Palestinian football faces erasure under Israel's occupation

When Spain lifted the World Cup trophy after defeating Argentina in a dramatic final, celebrations extended far beyond the stadium in New Jersey. Across Palestinian communities and among pro-Palestine supporters worldwide, Spain's victory was embraced as a symbolic moment in a tournament that had become entangled with the reality of Israel's genocide in Gaza. For many Palestinians, Spain's criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and Madrid's recognition of the State of Palestine in 2024 made the team a symbol of solidarity. Yet while Palestinian football became part of the global conversation surrounding the World Cup, the reality facing players at home remains largely unseen. In Gaza, football has been left in ruins by Israel's ongoing genocide. The Palestinian Football Association has reported the killing of hundreds of football players, coaches, referees and officials since October 2023, while dozens of football facilities have been damaged or destroyed. In the occupied West Bank, football survives under a system of Israeli arrests, restrictions and intimidation that threatens to push the sport to the brink. League competitions have been suspended for almost three years, players face arrests and movement restrictions, and stadiums and sporting communities have been caught in the wider violence of occupation and war. For Palestinian footballers, the dream of representing their country on the international stage exists alongside the daily uncertainty of whether they will be able to train, travel or even return home. The threat to Palestinian football is not only about lost matches or cancelled tournaments. It is about whether an entire sporting culture can endure — and whether FIFA, football's global governing body, will acknowledge what is happening. A game under occupation Al-Bireh's Majed Asad Stadium is hemmed in by the illegal Israeli settlements of Beit El to the north and Psagot to the south. In the shadow of these stark manifestations of Israel's expansionist settler colonial project, youth teams train in the afternoons. Settler violence repeatedly spills over into the area around the stadium. There are documented cases of attacks on sportspeople – including children – who train there. A little girl named Farah watches while her brother trains. Her team is next in line. She waits impatiently. Some colleagues from the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) are also watching the training. On our way out, we pass a mural depicting Ahmed Abu Khadija, a former national team player. He spent 17 months in administrative detention without trial or charge, and like thousands of other Palestinians, he was held under a system that allows detention without criminal prosecution. The portrait at the entrance to the stadium serves as a chilling reminder to young players passing by before every training session: make the most of the game – it could be your last. Portraits of martyrs displayed in a shop near An-Nasr Mosque in Nablus [Mathias Dehne] In early June, two Palestinian female internationals were arrested. Rand Halawani was detained on 2 June after being summoned for questioning in East Jerusalem and was released after nearly a week in custody. Natalie Abu Diya, a former national team player, was arrested the same day during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank and remains in Israeli custody, according to reports at the time. Natalie was part of the Palestinian team that faced Bohemians Dublin in a widely acclaimed solidarity match marking the 76th anniversary of the Nakba in 2024. Reports indicate that she is being held at Ofer Prison near Ramallah, where Palestinian prisoners have repeatedly alleged abuse and mistreatment in accounts documented by rights groups. Life and resilience The Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam regularly publishes photographs of the martyrs. After a few days, I lay the collected issues side by side on my hotel bed. The sheer number of martyrs, including many teenagers and young adults, leaves me paralysed. Shortly after my arrival, the newspaper had already shown the funeral procession – attended by hundreds of people – for 15-year-old Youssef Shtayyeh, a talented footballer who had been killed by the occupation army during a raid in Nablus on 23 April. I meet Akram Joma, the PFA's brilliant photographer, in downtown Ramallah's multi-storey car park, from where the orange shared taxis set off in every direction across Palestine. We're heading to Nablus to meet up with national footballer Sara Shakhsher and her brother, Nihad. Sara and Nihad are great local guides and navigate us through the old city and its bustling souq. The walls are covered with posters commemorating members of the Lions' Den, killed in recent years. When I ask Sara about her daily life, her joyful smile disappears. "Life in Nablus can change at any moment," Sara says. She adds: "We might wake up in the morning to news of an incursion by the Israeli occupation forces or road closures. It can also happen during the day, while we're simply going about our normal lives, that we suddenly face military raids and clashes. These situations affect even the simplest parts of our daily routine – whether we're on our way to work, university, school, or training." Akram Joma and Sara Shakhsher walking through the Old City of Nablus [Mathias Dehne] Twenty-two-year-old Sara trains with Sareyyet Ramallah. Like Natalie Abu Diya, Sara was part of the Palestinian team in Dublin. "In Palestine, anyone can be arrested – whether they're an ordinary person or an athlete. Of course, I worry deeply about my teammates, but I'm confident that they are strong enough to face this challenge," Sara explains after we start talking about Natalie and Rand. FIFA's ignorance Something Sara Shakhshir said to me has really stuck with me: "The Israeli occupation may arrest a player or demolish a football pitch, but it can never defeat the idea that Palestine exists and remains present despite all attempts to erase it." The word "erasure" keeps resurfacing. It points to what Palestinians see as a broader effort to dismantle football as a space of identity and representation — targeting players, teams, and infrastructure across the West Bank and Gaza through arrests, killings, and destruction. From teenagers to national team players, no level of the game has been untouched. National footballer Sara Shakhsher [© PFA] With the killing of goalkeeper Salim Khader Al-Ashqar on 29 June, the Palestinian Football Association said the number of football players, coaches, referees and administrators killed since October 2023 had risen to 567. Palestinian international Mohammed Rashid has described these attacks on sporting life in Palestine as "sporticide." Perhaps, above all, sporticide means the attempt to erase Palestine's presence on the international stage by targeting its national team and those who aspire to represent it. As Sara puts it: "I'm representing an entire country, a people who hold on to life, and a cause that deserves to be heard around the world." FIFA has yet to acknowledge what its own inaction has helped enable. That indifference has been evident both in FIFA's response to the genocide in Gaza and in its refusal to act against settlement clubs competing in the Israeli league system, despite allegations that they violate FIFA's own statutes. In March, FIFA decided that no action should be taken, citing that "the final legal status of the West Bank remains an unresolved and highly complex matter under public international law." Nevertheless, the PFA has announced that league competition will resume in September — another attempt to keep Palestinian football alive and force FIFA to confront what is happening on the ground. For players who continue to train, compete and represent Palestine amid arrests, destruction and loss, football has become an act of survival. FIFA's response will determine whether it protects that right or whether it, again, sides with a settler-colonial state and allows Palestinian football to be pushed further towards the margins. Mathias Dehne is a freelance author. Drawing on decolonial perspectives, he writes about Palestine, Palestinian resistance, and football under conditions of conflict and occupation Follow him on Instagram: @decolonizefootball