Safi Al Masri, 36, had been on the phone for about 30 minutes while the Sheet waiting to interview her. The Palestinian woman was talking to her children, who had stayed with the family in Israeli-controlled territory.
The conversation revolved around the well-being of the children, as they don’t feel safe in their home. “Anyone from the Israeli army can come and kill me and my children while we are sleeping or when I am driving to work. It is not a safe place,” says Al Masri.
She came to Qatar for the first time to meet relatives and, on the side, to watch some World Cup matches. The visa was approved due to a historic agreement between the nations as a result of the World Cup.
Part of his family lives in the host country. It was the opportunity he found to meet his cousin Marah AlBustami, 36, whose parents migrated to Qatar when they were still teenagers.
AlBustami, who is also Palestinian, has tried for years to visit her family. Her visa, however, is always denied — even when trying with a Jordanian passport, which has a peace agreement with Israel.
“They don’t allow me to visit Palestine. It’s very difficult, actually, to go to the Israeli embassy and they just deny my visa just because I want to visit my country and my relatives,” he says.
The context experienced by the cousins made the flag of Palestine become one of the main political symbols of the World Cup in Qatar. The solidarity that went beyond the Arab borders was not expected by the natives, but the government’s support was decisive for them to come and celebrate the championship.
On the walls of houses, on apartment balconies and on brooches sold as souvenirs in centuries-old markets in the country, pennants from Palestine and Qatar are sometimes interspersed, sometimes placed side by side.
The red, black, white and green flag is also on the backs of tourists walking through the streets of Doha, in the hands of fans in stadiums, and represented in the cries for freedom that take place in all these places.
The Qatari government supports Palestine as a sovereign and independent state. The conflict dates back to 1947, when the UN voted to divide Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The creation of Israel by Jewish leaders in 1948 forced thousands of Palestinians to flee or leave their homes. The event is known in Arabic as “nakba” or “catastrophe”.
The self-proclamation of Israel as a State caused Arab countries like Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq to start a war against the newly independent country. After months of battle, Israel emerged victorious and came to control most of the territory.
Years later, in 1967, the country also took over the West Bank, a region it has colonized ever since with the construction of settlements. Their justification for controlling the territory, to the detriment of Palestinian rights, is the security of the nation.
Today, most Palestinians live in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, or in the West Bank. But many have also migrated to nearby countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Arabs were expected to show solidarity with Palestine during the World Cup. The gesture was solidified on the field with players from Morocco waving the territory’s flag after the victory over Spain.
The demonstration gained even more weight as Morocco was one of the countries that, in 2020, signed the rapprochement agreements with Israel mediated by the Donald Trump government, and also concluded by his successor, Joe Biden.
Shortly after the match, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz congratulated the “Moroccan friends” on their “great victory”.
Seeing the flag in the hands of Moroccan players after the game was the “best thing that happened” on the trip of Layali Obrahim, 56. The Palestinian, who currently lives in Jordan, also came to the country motivated by the positioning of the local regime, but has surprised by the wave of support he sees in the streets.
“They [Marrocos] made us proud. And you know, Qatar also makes us proud as Arabs. They gave us back our nationality before the whole world”, he says.
But even the preference of Arab nations in relation to Israel, in the context of the signed agreement, has not been a point of tension during the World Cup.
Support for Palestinians in Qatar is popular. Although the government’s position was a driving force for them to participate in the celebration, the cause has local sympathizers on the streets –not just the regime– and other World Cup fans.
Tourists of different nationalities wear its flag, as well as banners with the pennant’s colors and the words “Free Palestine”. They are mainly Arabs, but they don’t boil down to one ethnicity or nationality.
Even in the game between Brazil and Croatia, this Friday (9) —a South American and a European country— fans carried the territory’s flags on their backs at the Cidade da Educação stadium, in Al Rayyan, where the match took place.
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