There isn’t much time left until the cycling qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Paralympics, which will be held in May, but Alaa, Mohammed and Waheed still don’t have a visa: they have until April 27 to obtain it and complete the sending of the required documentation. For this reason they are launching an appeal to the governments of Belgium and Italy to grant it. For the three athletes from Gaza it would mean overcoming the last of a series of extremely complex goals, well before reaching the Olympic dream.
We are talking about Alaa Al Dali, Mohammed Asfour and Waheed Rabah. The latter is an independent athlete while the first two are part of the Gaza team promoted by the Gaza Sunbirds, an association founded by Al Dali himself to support young amputees not to give up cycling.
THE IDEA came in 2018: Al Dali was one of the strongest Palestinian cyclists and in those months he decided to take part in the Great March of Return, which for over a year saw hundreds of thousands of Gazans protest peacefully along the separation barrier with Israel , to invoke the return of families to the homes stolen 70 years earlier, in 1948, when the state of Israel was founded. Hundreds of people killed or injured by Israeli snipers.
A bullet also hit Al Dali’s leg, forcing doctors to amputate the limb “and the dream”, as he would say. The initial discouragement, however, does not stop him: he creates the Sunbirds, a team of 19 paracyclists who, through fundraising, manage to obtain treatment, rehabilitation, prostheses and specific bikes for their impairments. And training: although the longest road in the Strip is just 33 km long – in road cycling training involves routes of 100, even 150 km per day – these kids pedal every day to stay ready for competitions.
Last October 7, however, the war returned to Gaza, turning the lives of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Strip upside down: carpet bombings, tens of thousands killed and wounded, millions displaced and a total blockade at the entrance to food, water, fuel, electricity and medical supplies. The Gaza Sunbirds, thanks also to international support, managed to raise 110 thousand dollars to purchase food supplies, basic and hygiene products such as diapers for children.
The mobilization also takes shape through two international solidarity campaigns, Athletes for Palestine and the Great Ride of Return, which involved thousands of cyclists also in Italy. The next one, entitled «Ride 4 Sunbirds», includes 700 km along six stages: from Milan on April 25th to Rome on the 30th, passing through Parma, Bologna Florence, Quirico d’Orcia and Bolsena.
“WE WANT that everyone sees us pedaling on one leg and feels the strength we have: we are not a burden to our society. We will make Palestine feel proud. We pedal for freedom”, declares Al Dali, who in the meantime has managed to reach Egypt together with his two companions, while the other 17 athletes are in Gaza to continue the distribution of aid.
The objective is to bring Palestine to the top, into the Olympus of winners, but to do so it is necessary to participate in the qualifiers: the three have been invited to participate in the competitions to be held in Ostend, Belgium, from 2 to 5 May, and in Maniago , in Italy, from 16 to 19 May. Hence the appeal to the two governments to grant him a visa. A petition has also been launched for their cause on change.org.
Karim Ali, co-founder and international coordinator of the Gaza Sunbirds, emphasizes the role of sport: «It is extremely important for us because, globally, it is the only environment in which Palestine is officially recognised. Of course, we have ambassadors at the United Nations, but we are not considered a state there.” But these athletes from Gaza continue to dream, because, they say, “sport is our main means of expression.”
