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United on the pitch
• IF you listened to some of the media you would think Gaza is consumed with infighting. Happily, the 20 teams in Rafah who have been taking part in the Rachel Corrie Football Tournament have proved them wrong.
Young people of different political allegiance, from Yibna and other refugee camps, have been playing against each other in friendly fashion, able to forget for a while the deprivation of daily lives under the Israeli siege. As one of the Palestinian organisers said: “It is a miserable and stricken area but full of football fans.”
Photos from the tournament, including Hamas and Fatah teams posing beside each other after their match, can be seen at www.ifyibna.org/ football
I was very happy to receive a letter from our former MP, now Lord Smith of Finsbury and patron of Islington Friends of Yibna, sending his message of support to the tournament. As he said: “The plight of the Palestinian people is all too often forgotten or ignored.”
MOLLY MCCONVILLE
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