Israel's promise to help solve one of Palestinian football's biggest problems - traveling in and out of the Palestinian territories - will in all likelihood not be kept. Very few people, athletes or others, enjoy free movement between the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has overall military control of the territory. The land, air and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2007 by Israel and the Middle East Quartet after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections means that Palestinians are being choked off from the rest of the world. It is strangulation without killing. Because of the restrictions, members of the Palestinian national football team are often unable to travel between the West Bank and Gaza for matches. After meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said that the Palestinian travel problem was "of national interest" to Israel and that Netanyahu had agreed to help solve it. Netanyahu provided no details on potential Israeli government plans to solve the problem, and FIFA has no power to overcome the political deadlock, as this is mostly up to the authorities. Blatter said he would defend the basic principles of FIFA which are to connect people, not to separate them, and that the principles are to recognize each other through football and to live not only in peace but in harmony. But the harmony Blatter speaks of is not found in inadequate football facilities and grounds or in so-called mutual cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian football associations. The blockade of Gaza has prevented most of the territory's 1.5 million residents, including athletes, from being able to travel abroad. Foreign players and officials have also encountered problems in entering the separate Palestinian territories. For Palestinian refugees, access to sports and leisure is often dictated by what facilities are available in the camps, which are none. The exile means refugees are unable to participate in the national sporting institutions of their country. Israeli control over all borders and movement has made it impossible for Palestinian sporting teams to assemble and travel for national and international games and tournaments. The devastation visited on the Palestinian economy by the occupation prevents Palestinian sportsmen from representing their country on the international stage. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel has stifled the functioning of sports associations and institutions, and has bombed leisure facilities used by Palestinian youths. Palestinian children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli bullets or bombs or both while playing football. Discrimination against Palestinians in sport is rife in Israeli institutions. The Hebrew University's sports center, which is intended to serve students, has consistently refused membership to Arabs not affiliated to the university, while accepting Jewish applicants. These constraints imposed by the Israelis have created conditions where it is impossible for Palestinian sport to thrive. Since life under occupation leads to death and devastation, it would be absurd to even begin to presume that sports would somehow matter. But the fact remains that Israel continues to impose a de facto ban on Palestinian sport and leisure activities, and the freedom enjoyed by Israeli athletes and teams comes at the expense of Palestinians who are deprived of the right to participate in sports from the local to the international level. More than any other people, Palestinians must have the right to freely participate in all sporting activities to offset the fact that they have precious few other rights elsewhere in their lives.
