Palestine and the 1965 Pan Arab Games

Sep 28, 2024

When I was putting the finishing touches to my third book, "Iraqi football in the two Republics, Vol II," I was already way into planning on the next book, "Far from War and Politics," the story of Iraq's miraculous 2007 Asian Cup victory, so I have kind of neglected it, and not given it as much attention as the others I have written, which is why I decided to write about some of the subjects and chapters in the book.

The book documents football in Iraq over the years 1963 to 1968, from the Olympic qualifiers, to the reason why the Iraqi national side and the National Army football team were virtually the same team in the 1960s, the two Arab Cup victories in 1964 and 1966, Iraq's first national coach, Army Major Adil Basher, the renowned Swiss architect Corbusier and his story with Iraq's national stadium, the Al-Shaab, the matches involving visiting foreign teams to Iraq, and many more stories.

I have written three short articles on stories featured in the book. The first was on Ammo Baba, who was Iraq's all-time top scorer during the period. The second is on Palestine and Iraq’s first match with Palestine at the 1965 Pan Arab Games in Cairo.

Palestine and the 1965 Pan Arab Games

At the 1965 Pan Arab Games in Cairo, Iraq and Palestine met for the first time at international level, and in "Iraqi football in the two Republics, Vol II," I look back at how the Palestinian team came to be formed, the team of Marwan Kanafani, Fouad Abou Ghaida and Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi.

Unfortunately, with the book already over 350 pages, I wasn't able to find the space to write about Palestinian player Jabra Al-Zarqa, a man whose life epitomised Palestine and its football in the 40s and 50s. A star footballer, who pre-1948 was prevented from playing internationally by an all-Zionist Palestine FA, and like hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, was forcibly displaced from his homeland, never able to return, first playing in Jordan and then Syria, where he won the 1957 Pan Arab Games in Beirut, with fellow Palestinian Marwan Kanafani, the goalkeeper of Palestine's 1965 team. You could write a book or make a motion picture about what Al-Zarqa lived through and his successful playing career, the same can be said of the Palestine team of 1965 and its players.

In the book, I explain how the first Palestinian national team (not the Mandatory Palestine national football team, a title never used at the time, which popped up only recently thanks to Wikipedia, renamed for their own political agenda I presume), which played Egypt in the 1934 World Cup qualifiers, was somehow formed of a team “of Austrian and German immigrants,” according to Egyptian newspapers, without a single Palestinian Arab, Christian, or Armenian, and instead was represented by people who only made up 12% of the total population of Palestine, the majority of whom were not even born in the country.

It's a story which is still very relevant to the present political situation, and it also says a lot about the role of FIFA or the lack it, both then and now.

Palestine

On October 10, 2024, Iraq and Palestine will meet for the 18th time in a World Cup qualifier in Basra, but 59 years ago at the Pan Arab Games in Cairo, they played each other for the first time.

At the time, the Palestinian side was represented by a group of players who had been born within the pre-1948 borders of Palestine. For the first time in Palestine's national team history, players of the diaspora in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, sons of families who had been displaced from their ancestral homes and villages, played for the team. It represented a nation in exile after the events of Al-Nakba ("Catastrophe") where football had also become part of the conflict.

The National Team

Between 1953 and 1997, Palestine had an unofficial national side only recognised by individual Arab FAs and later the United Arab Football Association (UAFA).

Prior to the football tournament in 1965, Palestine had previously appeared at the first Pan Arab Games in Alexandria in 1953.

The team which had entered the competition was formed primarily of players from the Gaza Strip, which was then administrated by Egypt. It was the first time Palestine had appeared in an international tournament. The Palestine were defeated 8-1 by Egypt in the opening game, before losing 5-2 to Libya.

It would be another twelve years until Palestine would make another appearance at international level. However, by then, a lot had changed for sports in Palestine, the Palestine Football Association (PFA) had been formed or re-formed in 1962, and for the first time, Palestine had fully-functioning national team.

One of the players on the Palestine side in 1953 was Rashid Al-Hilo who went on to form the first Palestine national team after the foundation or reformation of the Palestine Football Association in the city of Gaza.

Born in the city of Gaza in 1929, Al-Hilo lived through the struggles of his people, and the 33-year-old PE teacher formed the first Palestine team, which initially featured mainly players from Gaza, many of whom whose families had been displaced from other cities in Palestine after the Al-Nakba in 1948.

A physical educator and qualified coach, Al-Hilo was head coach of the side from 1962 to 1967, and even supervised the Palestine school side at the Pan Arab School Championship in 1963 in Kuwait and three years later in Damascus.

He was later arrested by Israeli occupation forces ‘for security reasons’ in 1969, and spent two years in incarceration. After his release he decided to retire from football to work as a PE teacher.

1965 Pan Arab Games

One of the main obstacles Palestinian football authorities had faced in forming a national side after 1948 was trying to coordinate all the Palestinian regions and the players in the diaspora, and bringing them together, from Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and elsewhere in the world, to play as a unified national team.

At the 1965 Pan Arab Games in Cairo, for the first time, some of the best Palestinian players had been able to come together, with the sons of Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, and other Palestinian cities, who had been exiled in Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, representing the colours of their Palestinian nation.

Preparations for the Games had begun a couple of months earlier, when over 50 players from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt, were called up for a training camp at Egypt's Al-Tersana Club stadium.

The squad was whittled down to 20 players, among them were four from Egypt’s Al-Ahly Club, Marwan Kanafani, Fouad Abu Ghaida, Faisal Bibi, and Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi, who had played professionally for Greek club AEK Athens, and four from rivals, Zamalek, Nabil Al-Shami, Hossam Al-Semri, Samih Al-Semri, and Abdul-Kader 'Abed' Shuaib, nicknamed the Little Pele, because of his dark complexion and artistry on the ball.

The inclusion of players from two of Egypt's or even Arab world's beat clubs, Al-Ahly and Zamalek, contributed in strengthening the squad.

In addition to Omar Al-Sheikh Taha (Racing Clube de Beyrouth, Lebanon) and Jamil Abbas (Al-Nejmeh, Lebanon), the rest were from the Gaza Strip, including 18-year-old Ali Abou Hamda, Khalil Istanbuli, Ismail Al-Masry, Muammar Biseso, Khader Qaddada nicknamed “Barbaz” and reserve team keeper Faiq Al-Hanawi.

Palestine’s Al-Ahly trio

The Pan Arab Games was an opportunity for the best Palestinian players to wear the jersey of Palestine against top Arab nations at an international level.

In Cairo, the Palestine side was trained by Egyptian national Mohammed Al-Rasheedi, with Rashid Al-Hilo his trusted assistant.

**Marwan Kanafani, Fouad Abou Ghaida and Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi in Switzerland in 1995.**

Remarkably, the backbone of the side was formed of three childhood friends, all born in different parts of 1948 Palestine, who had grown up together playing football in a district in Damascus after their families had been forced to flee their homes in Palestine. The trio all played for the same club in the Egyptian League, Cairo-based giants Al-Ahly. They were goalkeeper Marwan Kanafani, defender Fouad Abou Ghaida and forward Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi. They played football on the streets and then for their school team before representing clubs in the Syrian league. They later gained international experience with the Syrian army side before moving to Egypt.

Palestine’s captain and centre back Fouad Abou Ghaida, who had been a teammate of Ammo Baba and Qais Hamed in the Arab national side only a month before the Pan Arab Games, led his country against Iraq.

Like the rest of the Palestinian squad, Fouad Abou Ghaida had been born in Palestine, in 1939, in the city of Haifa, where his family lived on 36 Abbas Street, however, during the 1948 War, the Abou Ghaida family were forcibly removed from their home when Fouad was only nine. They travelled together on a freight truck from the door of their house to Tantoura and then to Nablus, before seeking refuge at a hospital in Damascus, believing they would return home a few days later after the fighting had ended.

Abou Ghaida played at school level for Syria and the Syrian army team during his military service. In the 1961-1962 season, he moved to Cairo and joined Al-Ahly where he played until the 1967 Six-Day War when he decided to retire and settle in London, where he passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2020. The player did return to Haifa on May 14, 2010, accompanied by a film crew filming a documentary where residents of Abbas Street greeted him with a hero’s welcome and his story was made into a play.

In goal was his teammate at Al-Ahly, the goalkeeper Marwan Kanafani. Born in 1938 in Acre (Akka), Palestine, Marwan was the younger brother of Ghassan Kanafani, the renowned Palestinian writer and a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who was allegedly assassinated in a car bomb in Beirut by Mossad in 1972.

Marwan, fluent in English and French, grew up as a refugee in Lebanon and Syria, and played football in Syria and Egypt until the early Seventies, when he joined the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and studied law at Cairo University, later becoming an advisor to PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

From 1957 to 1961, Marwan Kanafani had played for the Damascus-based Al-Ahly Club, and during his military service in Syria had also represented the Syrian army team and the Syrian national side, where he was the reserve goalkeeper in Syria’s 1957 Pan Arab Games-winning squad.

Marwan Kanafani had first been spotted by Cairo giants Al-Ahly at the age of 19, when he came to Egypt with the Damascus University football team to play friendly with the Cairo University. At the time, he was playing for the Al-Ahly Club in Damascus and had also represented the Syria school team. Al-Ahly sent one of their officials to Syria and he sat down with his parents in an attempt to sign the youngster. However, his father initially refused to allow his son to move, insisting he complete his studies, and it was only after the official informed him, he could transfer his university studies to Cairo University that he agreed to the move to Al-Ahly.

After completing his military service, he travelled to Cairo in April 1961, and spent a decade at the Egyptian club, including three years as club captain from 1969 to 1971. His playing career, however, ended in controversy. It came during an incident involving a penalty the goalkeeper had conceded in a big match against Zamalek, culminating in a 22-man brawl and a crowd invasion. The whole affair resulted in a six-month suspension for the goalkeeper and led Marwan to call time on his career. He was heavily criticised by the Egyptian press, writing that he was an outsider, referring personally to his Palestinian background, and that he caused fights between the fans of both clubs and the suspension of the Egyptian league, while others called it Black September in reference to terrorism and the prejudices held against the Palestinian keeper at the time. After the match, he left for Iraq to visit his brother Ghassan, and on his return he was phoned by President Anwar Sadat who told the player that he was in a country that he could call his own, to reassure him after the uproar, but Marwan informed him that he had decided to retire and was not going back on his decision.

One of the most remarkable stories of the Palestine team was that of their centre forward and law student Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi. He had represented both Syria and Palestine at international level and became the first foreign footballer to play in the Greek Football League. He was one of Palestine’s most talented footballers and one of a select few to have played professionally in Egypt, Syria, and Greece.

Born in Palestine in 1939, Ibrahim Mahdi Al-Mughrabi had studied law at Damascus University whilst playing for the Al-Ahly Club (renamed Al-Majd in 1971) in the Syrian capital and had been selected to play for the Syrian army team, appearing in the CISM World Military Championship qualifiers and scoring in a famous 6-2 victory over Iraq in 1962 in Baghdad.

In 1962, Al-Mughrabi moved to Athens to continue his studies at the University of Athens and signed for top-flight side AEK Athens. The transfer was approved by the Syrian government and the forward led the Greek club to their first championship title in the post-WII era in his only season with AEK. On his arrival in Greece, where he played as a professional during the 1962-1963 season, the Palestinian had been classed as a Syrian national as he had come from Syria. However, AEK club officials had somehow managed to acquire a Greek passport for the striker and hence was not registered as a foreigner, and his teammates and the AEK supporters only knew him as Ibrahim and never knew his real origins.

Ibrahim played 22 league games, scoring seven goals for the Greek club, but the forward did not even celebrate winning the championship which AEK won that year. Before the season was over, he had left the club and decided to concentrate on his studies and moving to Cairo to play for one of the top clubs in the Arab world.

After two seasons in Egypt, where Ibrahim netted four goals in 12 appearances for the famous Al-Ahly Club from 1963 to 1965 in the Egyptian League, he retired at just 26 and left to settle in the city of Zürich in Switzerland.

Pan Arab Games

The 4th edition of the Pan Arab Games featured a host of strong teams, with Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Iraq and Syria sending their best players to compete in the football tournament.

Palestine had an almost fixed starting eleven throughout the tournament, with seven players, Fouad Abou Ghaida, Faisal Bibi, Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi, Omar Al-Sheikh Taha, Ismail Al-Masry, Samih El-Semri, and Khader Qadada, starting every game.

Two others, Marwan Kanafani and Nabil Al-Shami, appeared in five of the six matches, highlighting the stability in the side.

The tournament was played over just ten days, with Palestine, like the rest of the competing teams, playing six matches in only eight days, making Palestine's four place finish a significant achievement. In the six games, only 16 players were used by Palestine and just seven changes were made.

Palestine scored seven goals at the tournament, five were from their strikeforce, with three from their top scorer Omar Al-Sheikh Taha and two from Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi.

Palestine were the surprise team of the tournament, winning their opening two group matches against Aden and Lebanon, with goals from Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi and Omar Al-Sheikh Taha , to challenge tournament favourites Egypt and dark horses Iraq for a place in the final four.

In their third game, Palestine came up against Egypt, or the United Arab Republic as they were officially known at the time.

In front of a large home crowd at the Zamalek Stadium, Palestine, despite losing with two goals to one, provided a commendable display. Palestine's goal came from the spot after an hour dispatched by Abdul-Qader Shuaib known merely as Abed.

The Palestinian side, with their diaspora players, had impressed at the Pan Arab Games. With Egypt topping the group with a maximum of six points from three matches, it was left to Iraq and Palestine to fight it out for second place.

Iraq were playing their second game in 48 hours against the Palestinians, so the coach, wanting to avoid player fatigue and exhaustion, with the team playing its final game the following day, continued to tinker with the starting line-up, making seven changes.

**Marwan Kanafani and Fouad Abou Ghaida**

A win for either Iraq or Palestine would see them qualify for the final four of the tournament, and with all to play for, the spectators witnessed a game that grew in excitement especially in the latter stages of the first and the second halves– with both wanting to cement second place in the group.

Both teams exchanged passes with each other in the opening moments, but it was the Palestinian side who took charge of the game in the final fifteen minutes of the first half and scored through their Lebanese-based outside left Omar Al-Sheikh Taha. They went into the break 1-0 up, the same scoreline the Palestinians had won their two games in the group. Al-Akhbar described the opening goal, “The Palestine goal was the most beautiful thing from the match, the ball was moved from the hands of Marwan to his colleagues until it nestled in Iraq’s goal, without any opposing player touching it.”

In the first half, Iraq had failed to keep the ball at the back, even though there were only a few Palestine forwards in attack, and they lost the midfield, with Abed and Samih Al-Semri starting most of the attacks. Palestine’s full-back Faisal Al-Shami had to come off before the end of the half.

However, in the second half, instead of attacking, Palestine resorted to playing defensively to protect their slender lead, with 10-men behind the ball.

The Iraqis attacked with purpose, surging forward, and on more than one occasion caused chaos in the Palestine penalty area, and in the 49th minute, centre forward Salman Dawud scored from a powerful header after connecting to a free-kick, which Palestinian keeper Marwan Kanafani was unable to keep out as it rested in the net, to bring the teams level.

The Iraqi side applied immense pressure as they looked to win the game, and they looked as if they would do it, but for the fighting spirit of the Palestine defence, led by captain and defender Fouad Abou Ghaida who fought to resist for his team with strength and experience.

In the last fifteen minutes, the Iraqi team searched for a winning goal, and attacked the Palestinian flanks, with Qais and Husham aiming shots on goal, but they were blocked by the man of the match, Palestine’s hero in goal, the brave custodian Marwan, who kept the teams’ level. In the final minutes, Palestine lost the chance to win the game, with several missed chances.

The Palestinians could have scored a winner in the last minute but for Ibrahim Al-Mughrabi’s effort which bounced off the crossbar. In an even encounter at the Al-Ahly stadium, the two sides played out a 1-1 stalemate. The result meant Iraq had to get something from their final group game against leaders the UAR, needing a draw or a victory to reach the semis.

A 1-1 draw with Iraq earned them the point they needed to qualify for the semi-finals, after Iraq lost 1-0 to Egypt in their final group game.

However, that was as good as it got for Palestine, as they faced free-scoring Sudan in the semis, and despite Omar Al-Sheikh Taha equalising almost twenty minutes after Sudan had opened the scoring, the heroic Palestinian team fell to a late winner seven minutes from time.

Even after losing to Libya in the third/fourth place play-off game, the competition had been a success for Palestine as they had reached the semi-finals, pipping Iraq to second in the group. It would be 37 years later until the two nations would meet again in an international game.

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