Petition seeks to save Bethlehem children’s football pitch (Full Transcript)

[00:00:02] Speaker 1: In a divided land cut through by Israel's wall, almost everything's contested, including this patch of artificial turf, a football ground for Palestinian children. In November, the Israeli authorities placed this notice on the gate, declaring the pitch to be illegal, followed soon by a demolition order. The facility provides training to a few hundred kids from the cramped streets of the nearby Aida refugee camp, populated by the Palestinian descendants of those who were forced or fled from their homes in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

[00:00:47] Speaker 2: What did you think when you heard they were going to tear this football pitch up? I was upset. This is a field I really care for. We don't have anywhere to play. Here we are building our dreams. If they demolish the field, they will demolish our dreams.

[00:01:14] Speaker 1: The community has fought back, posting videos on social media, launching a petition garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures and receiving messages of international support.

[00:01:30] Speaker 3: Cancel the order of demolition that's in place on that football pitch.

[00:01:36] Speaker 2: I urge everyone to get behind and support as much as they can to stop this from happening.

[00:01:41] Speaker 1: The wall was built in the face of a wave of deadly Palestinian suicide bombings. But as it's grown in length to its critics, it's become one of the many complex layers in Israel's occupation of the West Bank. Although militarily Israel controls it all, administrative control is divided between Palestinian-run areas and Israeli-run ones. In Bethlehem, Israel claims civil authority right up to the city's edge, including this narrow strip of land on the Bethlehem side of the wall. Satellite photos show it empty a few years ago and then the pitch taking shape year by year. Built, Israel says, without the necessary permissions. The club, which claims it did receive verbal permission in 2020 for the pitch, believes the threat is about far more than planning war.

[00:02:32] Speaker 3: The Israelis didn't want us to have any kind of hope. They didn't want us to have an opportunity. And the moment that we lose hope and opportunity, we are going to leave. This is the only explanation for us.

[00:02:42] Speaker 1: This wall is a constant presence in the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank. But here it quite literally looms over one small story in a long-running conflict. As always, it's not only about land, it's about questions of freedom, security, identity and the simple right to an ordinary life. In a statement, Israel's military said construction was prohibited alongside the wall, repeating the claim that this is illegal. As the wider conflict grinds on, the future of one small football pitch hangs in the balance. John Sudworth, BBC News, Bethlehem.