Palestinian children's football pitch faces Israeli demolition ultimatum

The football club is ordered to remove the pitch, which Israel says was illegally built, or have it torn down.

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But Israel insists it's been built without the necessary permits.

In this deeply divided land so much is contested; from the identities and faiths of the people who live here, to every inch of the ground they stand on.

Recently, that has come to include one small patch of artificial turf laid down under the shadow of the giant concrete wall that isolates Israel from much of the occupied West Bank.

In the context of the 7 October attacks, the two-year war in Gaza and the fragility of the current ceasefire, there are without doubt far more pressing issues.

But this is a story freighted with symbolism and one which has drawn outsized international attention because of its connection to that other world religion - football.

On the day we visit, a group of Palestinian children are lining up to take penalty shots in the winter sunshine.

The construction of the pitch began here on the edge of Bethlehem in 2020, and today it provides a place to practise for more than 200 young players from the nearby Aida refugee camp.

The cramped and crowded streets contain the homes of the descendants of Palestinian families who were forced or who fled from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

On 3 November last year, as the children made their short walk from the camp for that day's training, they found a notice pinned to the gate of the football field declaring it to be illegal.

The notice was followed soon by a demolition order.

"We don't have anywhere else to play," 10-year-old Naya told me, wearing a Brazil shirt with the name of the footballing legend Neymar emblazoned on the back.

"We are building our dreams here," she said. "If they demolish our field, they will demolish our dreams."

I asked another young player, Moh

Source: BBC

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