North African football fans using sport to express solidarity with Palestinians

Casablanca, Morocco — AFP

North African football fans are using the sport to express solidarity for the Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.

As early as October 8, supporters of Raja Club Athletic in Casablanca revived an old chant:

“You for whom my heart is saddened,” goes the song which spread throughout the Arab world. “Our tears have been flowing for years. Palestine, my beloved, the Arabs are asleep. You, the most beautiful country, must resist.”

In Algiers, dramatic choreographed fan displays, known as tifos, depicted giant figures in the traditional keffiyeh scarf associated with the Palestinian cause and calls for a Palestine free of Zionist occupation.

– ‘Let loose’ –

Banners at stadiums across North Africa have denounced the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip as a result of the ongoing Israeli military offensive that has exterminated nearly 35,000- mostly women and children.

There have also been vows to “avenge the (Palestinian) children” as well as support for the “resistance fighters” against the occupation and brutalization of Palestine.

Supporters interviewed by AFP in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia used pseudonyms and covered their faces to conceal their identities.

Seif, a 28-year-old member of the Zapatista Ultras, who support Esperance Sportive of Tunis, said the Palestinian issue added to other more local ones, citing corruption.

– ‘We won’t stop chanting’ –

Mohamed Jouili, a sociology professor at the University of Tunis, said politics and sports have always been linked.

The ultras “want to show that they’re doers and not merely a reckless group of football fans — that they, too, have a viewpoint on society”.

Abdelhamid, an Algerian member of the group Amor e Mentalita which supports MC Alger, said ultras were “not politicians”, but “the truth always comes out of the stadium”.

“Those at fault better repent… because the stadium knows everything and nothing can be hidden from it,” he told AFP, standing in front of a fresco reading “Free Palestine” in Algiers’ historic Casbah neighbourhood.