The Blue Eagles soar above their occupied lands

By Howard Schneider, The Washington Post

Transcribed from the clipping

“WADI AL-NEES, West Bank — Like any soccer match among 6-year-olds, the gang behind the village school brought as much structure to the game as a swarm of bees.

But Omar Abu Hamad, coach of the champion Wadi al-Nees Blue Eagles of the Palestinian Football Association, was already scouting his next generation of players — including the speedy sons of two of his current stars. If all goes well, he said, this village of 800 in the occupied West Bank will contribute to a Palestinian national team worthy of the world stage.

‘Their talent puts them on the right track,’ he said of the children. ‘The reputation is very important to us. We want to build our team.’

More than 15 years after the Oslo peace accords put Palestinian society on what was envisioned as a path to self-government, prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state are in limbo… But last fall, the soccer league completed a full 21-game season.

That may not seem like a profound step forward, but it is one that gave fans in 22 towns and villages a taste of normalcy, and a chance to wave a flag in a context that did not involve rock throwing or tear gas. Play had been suspended for years because of the violent Palestinian uprising, or intifada, that broke out in 2000.

But the sport appears to be on the upswing under the guidance of Jibril Rajoub… Roughly $3 million in overseas donations and some local funding paid for renovations that brought Ramallah’s al-Husseini stadium up to international standards. Last fall, the Palestinian national team played its first ever FIFA-sanctioned home match: a 1-1 draw against Jordan.

Perhaps as significant, Wadi al-Nees — for its winning effort in last season’s league play — earned a $25,000 prize that will let the Blue Eagles invest in new shoes and equipment and perhaps start developing a home pitch, or playing field. The team currently practices on the same blacktop playground where the coach scouts the 6-year-olds.

‘For the first time in years we had a league from A to Zed. For the first time in the history of Palestine we had a league for women. We had a home pitch. This has never happened,’ Rajoub said. ‘One of the problems we have is to convince the international community that we deserve independence.

Presenting the Palestinian people through sport is an important development — to convince the world that we are normal.’ It has certainly become central to Wadi al-Nees, the playfully named ‘Valley of the Porcupines.’ The village sits on a hillside south of Bethlehem, near the Israeli settlement of Efrat.

Salim Abu Hamad, the soccer team’s director, said their area had not witnessed serious clashes during the intifada. Many men in the town work as stonecutters in a nearby Palestinian-owned quarry. It is a quiet life in a village where most everyone is related, by blood or marriage, to the Abu Hamad clan. Which makes the soccer, like everything else here, a family affair.

The team is largely a gaggle of brothers and cousins, though they have imported a player or two. The team was formed in the 1980s, and at first was a doormat for one of the lower divisions in the nascent league.

As the league expanded, Wadi al-Nees eventually started bringing home prizes even as it advanced to the top division — a triumph, team members say, against the odds. Goalkeeper Mohammed Abu Hamad is hardly a giant in the net. But he scoffs at mention of his short stature and notes that in 21 games last year the Blue Eagles allowed only 10 goals.

‘The secret is loving one another,’ the coach said. ‘Other teams fight among themselves.’ The Abu Hamads, coach and director, say they have the talent to stay atop the Palestinian league and, over time, help boost the national squad out of its ranking of 174, between Bangladesh and St. Lucia.

Ultimately, they said, a match against the Israeli national squad is not out of the question, but only after they have a few years to build. ‘Now,’ said Salim Abu Hamad, ‘we just need a field.’”

Context added by this archive

A village of 800 called the Valley of the Porcupines, a soccer team that is mostly brothers and cousins, and a coach who scouts six-year-olds on the blacktop playground where his champion side also trains, because they have no pitch. The head of the Palestinian Football Association says what the league is for:

‘Presenting the Palestinian people through sport is an important development — to convince the world that we are normal.’ He also notes, in passing, that the previous season was the first in the history of Palestine with a league for women. The national squad is ranked 174th, between Bangladesh and St. Lucia.

The team’s $25,000 prize is to go on shoes, equipment and perhaps a field. The story ends on the director saying the only thing still missing: Now, we just need a field.

Cite this item

"The Blue Eagles soar above their occupied lands," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 11 April 2009. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2009-029. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2009-029