Palestine, Settler Colonialism, and Sport

alestine is a beautiful country, renowned for its welcoming inhabitants, picturesque sea shores, and abundant olive trees.The hospitable Palestinian people are always ready to share their rich culture and traditions with visitors and people who wish to learn about Palestine despite the colonial war Israel has waged against Palestine for more than a hundred years. 1 The Palestinian people's enduring spirit is not only evident in their rich cultural heritage, but also in their longstanding and resilient sporting traditions.Palestine's sporting history includes dozens of athletic clubs from all regions of Palestine in existence prior to the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948, during which the state of Israel was founded on the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and mass ethnic cleansing.Palestinians also fought for decades for inclusion in mega sporting events such as the Olympic Games and as an official member-nation of FIFA, struggles directly tied to their assertions of sovereignty and nationhood as Israeli rule constructed an apartheid state.More recently, scholars have considered sport and physical cultural activities such as skateboarding and parkour as examples of Palestinian youth, in particular, creating joy amidst the ongoing siege.Palestinian decolonial efforts through sport and physical culture are both a local and international movement, as Siri Schwabe demonstrates in her illumination of Deportivo Palestino, a professional football club in Chile founded by Palestinian immigrants, and whose political engagement is tied to both its representational presence on the pitch and its connection to the larger Palestinian struggle.During Israeli occupation, in other words, sport for Palestinians is and has always been about more than simple recreation: it is directly tied to culture, nation, and peoplehood.After years of occupation, beginning after the Balfour declaration in 1917 and intensifying with the Nakba in 1948, Palestinian lands have progressively been eroded and Israeli territories expanded.Depending on where Palestinians live, their rights, laws, hierarchy, and levels of oppression vary greatly.Palestinian land has now been split into four distinct regions, each with its own complex situation: 1.The Heartland (also referred to as the 48 borders in reference to the borders created by the Nakba, now called Israel), frequently refers to the occupied territories where Palestinians hold Israeli citizenship but do not have the same rights as Jewish/Israeli 'nationals', there in excess of 65 Israeli laws that discriminate against Palestinians.2. The West Bank, under military rule, where Palestinians face stringent restrictions and limited autonomy.3. The Gaza Strip, under siege, endures severe economic hardships and frequent conflicts.4. East Jerusalem, where Palestinians have permanent residency but face discrimination and severe prejudice.Palestine is a humanitarian and environmental social justice issue.The ecosystem that has been constructed by Israel and Zionist ideologies is one of 'greenwashing,' the idea that Israel suggests they are protecting 'their' lands but are in fact destroying the ecosystem, water usage, electricity, and access to natural resources, through settler colonialism.Namely, settler colonialism is the process by which settlers claim already occupied Indigenous territories through institutions and practices designed to separate Indigenous peoples from their connections to their territories.1 The authors of this paper have a pro-Palestine position.Specifically, first author of the paper is a British Palestinian and has spent time in Palestine reflecting the opinion of the lands shared.Importantly, a pro-Palestine position is not opposed to Judaism or to Jewish people, but to the settler colonial project of Zionism.The conflation of these very different positions is part of the anti-Palestinian sentiment that predominates in the mainstream Western discourse around the ongoing violence.P

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