“Boxing against the siege”, an Italian project coordinated by the NGO Ciss. Coach Fabrizio Troya, returning from his fourth trip to Palestine, speaks: “There is widespread psychological suffering, but it is a place of life”
ROMA – From Quarticciolo to Gaza. The well-known Popular Boxing Gym, located in the south-eastern quadrant of the capital, teaches the art of boxing to girls and girls living in Palestine. It is already in its fourth ‘mission’, but the coaches do not take credit and rather they are keen to point out that “none of us have brought this sport to that territory” and that “it is not thanks to our project that the young girls have started to practicing boxing “in that ‘patch’ of land that extends for about 360 km² and which, with its over 2 million inhabitants, has one of the highest population densities in the world. An ‘unlivable place’according to the United Nations Relief and Occupation Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), where the living conditions of the inhabitants “are getting worse and worse”, also as a result of the trade blockade that Israel has imposed on the Strip since the conflict 2006. But it is precisely in this very difficult context that, despite everything, some girls and girls aged 5 to 25 attend a small gym set up in Gaza with bags and makeshift ropes. Captained by Osama Ayoubyoung local technician, these small and large women, gloves on their hands, train with passion every week and dream of being able to compete with athletes from other countries.
All this is possible thanks to ‘Boxing against the siege’an Italian project coordinated by the NGO Ciss (South-South International Cooperation) and by Popular gymnasiums of Quarticciolo and Tufello, which since 2018 has created several opportunities for exchange between Roman and Palestinian athletes, delivered dozens of sports equipment, but also and above all opened a boxing gym in Gaza. In a “sports sharing”, the organizers let it be known that they understand sport as a “tool for personal and social improvement and redemption”.
Meanwhile, after a forced stop due to the pandemic, the project resumed its activities and the last trip to Gaza was only a few weeks ago. To tell Dire how it went is Fabrizio Troy, youth boxing coach in the Quarticciolo popular gymnasium. Romano, 25 years old, Fabrizio trains his students in the capital and in the meantime he attends the Faculty of Motor Sciences in Tor Vergata, but as soon as he can he runs to Palestine, because after going there for the first time now he can no longer “do without”, despite reaching Gaza is not easy, because “you have to deal with the bureaucracy” e to cross three borders in the space of 3 kilometers. “We are privileged – he says – because with visas, passports and letters of appointment, in five hours we are able to enter. But for others less fortunate, namely the Palestinians, both entering and exiting is a lottery”.
Fabrizio, accompanied on his travels by photojournalist and videomaker Daniele Napolitano, also a Roman and boxing enthusiast, says that together they skirted “those high concrete walls” that constitute the separation barrier between Gaza and Israel and began to “really” understand, through their eyes, what it means to live in those lands. And this, after having had the opportunity to deal daily with girls and boys who “live a surreal situation every day, ready at any moment to take refuge in some building and hope that the bombs do not hit their heads”. The latest escalations are those of May 2021 and last June: in both cases the raids by the Israeli army against positions of Palestinian armed groups have not spared civilians, with over 400 total victims.
But how did the initiative come about?
“Creating a link with Gaza and other complicated realities is one of the objectives of popular gyms like ours – coach Troya tells Dire – We feel the duty to pursue important issues such as anti-racism, anti-sexism and to fight plagues such as gender violence. We believe that sport is one of the most effective tools to create bridges and build one towards Gaza, in such a difficult context, with women of another culture and religion, for us it is a great opportunity as well as a opportunity for growth “.
– How do you explain all this female turnout?
“It is not a project aimed exclusively at girls, to tell the truth, but this year, and we are happy about it, we found ourselves coaching a large group of women only. Osama is the main technical trainer in Gaza and his intent is precisely that of developing a women’s boxing project. The group is growing and currently is mixed, made up of both girls who have just started boxing and adults who have been practicing it for a few months or years. Boxing is for everyone , it is a noble art that teaches self-defense, and for years now more and more girls have been practicing it. The same goes for the athletes of Gaza, they have learned very well to defend themselves on the street and we hope that through boxing they will be able to feel more and more safe, day after day “.
– What kind of activities have you proposed and are you offering to these young athletes?
“I speak collectively, both for the Palestra Popolare del Quarticciolo, which I represent, and for the Palestra Popolare Valerio Verbano del Tufello. What we set out to do was start from the fundamentals of boxing, in recent years we have tried to convey these girls and boys his basic teachings, because if brought to high levels they make a difference. One of the boxers I trained, Amr Abdallah, for example, managed to get a permit to leave Gaza and is now participating in a competition in Jordan”.
– How do you teach non-violence through a combat discipline?
“Violence is when you hit yourself in the street or when you are attacked by a pack; boxing, on the other hand, first of all teaches respect for the opponent, to defend the weakest and fight the violence itself, as well as to keep calm in situations. of difficulty. It is a discipline in all respects, regulated by very specific laws and by a referee who enforces them. Athletes train to develop their physical strength and perfect their technique, but there is no prevarication in the ring ” .
– Is it difficult to teach boxing in a difficult context like Gaza, where violence and tension are the order of the day?
“Boxing, through the body, also helps to vent some psychological discomforts. In Gaza there are many young people with mental health problems, of course most of them do not live with serenity that condition of ‘closure’, so a sport like boxing certainly helps to distract the mind. Anyone who thinks it can incite violence is wrong, exactly the opposite happens. “
– Sport also as an escape, then?
“Absolutely yes. Having had the opportunity to stay in Gaza for prolonged periods, we realized the great limitation experienced by the Palestinians, who actually live in an ‘open-air prison’ and suffer the effects of the conflict with Israel. it is very difficult for Palestinians to obtain a passport and therefore the right to leave the territory and for this reason they have limited knowledge. Few are able to ‘escape’ through the internet and in this sense even boxing becomes their window on the world “.
– But what do the young people of Gaza tell you?
“In Palestine there is a widespread psychological suffering and the territory does not offer many tools for recreation. Despite this, our athletes would like to make the whole world understand that in Gaza there is also the possibility to grow, have fun and play sports. never of Gaza as a place of death, but always as a place of life. And this is the message they want to convey. Especially the younger girls and boys have taught me the ‘resistance to live’ and not to break down in the face of difficulties. They certainly taught me more than I did for them with sport. “
– Will the ‘Boxing Against Siege’ project go on?
“Obviously we hope so. Over the years we have managed to open a gym and have brought various equipment to Gaza, including hitters, gloves, bags, helmets, mouthguards and bands. But we would need other sports equipment, so we continue to collect funds to support the Palestinian population during the meetings we organize in Rome in our popular gymnasium or in the Quarticciolo neighborhood house. This is also to finance our next trips, because we want to give continuity to the project and our goal is to return to Gaza on as soon as possible”. (TO SAY)