Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dr Tamer Almassri with some players and officials at the soccer tournament
BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People was marked with an Amputees Soccer Tournament which was held in Ruwa last Friday.
The day is celebrated on the 29th of November every year, to show solidarity with the Palestinians who have continued to suffer at the hands of the Israeli Government.
And since the call for a ceasefire agreement, Israeli aggression has continued, and it is said more than 300 civilians have so far been killed.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Amputees Soccer Tournament, Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dr Tamer Almassri said suffering still continues in the Gaza Strip, where many sectors have been destroyed.
“Israel has blocked the Gaza Strip, closed the health sector and they continue dismissing the Palestinians from their homeland and also enlarging the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and divided the cities.
“They have divided the villages by more than 1 000 gates or check points.
“Today our friends, comrades, sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe, raise their voices with the international community to share their solidarity messages with the Palestinian people especially after 2 years of genocide where we lost 68 000 people.
“Also 169 000 Palestinians have been injured, more than 15 000 amputated and for this reason, the soccer game for the amputees is a solidarity message with the Palestinian amputees who lost their limps and their lives changed forever because the Israeli apartheid occupation targeted our civilians,” said Dr Almassri.
He added that the international community hasn’t done enough to stop the suffering of the Palestinian people.
“And they (Israelis) are using new tools to torture the Palestinians, no education, health sector also destroyed totally and more than 95 percent of houses destroyed,” added Dr Almassri.
Robson Musarafu, president of Amputee Football Federation in Zimbabwe and Founder of Ruwa George Al-Quds Amputee FC said the soccer tournament was their own way of showing solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“Some people are amputated as a result of war, you can understand what is happening in Palestine today in Gaza, where thousands and thousands of children are losing limps, due to bombs being dropped on them.
“So today we had this tournament to show solidarity with the people of Palestine and this is also part of our development of this sport in our country,” said Musarafu.
He added: “we want to develop those who suffered limp loss, including amputation and birth limp defects.
“This type of football is for people with disabilities and actually this is a tournament of miracles, where you will see people on crutches, playing football with exclusive skills that you can find also in mainstream football.
“It is important for us to ensure that football is played by everybody so that we don’t leave some of our football stars behind.”
He added that after amputation, some people with talent end up unable to play mainstream football so they had to introduce and promote amputee football for them, which is “important for their development and continue living a normal life through sport.”
He however lamented issues of funding challenges in sport for people with disabilities, saying “it is usually treated as charity sport and it survives most of the time from left overs.”
Musarafu added: “we would want that to change, we would want good attention to be given to the development of paralympic sport, in our case, amputee football, so that amputees can also be developed like anyone else, they shouldn’t be left behind even in terms of allocation for the development of their own sport.”
One of the players who traveled from Chipinge for the tournament, Thulani Chatikobo said he did not let his condition stop him from playing football.
“I love football so I told myself that I wasn’t going to let this disability deter me from doing what I love the most.
“This is my God-given talent, so I thank the organisers for bringing us together today and being part of this programme.
“So we really appreciate this opportunity and we continue hoping for more support so that we can fully develop our talents,” said Chatikobo.
Cecilia Musasa, the Chairperson for people with disabilities in Chipinge, who attended the tournament with Chatikobo, said she was grateful for the opportunity they had been afforded and called for more support.
