December 30, 2021, was supposed to be a big day for Alaa al Dali. He woke up at six in the morning, buzzing with excitement. Being a night owl by nature, he would normally do the first prayer of the day then go back to sleep for a couple more hours. That day, however, he rushed down three flights of stairs through his family house to reach their cement forecourt. The space is occupied by piles of peppers, a bitcoin station his older brother runs whenever there is enough electricity and a bike storage unit.
The 24-year-old had four road bikes waiting for him there, including a 2017 WorldTour Bahrain Merida team one, somehow smuggled into Gaza. His DS was bringing along another two. Six bikes in total would have to be enough for the long-planned first training session of the eight aspiring riders of the new Gaza Sunbirds Paracycling Team. The plan was that they would take it in turns while Alaa and the coach taught them how to ride.
They invited a Rouleur freelance photographer to document that special moment. However, upon their arrival at the meeting point, the security police showed up and forced them to cancel the photo-shoot, detaining four of them for further investigation. There is a foreign media involved, they said, you need our approval first. Just like that, their first training session was cancelled.
Gazans live in a constant state of paranoia: bombs might fall at any time and legends of infiltrated spies are rife in bars and restaurants. Perhaps that’s why locals who have strong contacts with foreigners are treated with suspicion. Or maybe it is just too strange that someone could seriously think of setting up a professional endurance sport team in Gaza, a 40-kilometre long, flat strip of land at the heart of a renowned Middle East conflict zone.
The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was followed by twists, turns and diplomatic failures that have resulted in near-constant conflict ever since and the current fragmented, restricted existence of Palestine. Palestinians find themselves geographically divided between the West Bank – under military occupation – and Gaza, isolated by a blockade imposed since 2007. This is a brief summary of a complex and contested issue, but suffice to say, the situation is very tense.
After the Giro d’Italia started in Israel in 2018, I went to Gaza to meet with Alaa al Dali and have returned whenever I could, working on a documentary about his story and, now, the Gaza Sunbirds….