“Sports are part of resistance….we strive for return and liberation of Palestine,” says Coach Majdi of the Shabab Palestine football club in Shatila refugee camp, Beirut, Lebanon. He and club director Ghinwa Ghalayini emphasize that sports help to nurture the Palestinian identity of youth in the camps, while supporting them away from drugs and other dangers.

However, they note that it is a challenge to keep Palestinian sports active in the camps, particularly in Shatila, one of the most impoverished and marginalized Palestinian refugee camps. There is only one field and it must be rented organizationally, and many youth clubs in the camps struggle with these fees. Palestinians in Shatila have been struggling for their right to return to Palestine for over 78 years; at the same time, they face severe discrimination — such as exclusion from over 70 professions — in Lebanon.

In the past, the Palestinian camps in Lebanon were at the heart of the Palestinian revolution, but since the Oslo accords, they have been marginalized at all levels — politically, socially and economically. In 1982, the camp was the site of the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacre carried out by fascist Phalangists overseen by invading Zionist occupation soldiers, and today, is one of the most impoverished and marginalized Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Reported by Ahmad al-Laheeb for the Palestinian Sports Network.