{"id":30645,"date":"2023-12-25T10:03:10","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T08:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=30645"},"modified":"2023-12-27T15:32:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T13:32:01","slug":"gaza-sunbirds-the-palestinian-para-cyclists-who-wont-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/gaza-sunbirds-the-palestinian-para-cyclists-who-wont-quit\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza Sunbirds: the Palestinian Para-Cyclists Who Won&#8217;t Quit"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Gaza&#8217;s professional para-cycling team for amputee athletes rise above Gaza&#8217;s darkest days through determination and excellence in sport raising money, and distributing hot meals and sanitary care packages to stricken families suffering under Israeli bombardment.<\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Malu Halasa<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C04KjnAsFj3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram video<\/a> posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gazasunbirds.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gaza Sunbirds<\/a>\u00a0doesn\u2019t tell the whole story of disabled athletes in the Gaza Strip. In the video, Rafah is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">being bombed<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as cyclist Haitham Nasir, 24, rides past city buildings razed to the ground. He like the other 20 members of Palestine\u2019s para-cycling team, ranging in age from 18 to 26, has an amputated leg. On the day of filming, it is the Gaza Sunbirds\u2019 69th day of riding under siege.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even though some of the cyclists in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gazasunbirds.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gaza Sunbirds<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are unable to obtain medicine and have gone without water for up to four days, the para athletes have raised $60,000 and distributed 26 tonnes in food parcels, 7,900 hot meals<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0and 500 maternity and sanitary care packages to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stricken Gazan families suffering under continuous Israeli bombardment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper insta-grid\"><div class=\"ose-instagram-feed ose-uid-96bbcdb59076caeff3365c6951acba12 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:550px; max-height:550px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"InstagramFeed\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" width=\"600px\" width=\"550px\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"550\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"background-color: white; border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;\" class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C04KjnAsFj3\/embed\">Fetching content<\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In London, at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amostrust.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amos Trust<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Voices for Gaza, Sunbirds\u2019 24-year old international coordinator Karim Ali told the story of Ala\u2019a Al-Dali, a cyclist who had been training in Gaza. He had dreams of competing internationally. In 2018, four months before he was to leave for competitive races in Jakarta \u2014 and getting the visa to leave the Strip was no mean feat \u2014 he joined the March of Return protests of men, women and children on the border between Gaza and Israel, calling for an end to Israel\u2019s blockade of the Strip.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Analysis of data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/ng-interactive\/2019\/mar\/29\/a-year-of-bloodshed-at-gaza-border-protests\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guardian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> revealed that more than 190 people were killed and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">almost 29,000 Palestinians were injured during the March of Return demonstrations that lasted well over a year. The IDF shot civilians in the legs. Al-Dali was one of these. He joined more than 3,000 other amputees in Gaza, an area that has the highest rate of people with amputated limbs in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ali explained to the London audience at the Amos Trust event that despite Al-Dali\u2019s situation, the 26 year old refused to give into despair and dared to hope. The Gaza Sunbirds were formed in 2020. The team had been training for the 2024 Para Olympics before the October war. Al-Dali came up with the idea for the Sunbirds to direct their efforts into sourcing and distributing humanitarian aid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30726\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30726\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30726 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/AlaaLutfiAlDali_creditGazaSunbirds3.jpg\" alt=\"Gaza para cyclist Ala\u2019a Al-Dali (courtesy Gaza Sunbirds).\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/AlaaLutfiAlDali_creditGazaSunbirds3.jpg 768w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/AlaaLutfiAlDali_creditGazaSunbirds3-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/AlaaLutfiAlDali_creditGazaSunbirds3-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30726\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gaza para cyclist Ala\u2019a Al-Dali (courtesy Gaza Sunbirds).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Bread by Bike<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Logistics, luck and dedication made the Sunbird\u2019s food program into a reality. Karim Ali, answering questions by email, informed me that once the Sunbirds had been paid \u201ctheir athlete stipends in advance because of the war, that\u2019s when we realized that the team\u2019s infrastructure was still operational. Shortly after, team captain Ala\u2019a Al-Dali requested us to purchase bread for people in his local community, and it went well. Inspired by his work, our team members and staff followed his leadership in order to save their communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wheels have given the Sunbirds an edge during wartime, wrote Ali, when it comes to the near impossible task of sourcing food. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team&#8217;s adaptability had them hunting in warehouses and supermarkets to scrape together enough supplies to distribute to their community. When we eventually ran out of canned foods, the team went down the supply chain to farms, which are mainly present in the south of Gaza. To date these farms have still had vegetables, although with recent advancements in the Israeli ground invasion, farmers have been struggling to pick as much food as they normally can.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Usually donkey or car took the food to the individual athletes, in various locations. There it was stored before the Sunbirds distributed it by bike, leaving it at people\u2019s doors in order \u201cto avoid putting our fellow Gazans in harm\u2019s way,\u201d revealed Ali. Aid was dispersed by cycle around Central Gaza \u2014 Nusseirat and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bureij<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> camps \u2014 as well as in the south, Khan Younis and Rafah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo one,\u201d he admitted, \u201chas been able to make it further north. We are definitely entering a late stage of despair as prices are rising and food is only available in the southernmost parts of the strip, with athletes in Nusseirat and central Gaza informing us that there is simply no fresh produce left to buy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-3f9b5119fa2ee51ccd8d682b108eba66 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:550px; max-height:550px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"Cycling Under Siege in Gaza | Close Up\" width=\"600\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/27rf_rSSAOw?feature=oembed&color=red&rel=0&controls=1&start=&end=&fs=0&iv_load_policy=0&autoplay=0&mute=0&modestbranding=0&cc_load_policy=1&playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h4>Activist Athletes<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sunbirds are also behind the campaign <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/english.wafa.ps\/Pages\/Details\/138602\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Athletes for Palestine<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Ali explained, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately with the ongoing genocide, many Palestinian athletes&#8217; dreams of competition and sports excellence have had to be put on pause. The campaign was started as an opportunity for the international athletic community to unite the world through the power of sports and culture, and with a fundamental belief in the strength of athletes to affect change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today approximately 40 Olympic cyclists, para-cyclists, professional skateboarders, professional martial artists, surfers and football teams have joined the campaign and many of these have been getting involved in a variety of ways, including organizing fund raising events. While no professional footballers have officially signed up for Athletes for Palestine, there has been public support for Palestine by<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">big names in sport, such as French professional footballer Karim Benzema, now at Al-Ittihad Club, in Saudi Arabia; the Egyptian forward for Liverpool, Mo Salah; former right winger for Manchester City, now playing for Saudi Arabia\u2019s Al-Ahli Club and the Algerian national team, Riyad Mahrez; and Bayern Munich\u2019s right-back, Noussair Mazraoui who, while born in the Netherlands, plays for the Moroccan national team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This comes against a backdrop of death, mayhem and destruction, according to a new report by the Palestinian Football Association. Between October 7 and November of this year, 55 Palestinian footballers and other sportsmen have been killed in Israel\u2019s bombardment of Gaza. Palestinian volley-ballers from Al-Sadaka (Friendship) Club \u2014 Hassan Abu Zuaiter and Ibrahim Qusaya\u2019a, who had won a bronze medal at the 2021 West Asian Football Federation Beach Soccer Championships and played on the national team in September\u2019s West Asian Games in Hangzhou, China \u2014 were killed during the bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The PFA report also cites the destruction of five sports facilities in the Gaza Strip, which makes one wonder if the predominance of Palestinian flags at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar touched a raw nerve in the IDF.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sports are not an easy option under occupation, doubly difficult for Sunbirds\u2019 para-cyclists. \u201cThe reality is that the team\u2019s life has always been tough on the Gaza Strip,\u201d said Ali. \u201cThe very idea of trying to create professional athletes in an open-air prison is super ironic, especially for para-athletes who have to face so many complications living in Gaza. Ultimately we have never been afraid of the impossible and believe that when you break down a task with proper perseverance and commitment, it becomes possible. Despite the fact all of our bikes were wiped out, including our storage facility in the north of Gaza, we are sure we will build back better, stronger and pedaling much faster.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another video on the Gaza Sunbird\u2019s Instagram page features competitive Sunbirds\u2019 cyclist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C09QtsIMiMV\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mohammed Abu Asfour<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. He stands in the ruins of his bombed family home, as he retrieves his helmet out of the rubble. While members of his family fled the bombing on foot, he went on bike because of his disability. When asked if he will keep training, Abu Asfour is resolute. \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he says, \u201cin defiance of anyone\u2019s attempt to shatter our dreams. We will persevere, despite the destruction and sorrow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are the darkest days in Gaza. Unless the international community comes together, this cruel war has no end in sight, with 20,000 Palestinians killed and more than an estimated 50,000 wounded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Follow the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gazasunbirds.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gaza Sunbirds<\/a> online, donate, share and be inspired, against what seem at times insurmountable odds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gaza&#8217;s professional para-cycling team for amputee athletes rise above Gaza&#8217;s darkest days through determination and excellence in sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":30724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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