No country, no pool, but Palestinians take the plunge

No country, no pool, but Palestinians take the plunge
Greg Baum - The Age - March 23, 2007
THERE is no swimming pool at the University of Jenin, so Zakia Nassar must go home to Bethlehem to train. The journey should take two hours,she said yesterday, but because of delays at checkpoints it sometimes takes eight.

Nassar, 19, a dental student, gets home for two days at a time. She said she could train at most for an hour on each of those days. "For a swimmer, it's nothing. It's like a shower."

The pool is 18 metres long. The only other pool in the West Bank and Gaza strip is 25 metres. "A 50-metre pool is like the sea for me," shesaid. "When am I going to get to the other end?"

On Wednesday, Nassar and her Palestinian teammates trained in the Richmond municipal pool.

"Unbelievable," said chef de mission Ibrahimal-Tawil. "This is our dream, to have something like that in Palestine. We need to move Richmond to Palestine."

There is a bit of a history in those parts of improbable feats involving water. One bloke walked on it, another parted it.

In that intrepid spirit, a Palestinian team is gathering in Melbourne to do its darnedest in the world championships. Four — all teenagers —have arrived (unsurprisingly, all specialise in 50-metre events). Another is on his way from the US, where he is on a scholarship.

But two others were detained at the only border crossing from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, said liaison officer Moammar Mashni. They missed connecting flights and will not make it. The crossing, he said, was opened or shut at the whim of Israel.

Mashni, a son of one of the original Palestinian emigrants to Australia, works full time as an advocate for the Palestinian cause. Welcoming The Age, he bade us to sit anywhere we liked. "A good thing about not having a country," he said, "is not having formalities!"

Mashni made no apology for introducing a political note, saying it was unavoidable in matters Middle Eastern. He sought not to raise hackles, but awareness.

Tawil said sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority since the election of Hamas last year had hamstrung the country. "We're here to swim for Palestine, but we cannot forget what is happening back home,"he said.

The swimmers made it clear they were here to swim, but also to make asplash. "I'm proud to be here and represent my country," said Nassar."It's the best thing anyone can do."

One of the swimmers is Fadi Awisat. His brother, Raad, momentarily became a cause celebre while training for the Athens Olympics in 2004 when CNN reported that he had been given a choice: join the Israeli swimming team or pay for facilities that were previously freely available at the YMCA pool in Jerusalem.

Two other reports dismissed the first as propaganda. Tawil said yesterday it had been a classic case of misunderstanding. Drowning or waving; who can say in the Middle East?

Najer Toutanji, the head coach, said he was not surprised to be asked how a Palestinian developed an interest in swimming. "We've barely got enough drinking water, let alone enough to get people interested in swimming," he said.

Nassar said that when she and her brother Sami — who is also here —were taken to a pool in London as children, they simply stood in the water. Their father, a basketballer and footballer, but never a swimmer, resolved to teach them to swim. "He didn't want us to be like him," she said.

Now, she lives for swimming. "Whenever I swim, I forget everything,"she said, "especially if I'm sad or mad."

In Melbourne, she hopes to right a wrong: when she previously met Michael Phelps, her hero, she said she was so overcome she forgot to smile!

The Palestinians travelled via Dubai, where an affluent expat organised a pool for a week, and bought suits for officials. "Our medal is just to be here," said Tawil.

Quietly, the foursome demurred, saying they were excited rather than intimidated by the chance to swim against the world's best. "We are here to be competitors, not participants," Nassar said.