freedom”, “Kenya was occupied by the British too”, and so forth.
The judgment was not at all times simple as, typically, none of us would be capable to provide a conclusive assertion to make a case for why we must always cheer or boo. For instance, an African nation which normalised relations with Israel would give us pause: we hated the federal government however we liked the folks. Many such ethical dilemmas had been usually left unanswered.
These dilemmas existed even earlier than I used to be born. The earlier technology of Palestinians additionally struggled with such urgent quandaries. For instance, when African American athletes, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos, raised their fists throughout the award ceremony within the October 1968 Olympics in Mexico Metropolis, that, too, will need to have been a troublesome philosophical query to be readily answered by the residents of my refugee camp. On the one hand, we loathed the traditionally devastating position performed – and continues to be performed – by the US, in arming, funding and politically supporting Israel. With out such assist, Israel would have discovered it inconceivable to take care of and revenue from its ongoing system of navy occupation and apartheid. However, we supported, as we proceed to assist, African People of their rightful battle for equality and justice. In these conditions, it’s usually resolved that we must always assist the gamers whereas nonetheless rejecting the nations they signify.
The continuing Tokyo Olympics had been hardly the exception of this advanced political system. Whereas a lot media protection has been placed on the COVID-19 pandemic – the truth that the video games had been held within the first place, the protection of the gamers, and so forth – the politics, the human triumph, the racism, and far more had been additionally nonetheless current.
As Palestinians, this time round, we’ve extra to cheer for than ordinary: our personal athletes. Dania, Hanna, Wesam, Mohammad, and Yazan are making us proud. The story of every certainly one of these athletes represents a chapter within the Palestinian saga, one that’s rife with collective ache, besiegement, and ongoing Diaspora, but additionally hope unparalleled energy and willpower.
These Palestinian athletes, like athletes from different nations which are enduring their very own struggles, whether or not for freedom, democracy, or peace, carry a heavier burden than those that had been skilled below regular circumstances, in secure nations that present their athletes with seemingly limitless sources to succeed in their full potential.
Mohammad Hamada, a weightlifter from the besieged Gaza Strip, competes within the 96kg males snatch. Essentially, the 19-year-old is already carrying a mountain. Having survived a number of lethal Israeli wars, a relentless siege, lack of freedom to journey, to coach below correct circumstances, and, after all, the ensuing trauma, by taking his first step within the Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, Hamada was already a champion. A whole bunch of aspiring weightlifters in Gaza and all through Palestine will need to have watched him in their very own dwelling rooms, stuffed with hope that they, too, can overcome all of the hardship and that they, too, may very well be current at future Olympics.
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Yazan Al-Bawwab, the 21-year-old Palestinian swimmer, embodies, regardless of his youth, the story of the Palestinian diaspora. A Palestinian, who grew up within the United Arab Emirates, now dwelling in Canada whereas carrying twin Italian and Palestinian citizenship, he represents a technology of Palestinian children who dwell outdoors the homeland and whose life is a mirrored image of the fixed seek for a house. There are thousands and thousands of Palestinian refugees who had been pressured by conflict, or circumstances, to continuously relocate. They too, aspire to dwell a traditional and secure life, to hold the passports of their very own homeland with satisfaction and, like Al-Bawwab, to realize nice issues in life.
The reality is, for us, Palestinians, the Olympics will not be an ethnocentric train. Our relationship to it’s not merely impressed by race, nationality and even faith, however by humanity itself. The dialectics by means of which we cheer or boo conveys a lot about how we see ourselves as a folks, our place on this planet, the solidarity that we want to bestow and the love and solidarity that we obtain. So, Eire, Scotland, Cuba, Venezuela, Turkey, South Africa, Sweden, and plenty of extra, together with all Arab nations with out exception, may be sure that we are going to at all times stay their loyal followers.
The views expressed on this article belong to the creator and don’t essentially mirror the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.
