From top: The Gaza Kids football team during a reception to mark their visit last year at Kinvara United FC.; Poster for Sunday’s event
Gaza Action Ireland writes:
The young footballers from Gaza who visited Ireland for the past two summers have been forced to cancel their trip this year.
The Palestinian boys from Al Helal Football Academy, who live under Israeli occupation in Gaza, planned to travel Tuesday (August 14th) through the territory’s border with Egypt at the Rafah crossing and across the Sinai Desert to Cairo, where they would fly to Dublin.
However, the difficult trip was prevented when the Rafah crossing was unexpectedly closed, forcing Gaza Action Ireland to cancel the programme for now.
Despite this terrible disappointment for the children and the organisers, ‘Gaza Kids to Dublin’ are determined to stand with the Palestinians living under siege in Gaza by holding the Solidarity Cup tournament on Sunday, August 19.
There will be a football tournament with Shamrock Rovers, Bohemians/ SKB and Cliftonville FC as well as a family fun day.
The football kicks off at 10am until 4pm with the family events starting at 1pm., after the winning trophy is presented, everyone who sponsored one of the Al Helal players will release a balloon as a symbol of support.
This will be livestreamed to the kids in Gaza to show them how much they are missed.
In fairness.
That’s a shame for those kids. I’m sure they enjoyed running up to walls and not being murdered.
Fair play the LOI sides for organising the event.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/10/fifa-must-take-strong-stance-against-israeli-settlement-clubs
This is a terrible thing to happen.
Went to one game last year and you could see how much smaller the Palestinian lads were compared to ours.
…the role of the Egyptian military junta in siege of Gaza has been shameful…they are merely a us/zionist puppet…