Many local Palestinian athletes took part in the 14th edition of the Rachel Corrie Ramadan Football Tournament, organized by the Women’s Programs Center in the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Funded by the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Justice and Peace, in cooperation with the Rafah Services Club, the tournament saw the participation of 32 teams from all over the besieged region.
The tournament was held at the “Hall of the Martyr Yasser Arafat”, itself located within the Rafah Services Club.
The tournament, which has been held every year during the month of Ramadan since 2008, has resumed after a two-year interruption due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Palestinians see the tournament as a tribute to the late Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who was killed in 2003, when she was run over by an Israeli military bulldozer that was preparing to demolish a Palestinian home in southern Gaza.
Corrie acted as a human shield in hopes of stopping the bulldozer, operated by Israeli forces, from demolishing a home in the Palestinian Rafah refugee camp.
An Israeli court, in August 2012, exonerated the Israeli bulldozer driver, and the US government refused to take action to hold Israel accountable for Rachel’s murder.
(All Photos: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
