AFSC hosts relief football in Gaza

'The Rafah event on 28 April, for Palestinian teenagers, was supported with solidarity games in cities throughout the USA.'

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) set up a youth football tournament in Gaza last month.

The Rafah event on 28 April, for Palestinian teenagers, was supported with solidarity games in cities throughout the USA. ‘The young people of Gaza have experienced so much hardship and trauma over the last six months,’ said Firas Ramlawi, manager for AFSC’s Gaza office and one of the tournament organisers. ‘They have lost parents, siblings, and loved ones. They have been displaced from their homes and their schools and community spaces have been bombed. It is so important that they experience moments of joy and resiliency in the midst of all this pain.’

AFSC is expanding its relief work in Gaza, and has already provided aid to more than 541,000 people there since October.

The tournament came ahead of the FIFA Congress in Thailand on May 17 when the international football organisation will debate whether to punish Israel through sanctions. The Palestinian Football Association will present the motion. ‘All the football infrastructure in Gaza has been either destroyed, or seriously damaged, including the historic stadium of Al-Yarmuk,’ it wrote in its proposal to debate sanctions.

FIFA lifted its total ban on Russian football teams competing in international tournaments last October, allowing them to participate in the men’s and women’s under-seventeen World Cup.

The Quäker-Hilfe Stiftung (the charitable trust of AFSC and the German Friends Service organisation) is also accepting donations to support AFSC’s Gaza relief efforts. Details can be found on the Friends World Committee for Consultation’s (Europe and Middle East Section) website.

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