Israel is threatening to demolish a popular West Bank youth football pitch

Israel is threatening to demolish a refugee camp’s popular youth football ground built on land owned by the Armenian church on the outskirts of Bethlehem in the shadow of the West Bank separation wall.

The artificial grass pitch, which was installed in 2021, is regularly played on by youngsters from Aida refugee camp, including girls who have represented the Palestine women’s national teams at youth level.

Early one morning two weeks ago, Israeli soldiers pinned a notice to the gates of the football ground ordering a halt to all activities at the site and warning that it could be demolished because it had been built without the correct permits. A nearby theatre and a garden in the area were served with similar notices.

Muhannad Abu Surour, the director of the sports programme at the Aida Youth Centre, told Middle East Eye the notice had been discovered by children arriving early for training.

Abu Surour said: “I was not the one who told the children, the children told me.”

“The news spread quickly because of how important the pitch is. The children came to my house, knocking on my door, telling me what happened.”

Abu Surour said hundreds of boys and girls aged six to 19 are enrolled in the camp’s football programme.

“The field is important to the children, their families, and to us. It is a space for psychological relief given the difficult circumstances and the security situation in this place.

“And now the occupation says it wants to demolish the field. Where are these children supposed to go? Even the simplest right, to play football, is being taken away.”

Surrounded by watchtowers

Covering about half a square kilometre, Aida is currently home to about 7,000 people, including about 2,500 children, living in overcrowded conditions.

The camp was established by the United Nations in 1950 for Palestinians who fled from Jerusalem and Hebron during the Nakba of 1948, when Israeli forces seized lands and displaced hundreds of thousands of people during the conflict that led to the formation of the state of Israel.

The entrance to the camp features a gate with a sculpture of a large key symbolic of Palestinians’ right of return to the lands from which they were expelled.

Surrounded by checkpoints, Israeli military bases and settlements - with seven military watchtowers overlooking the camp - it is frequently raided by Israeli forces and was once described as the most tear-gassed place in the world.

A mural painted on to the tall concrete blocks that loom over the pitch shows two children kicking a football, one of them in the colours of the Chilean football team Club Palestino under a map of the historic territory of Palestine and the slogan “Unity, freedom and justice” in English, Arabic and Spanish.

Club Palestino, which represents Chile’s Palestinian community, earlier this year announced a partnership with the Aida Youth Centre, providing it with football kit and equipment and organising exchanges between the clubs.

Speaking to Middle East Eye during a training session, Salma Al-Azzam, 17, said the pitch was a vital escape and a “safe space” for children living the camp.

“Life in the camp is complicated, in terms of restrictions, and also because you live so close to your neighbours. There’s no privacy. And when you look outside, all you see is the wall around you. It’s exhausting,” said Azzam.

“For us, the pitch is a place to release some of that pressure.”

Azzam said she trained three times a week after school and dreamed of becoming a footballer.

“We were all very upset when we heard about the demolition decision. I was shocked and there was a lump in my throat. We have many good players who deserve a chance.”

George Juha, a council member for Bethlehem Municipality, told MEE that the local authority leased the land from the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem but had provided it to Aida’s popular committee for use by the camp’s children.

The land had been a dirt football pitch long before the current facility was built, he said.

But he said that all land so close to the separation wall was under threat from Israeli demolition orders.

“These areas are basically places we can never make use of because they’re attached to the wall. So we thought, through public benefit and playgrounds, maybe our children could use them.

“We made good use of it, but the Israelis don’t like good for anyone. They don’t want playgrounds, or construction, or anything at all. They don’t want any activity on the land.”

Juha told MEE that Israel had illegally taken control of at least 26 dunams (26,000 square metres) belonging to Bethlehem Municipality.

He said the use of this land should be a matter for local officials and not for Israel, and that the municipality had hired lawyers and filed legal challenges but to no avail.

“From a planning and construction perspective, these are the municipality’s powers, not Israel’s powers,” he said.

'Nothing has changed'

Said Al-Azza, the head of Aida’s popular committee, told MEE that it was unclear why Israel had decided to demolish the pitch.

When contacted, he said, Israeli authorities had asked to see permissions granted by the Armenian church for the use of its land for the football ground and other facilities.

“We've been working there for years and nothing has changed. Why are they coming now? It's unclear to us,” Azza said.

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Armenian church told MEE that it had leased land for use by the refugee camp for more than 20 years.

The church officially has property rights to a large area of local land including some inside Israel that is now unreachable on the other side of the separation wall.

The notice, which MEE has seen, states that the site, including the pitch, a concrete stand, and the fence around it, has been developed without a proper permit and in violation of military regulations.

It says a final decision on whether it will be demolished will be taken by the planning committee of the civil administration - the Israeli government entity responsible for governing Israeli-controlled areas of the illegally occupied West Bank.

Israeli authorities did not respond to MEE’s request for comment.

Noor Abu Ghuneia, 16, plays for the Ittihad Sports Club and has already represented Palestine internationally at youth level.

She was among a number of local players chosen to play for the national team at the 2024 West Asian Football Championship for girls in Saudi Arabia.

“My family has encouraged me to play since I was very young, and I’ve always loved it,” she said.

“It felt terrible when I heard that they plan to demolish the pitch, because this is the only field we have to play on. We always said that this place is where we train so we can represent Palestine abroad.

“But there are not many open spaces and you won’t find another place where a new pitch can be built. So if they demolish it, we won’t be able to play.”