Major strides

PALESTINIAN DELEGATION — Competing in the Olympics for the first time, Palestinians hope to erase some of the negative images from the past.

By Mark Sherman, Staff Writer

Major strides — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 27 July 1996 — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution · Atlanta, Georgia · 27 July 1996

Transcribed from the clipping

“Majed Abu Maraheel is not worried about medals. He could not care less about the track conditions. He has no problems with the heat. The Palestinian flagbearer in last week’s Opening Ceremony holds no illusions about his ability to compete with the world’s best 10,000-meter runners.

Maraheel’s only concern was making it to the Olympic stadium in time for his qualifying heat Friday, when he became the first Palestinian to compete in the Olympics under his own flag. ‘We already won the gold medal by being here,’ he said.

The Olympic movement, its leaders love to say, prides itself on bringing together unfriendly neighbors — sometimes warring nations — for sporting events that are divorced from politics. It’s not always easy to do. Maraheel is a member of Force 17, the security unit that guards Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The group also has been identified by the CIA and State Department as being responsible for terrorist activities in the occupied territories, and one in Cyprus, since 1985. Maraheel rolls up the right sleeve of his T-shirt to reveal a 3-inch scar that he said came from an Israeli bullet.

Yet the Palestinian presence in Atlanta ‘will help heal wounds and erase some of the sour images of the past,’ he said. That hope certainly was shared by the heads of the Israeli and Palestinian delegations, who came together spontaneously during last week’s Opening Ceremony to shake hands, exchange pins and take pictures.

It marked the first meeting of the Middle Eastern neighbors on a field of sport. ‘It was very important because governments have to listen to the wishes of the people, and sports are the best representatives of the people,’ said Muammar Bississo, the Palestinian chef de mission.

Added his Israeli counterpart, Efraim Zinger, ‘We hope we’ll be able to contribute something to relations in our region.’ Zinger said the president of Israel’s Olympic Committee has invited the Palestinians to his Tel Aviv headquarters.

The Israeli Olympic delegation pointedly disagreed with the government’s complaint about the use of the name ‘Palestine’ for the Palestinian team. Maraheel and Ehab Salama, a 5,000-meter runner from Gaza, are the team’s only athletes in Atlanta.

Palestinian officials said a third athlete, boxer Rashid Judeh, was barred from competing here by boxing officials who said he lacked sufficient international experience.

The size of the first Palestinian squad is due in equal parts to the virtual lack of athletic facilities in the West Bank and Gaza and to Israel’s refusal to allow Palestinians who claim Jerusalem as their address to compete in the Olympics. The status of Jerusalem is to be resolved in future negotiations.

But the athletes are thrilled to be here and Atlanta’s small Palestinian community is delighted to have them. At a Gwinnett restaurant last week, Atlanta businessman Amin Ghanem hosted a reception for the Palestinian delegation and talked excitedly about his reunion with a first cousin he had not seen since they were children in Gaza 50 years ago.

The cousin, Abdul-hamid Ghanem is the deputy chef de mission for the Palestinians. ‘You know, this represents something so special to us,’ Amin Ghanem said. ‘It is something that cannot be taken away.’ The runners’ expectations are on a different level from many of their competitors. They put on spiked track shoes for the first time 15 days ago.

‘In Gaza, we ran either in sneakers or barefoot,’ Salama said. Describing the difference between practice facilities in Atlanta and the Gaza Strip, Maraheel said, ‘It’s like from heaven to Earth.’ Salama, wearing sandals to an interview, nursed a painful-looking sore on his left foot.

But his teammate said the wound would not keep him out of the race. Said Maraheel, ‘Even if it was amputated, he would run.’”

Context added by this archive

The host city’s own paper on the same two runners, and it carries three things the syndicated column does not. A third athlete existed: the boxer

Rashid Judeh, barred from competing by boxing officials who said he lacked international experience. The squad was two men, the paper says, in equal parts because there were almost no athletic facilities in the West Bank and Gaza and because Israel would not let Palestinians who give Jerusalem as their address compete at all. And the Israeli Olympic delegation

pointedly disagreed with its own government’s complaint about the use of the name ‘Palestine’ for the team, then shook hands with the Palestinian delegation at the opening ceremony and exchanged pins.

The paper also spells the flagbearer Maraheel where the syndicated column spells him Marahil, and Salama’s first name Ehab where the column has Ihab.

Cite this item

"Major strides," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 27 July 1996. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1996-012. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1996-012

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