It’s ridiculous and it’s callous to mention Palestinians and football in the same breath. The tragedy in Gaza would be the only issue on their minds, as well as ours. The dead and dying in Gaza are worthier of our thoughts than football or any other leisure pastime. The thousands of Palestinians who have been killed and injured are civilians, thousands are women and children, all are human beings, all hostages, an imprisoned, occupied and destitute population on the frontline of an unprecedented military occupation.

And yet, in the middle of this conflagration, Palestinians are playing football. Specifically, they are trying to reach the 2026 World Cup. They have been incredibly successful so far, reaching the third stage of the Asian qualifiers for the first time in their history.

The number of qualifying places for Asian teams has also doubled from four to eight, offering outsiders such as Palestine their best ever chance of reaching the World Cup for the first time.

The joy of this remarkable journey could have risen infinitely higher had Palestine been able to play on their territory. Up to now the Palestinians have had to play their “home” games in mainly Jordan and Qatar as they do not have a home they can call their own.

Palestine does have a stadium, the 12,500-capacity Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium in Al-Ram near Ramallah in the West Bank. It is Palestine’s only regulation-size stadium and is fully renovated.

Faisal Al-Husseini was supposed to host a World Cup qualifier between Palestine and Jordan on 10 September but that never happened (they played in neutral Malaysia). Starting from 7 October last year, when 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas, followed by the Gaza blitzkrieg, Faisal Al-Husseini has been deemed too dangerous to play in and so, remains a hollow lifeless shell, an arena silenced by bombs and bullets.

But even if the stadium was open for business, it cannot do much for the domestic game. At present, the Palestinians have neither a permanent league nor any local football activity of note, although the association doggedly tries to keep league activities and matches going according to plan. The West Bank and Gaza each have a league of 10 teams, with the two winners competing for the Palestine championship.

Because there is little football currently being played in the territory, most players on the Palestinian roster belong to clubs in foreign leagues in countries including Egypt, Libya, Qatar, Jordan, Sweden and Belgium. Other than that, the team isn’t even able to train on home soil as the players have had to constantly move for safety.

But like the occupation they have been fighting against for 76 years, the Palestinian team has persevered in its quest to reach the World Cup. They are in Group B and after two games with eight to go, Jordan, South Korea and Iraq lead the table with four points each. Kuwait have two points, Palestine one and Oman zero.

The top two from each of the three groups of six qualify automatically for the World Cup while third and fourth place squads continue additional qualifications through an intercontinental play-off.

It is a long shot that Palestine, currently ranked 96th in the world, will go to the World Cup. In their first group game they tied Asian giants South Korea away 0-0 but then went down 3-1 to lesser-fancied Jordan.

That was the game which should have been played in the West Bank.

For at least one afternoon, Palestinians could have forgotten the Israeli siege, compensating just a wee bit for the absence of much joy in their lives.

They can’t, though, forget the hellhole they’re in for long: as we speak, and counting, the Israeli offensive has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and wounded 95,000 others. The nearly one-year onslaught has flattened neighbourhoods, wiped out families and created a humanitarian nightmare across Gaza.

Again, that football would somehow matter in the face of this carnage wrought by Israel, seems heartless, completely out of place and out of step with what’s happening on the ground.

Too bad because in an ideal world, we would love to talk about football; everybody else does. Some years back, a Premier League survey of fans globally said football was the number one topic of conversation in the world. Football was the subject most discussed with friends (81 per cent). It was viewed as the most important activity in life (49 per cent), ahead of family matters (48 per cent), a job (30 per cent), personal relationships (30 per cent) and the economy (21 per cent).

Sadly, the world is not perfect; certainly not for the Palestinians. No Gazan is safe anywhere… in Gaza. Not in their home, hospital, school, mosque, UN shelter or even humanitarian zones that Israel itself designates.

FIFA, world football’s governing body, considers it essential that all its member countries play their home games where they are based. But although FIFA footed part of the bill to revamp Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium, it cannot stop the war or create a Palestinian state.

In 1998, FIFA recognised Palestine as a member. So does the Olympics, but that’s as far as their authority can go.

Diplomacy must do the rest. But football cannot go faster than politics. A ceasefire agreement has remained elusive and until the guns fall silent permanently, the death and destruction will continue.

Ironically, the Palestinian Football Association was founded the same year as Israel, 1928. But, oh, how their paths have been drastically different since. This one year alone, Israel has caused vast destruction across Palestinian territory, displaced most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million - some have had to flee as many as 10 times since October last year - caused widespread hunger and raised fears of famine and disease, most recently polio.

Again, these outrages are the talking point of the moment; we really shouldn’t be talking about anything else. But last weekend’s football meeting between Palestine and Jordan could have been historic, had they played in Palestine. It could have been one small step for Palestinians to express their national pride and to do it through football. But let’s not kid ourselves: a World Cup qualifier in a Palestinian stadium has not and will never replace the real ground, the state, that Palestinians lost in 1948.

Millions of Palestinians around the world are still waiting for the day that they can celebrate the birth of an independent homeland. It is their No 1 goal. So when you read things in the press like “Palestinians may not have a state but they have a stadium”, while that might ring true, it rings hollow. The Palestinians are an occupied people. The occupation plays not just a part of their life; it is their life.

Next up for Palestine is Iraq on 10 October in Iraq, then against Kuwait five days later, slated to be played in Palestine.

Just as the odds are long that Palestine will go to the next World Cup, the chances of that game being hosted by Palestine is looking very slim.

For now, Palestine remains the world’s only team with a stadium but without a country.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 19 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly