West Bank: Israel Demolition Threat to Palestinian Children’s Soccer Field

The narrow, crowded streets are home to the homes of descendants of Palestinian families who were forced from their homes or fled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

On November 3 of last year, as the children walked from the camp for their daily training, they found a notice nailed to the gate of the soccer field declaring it illegal.

The notice was followed shortly after by a demolition order.

“We don’t have anywhere else to play,” 10-year-old Naya told me, wearing a Brazil jersey with soccer legend Neymar’s name emblazoned on the back.

“Here we build our dreams,” he said. “If they demolish our countryside, they will demolish our dreams.”

I asked another young player, Mohammed, what his reaction was when he found out that the club was set to be demolished.

“I felt very bad,” he told me. “This is a field that I am very fond of.”

The community has reacted, posting videos on social media, launching a petition that has gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures, and receiving messages of international support.

The club claims that, following efforts by a lawyer, it was recently granted a seven-day extension.

But that extension expired on Monday, leaving them with a difficult decision.

As is usual in these cases, the club owners must demolish the field themselves or wait for the Israeli authorities to do so by force, after which they will be presented with the bill.

The nearby presence of the wall, which runs along one side of the field, is just one of the many complexities underlying the Israeli occupation of the territory that the Palestinians claim as the basis for a future state.

Militarily, Israel exercises control over the entire West Bank.

But administrative control – its daily governance – is divided between a series of areas administered by Palestinians and others by Israelis.

The maps on which these distinctions are based were drawn up as a fundamental part of the Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The West Bank was divided into three categories of territory.

Areas A and B were areas over which the Palestinian Authority had civilian control.

In areas marked Area A, Palestinians also had nominal security control.

Area C—more than 60% of the total—was to temporarily remain under full Israeli control.

The idea was that, over time, it would gradually transfer to Palestinian self-rule as negotiations continued.

While that never happened, and both sides blamed each other for the failure of the peace process, the maps remain the basis of much of the current administration of the West Bank.

Bethlehem is designated as Area A.

But the maps show that Israel exercises civil authority over Area C in much of the surrounding territory, up to the city boundary.

Israel began building its concrete wall in the early 2000s, amid a wave of suicide bombings and other attacks by Palestinians that killed hundreds of Israelis.

Critics say that as the wall has spread, it has become a tool to punish thousands of ordinary Palestinians, separating them from their workplaces, dividing their communities and de facto annexing parts of their territory.

But what is now in dispute in Bethlehem is a small, narrow strip of land on the Palestinian side of the wall.

For the residents of Camp Aida, who were looking for a space to build a soccer field, it was large enough to meet their needs.

But for Israel, it remains—and is marked on maps—part of Area C, even though the construction of the wall has left it isolated on the Bethlehem side.

Satellite photos show that the space was empty in 2019 and, year after year, you can see how the football field begins to take shape, fitting perfectly next to the wall.

The demolition order argues that it was built without the necessary permits on land over which Israel still exercises full civilian control.

For Palestinians, it is ironic that they are denied the right to build a small soccer field on the edge of their city, within the wall that confines them.

While refusing construction permits and demolishing existing buildings, Israel continues to approve the construction of vast Israeli settlements in Area C, considered illegal under international law.

Last September, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement to advance a major and highly controversial settlement that will house 20,000 Israelis.

Located between occupied East Jerusalem and the already existing settlement of Maale Adumim, if completed, it would effectively split the West Bank in two, which Palestinians say would virtually annihilate their aspirations for a state of their own.

“There will be no Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said at the signing ceremony. “This place belongs to us.”

Some of his ministers speak openly of the complete annexation of the West Bank.

In Belén, the football club, which claims to have received verbal permission in 2020 for the field, believes that the threat of demolition goes far beyond urban planning regulations.

“The Israelis don’t want us to have any hope, they don’t want us to have any chance,” Mohammad Abu Srour, one of the board members of the Aida Youth Center, told me.

The idea, he suggested, is to deliberately make their lives difficult.

“The moment we lose hope and opportunities, we will leave. This is the only explanation for us.”

We contacted the Israeli body that manages civil affairs in the West Bank for comment.

Although the demolition order was issued in their name, we were referred to the Israeli army, which supervises their work.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) provided us with the following statement:

“Along the security fence, there is a confiscation order and a construction ban; therefore, construction in the area was carried out illegally,” the statement said.

While they wait to see what happens, Aida’s children hope that international attention will be enough to change the authorities’ minds.

But for now, as the conflict continues, the future of a small soccer field hangs in the balance.

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