Palestinian athletes to honour legacy of late long-distance runner Majed Abu Maraheel at Paris Olympics

It's Gaza, 1996. Thirty-two-year-old father of five, Majed Abu Maraheel, runs along the beach in a tank top, shorts, and shoes that are not ideal for running, unknown to the beachgoers around him.

It’s uncommon for anyone to run along the Gazan coastline, but Majed’s story isn’t that of the common man.

Unable to give up his job as a security guard due to his family responsibilities, Majed trains relentlessly whenever he's not raising his children.

He navigates Gaza’s overcrowded and densely populated streets, in a turquoise and white tracksuit, with Olympic dreams on his mind.

“I only know what it’s like to run in the streets,” he said in an interview with AP at the time.

"We want to prove to the world and all the human beings who are betting against us that we are here and existing — in sports, politically and in all aspects. We want to establish in these Games the name of Palestine so that no one can eradicate the name of Palestine from history.”

On July 26, 1996, Majed became the first flag bearer for Palestine at the Olympic Games and the first athlete to ever compete, taking part in the 10,000 metres and finishing 21st.

What a moment it must have been to raise his flag high for the entire world to see, especially when committing the same act on his own land would land him in serious jail time, with the symbol having been banned after more Palestinian land was further occupied by Israel in 1967.

“Even minors as young as 10 years old were not immune to the far reach of military law and were occasionally sent to prison for waving the forbidden flag,” +972 magazine has reported.

His successes continued to mount as he went on to become a renowned coach for other Palestinian athletes who would go on to compete in future Olympic tournaments.

However, as the 2024 Olympic Games approach, Majed Abu Maraheel will not be present for the 28th anniversary of his revolutionary 1996 appearance.

Majed died on June 12, 2024, in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Gaza, due to medical shortages and power outages that prevented him from accessing adequate treatment for kidney failure.

Earlier, his family had tried to help him evacuate through the Rafah crossing to Egypt, but it was impossible as it was subsequently closed by Israel.

A March report by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor revealed that there were approximately 1,000 to 1,500 kidney failure patients in Gaza. Four months on, we can only wonder how many have survived.

Despite his numerous accomplishments and the status he had achieved through his athletic prowess, as well as the skills he had imparted to his prodigious students who went on to follow in his footsteps, Majed’s death last month amounted, sadly, to nothing more than a statistic in the highly censored and widely invalidated Palestinian death toll in Gaza, much like nearly all the others who have died under siege from Israel.

In the past nine months, not only has the sanctity of human life been violated, but all forms of infrastructure and the history of society have been destroyed as well.

Earlier this year, the Palestinian Olympic Committee was shelled, along with five other sports facilities in Gaza.

Olympism's values of excellence, respect, and friendship: Why are there no repercussions for Israel?

The beauty and essence of the Olympic Games lie in the equal opportunity they provide for athletes from any background to represent their homeland on an international stage.

For example, Yusra Mardini competed under the banner of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, after fleeing Syria during the war.

She had reached Europe by jumping into the ocean and swimming, pushing a boat full of refugees (including her own family) after the motor broke in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece.

Her travels on foot led her through Europe to Germany, where they eventually settled, and her own Olympic dreams set sail.

“The three values of olympism are excellence, respect and friendship. They constitute the foundation on which the Olympic movement builds its activities to promote sport, culture and education with a view to building a better world,” reads the Olympic website.

One would think that, based on these concepts, equal human rights would be applied across the board regarding the treatment of all athletes and their abilities or participation in events. Why is it, then, that after committing nine months of genocide, Israel faces no repercussions or threat to its Olympic status?

“The unilateral decision taken by the Russian Olympic Committee on 5 October 2023 to include, as its members, the regional sports organisations which are under the authority of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine (namely Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia) constitutes a breach of the Olympic Charter because it violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in accordance with the Olympic Charter,” was a statement made by the International Olympic Committee in October 2023.

Palestinians cannot be erased 

The past nine months have only further reinforced the already known reality for the Palestinian people: they are not viewed equally to their Israeli counterparts in all aspects of life.

It is not a shock to anyone familiar with the Palestinian cause that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can so blatantly apply double standards.

While the IOC has sanctioned Russia, IOC President Thomas Bach, when asked about Israeli teams and athletes not taking part in the Paris Olympics, responded, “No, there is no question about this.”

Amidst this gruesome Israeli siege, where the death toll in Gaza is suggested to have surpassed 39,000, Palestinians continue to do what they have always done: resist the erasure of their people, culture, history, and achievements by defiantly existing on the international stage.

It’s reported that eight Palestinian athletes will grace the Paris Games this month, competing in boxing, judo, swimming, shooting, and taekwondo.

For all those spectators watching the Paris Games, how many truly understand the hardships faced by Palestinian athletes to reach this stage?

How many athletes were killed before they could even raise their flag?

Majed Abu Maraheel was the first among many, setting a precedent that inspired a nation under siege to thrive in the world of sports, using this platform as an opportunity to advocate for their own liberation and freedom like no other.

It is in Majed’s memory that these athletes will represent Palestine, and eight tournaments later, they aim to emulate his legacy.

Saoud Khalaf is a British-born Iraqi filmmaker and writer based in London. His videos, which have garnered millions of views across social media, focus on social justice for marginalised groups with specific attention on the Middle East. His latest documentary premiered at the Southbank Centre for Refugee Week

Follow him on Twitter: @saoudkhalaf_

Editor's note: We have corrected the number of Palestinian athletes competing from six to eight