For the last month, the FIFA World Cup has dominated headlines, absorbing much of the media’s attention. But on July 18, a group of soccer fans in Toronto decided to shine a light on a different side of the sport.
The Palestinian Football Exhibition took place at A Space Gallery in downtown Toronto, transforming a small room into an intimate showcase of Palestinian culture, identity and resistance through football.
Curated photos of Palestinian football players, including current players and those who were killed by Israeli forces, filled one end of the gallery’s walls, while a collection of a dozen jerseys were placed on stands in the middle of the space. One jersey, a Barcelona kit belonging to an organizer’s brother, was recovered among the rubble in Gaza following an evacuation order by the Israeli military.
Lying on the floor below each kit were a pair of shoes or football cleats, representing the 568 footballers who have been killed under Israeli occupation since October 2023, as recorded by the Palestinian Football Association.
Among those killed was Fadi Hamdalla al-Nassan, a teenager on Palestine’s national youth football team who was shot when Israeli settlers attacked his West Bank village just days prior to the exhibition, according to reporting by Al Jazeera.
Along the back wall was a large installation emblazoned with the words “KICK ISRAEL OUT OF FIFA.”
Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto (PYM Toronto) — a grassroots advocacy group dedicated to Palestinian liberation — the exhibition was designed to celebrate the nation’s football history, while fostering open dialogue on the long-running barriers against Palestinian football created by Israel and entrenched by FIFA’s inaction.
“[Football] is another way we resist,” Elias Saba, a PYM organizer, tells The Grind, describing the exhibition as a form of protest. Despite efforts to stop Palestinian footballers from competing on a global stage, and despite attempts to destroy the soccer infrastructure in Palestine, they continue to persevere, Saba notes.
“When you’re facing an occupier with the ultimate goal of ethnically cleansing you, every part of your life becomes a way of resistance,” he says. “At the end of the day, the message we hope to enshrine is that football is a people’s game… It was built on the street, playing with not even proper shoes.”
‘Sportwashing’
For many years, advocates have pushed FIFA to suspend Israel from the global sporting body over its destruction of football in Palestine and other violations of international law.
Over the past three years, Israel’s military has killed hundreds of athletes, coaches and referees, and damaged dozens of sports facilities. Last summer, Suleiman al-Obeid, a footballer known as the “Palestinian Pelé,” was killed while waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza.
In the West Bank, soccer leagues have been suspended indefinitely, while athletes there are forced to navigate what human rights organizations call an apartheid system that severely restricts movement.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Football Association includes six clubs based in illegal Israeli settlements, which violates international law. However, Israel remains a member of FIFA. Observers have called out FIFA’s “glaring double standard,” noting that Russia was banned just four days after its invasion of Russia.
FIFA’s inaction, advocates say, allows them to “sportwash” their reputation on the global stage, while diverting attention from their political actions.
For example, earlier this year, FIFA announced that it would join U.S President Donald Trump in the creation of the Board of Peace, a controversial initiative that claims to promote peace-building and the reconstruction of Gaza, while ignoring Palestinian voices.
Palestinian-Canadian footballer Charlotte Phillips, who plays as a goalkeeper for the York Lions and the Palestinian Women’s International Team, spoke at the exhibit to share her experiences representing Palestine on the field.
Though she was raised in Canada, Phillips felt a deep connection to Palestine through her grandparents. Her grandfather was forced to flee his home in Jaffa during the Nakba. He met his wife in Jerusalem, then migrated to Canada in the 1970s to escape Israel’s occupation.
In March 2023, Phillips played her first game in Jerusalem. Following the attacks of Oct. 7, Phillips watched as Israel destroyed the stadiums where she and her teammates used to play.
“Making amazing memories and then seeing those fields that we made those memories of being tear-gassed or being locked or being occupied … it’s incredibly hard,” Phillips told the audience.
Phillips recalled one Palestinian teammate being forced to remove her jersey at an Israeli checkpoint. Phillips said she finds herself questioning why FIFA hasn’t done more to protect Palestinian athletes or advocate for the safety of her and fellow athletes.
Two of her teammates on the Palestinian team, Natalie Abu Diyeh and Rand Halawani, were arrested by Israeli forces earlier this year, Phillips said. Abu Diyeh has since been released, while Rand, who Phillips said was taken during a night raid at her dorm, cannot be reached.
Despite the hardships Phillips and her teammates face, she is determined to keep her footing and stand firm in her identity. She recalls that in 2024, before a sold-out solidarity game in Ireland on Nakba Memorial Day, her coach, who has since passed, wrote four words on a whiteboard: “Proof of your existence” — a message Phillips carries with her to this day.
Art as resistance
This year’s World Cup generated plenty of controversy and raised serious concerns about the treatment of Arab and Middle Eastern teams, including overbearing travel restrictions for Iran, and what many perceived as unfair officiating against teams like Egypt. During Egypt’s match against Argentina, coach Hossam Hassan protested a series of controversial calls by making an “X” with his arms, an official gesture within FIFA to report racist or unfair treatment on the pitch.
But the tournament also featured several moments of Palestinian solidarity. After Egypt beat Australia, Hassan dedicated the victory to the Palestinian people. And on July 2, Academy Award-winning actor Javier Bardem waved a Palestine flag during a Spain match in Australia.
For Saba, the controversies feed into a larger contradiction: Football is an important part of Palestinian culture and community, but it’s difficult to celebrate a tournament organized by FIFA and hosted by the U.S., which he says are both complicit in Israel’s genocide.
“It felt necessary to address these contradictions as individuals and as a community,” says Saba, “and question what we should do about it.”
In a smaller room away from the main gallery was an installation by Toronto-based artist Alanoud Emaish, titled “Uneven Playing Field.” Woven into a soccer net using tatreez, a Palestinian embroidery style, the hanging tapestry depicts a child refugee with his hands tied behind his back kicking a soccer ball. The piece is an ode to Handala, a famous cartoon created by artist Naji al-Ali in 1969 that has since evolved into a national symbol of Palestinian resistance.
Emaish says she created the piece specifically for the exhibition just a few days prior. “I wanted Handala’s back turned … He’ll turn around when he either wins that game or when Palestine is free,” she says.
Near the end of the exhibition, a group of singers and performers known as the Palestinian Youth Ensemble led a rendition of “Rajawi Filistini,” a song chanted by Moroccan football club Raja Club Athletic in solidarity with Gaza. Attendees joined in the chant, holding sheets of paper with lyrics to sing along, raising a collective voice for Palestine.
