Israeli occupation forces arrested on Thursday night Ahmed Abu Khadija, a Palestinian footballer of Jabal Al Mukaber Club, based in occupied Jerusalem, the official news agency WAFA reported.

A few hours earlier, Abu Khadija had been crowned champion of the Palestinian Professional Football League.

Jabal Al-Mukaber Club said in a Facebook post that its player Abu Khadija was arrested on his way home, hours after the club was crowned with the Professional League title.

“Arrests, torture and killings of Palestinian footballers became a regular headline in Palestine,” Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud wrote in a recent article.

“For Palestinians, sports — especially football — remains a powerful platform of cultural resistance. Every aspect of a Palestinian football match attests to this claim. The names of the team, the chants of the fans, the images embroidered on the players’ jerseys and much more, are symbols of Palestinian resistance: names of martyrs, colors of the flag and so on. In Palestine, football is a political act,” Baroud added.

(PC, WAFA)