Issam Khalidi
Table tennis in Palestine was practiced by some Arab and Jewish clubs,
in addition to the YMCA in Jerusalem (that held few tournaments in table
tennis) and some British army teams. In contrary to tennis, table tennis was not
popular among British clubs such as the Jerusalem SC and the Cercle Sportife in
Jaffa. In Jerusalem there was a league
for table tennis where the Y.M.C.A. took part.
Filastin reported that the athletic
committee of the Orthodox Club in Jaffa held a table tennis tournament in which
twenty players from the club took part. Mousa Falaha won a silver cup for the
first place. The paper added:
“We hope the club’s [athletic] committee will persist
organizing such meetings that will find a strong youth with strong bodies.” [1]
As a reaction to the Zionist
domination in the sports arena and the marginalization of the Arabs from the
Palestine Football Association (established in 1928 by the Zionists), some Arab
young men established the Arab Palestine Sports Federation APSF in 1931, it
stopped functioning at the end of 1930s. In September
1944 it was re-established and continued functioning until late 1947. Its
re-establishment was a turning point in Palestinian sports.
In March 1938 Palestine Sports Federation
organized a championship in table tennis that took place in the Qawmi (National)
Sports Club (founded in 1926 as Islamic SC, the name was changed in late 1930s
to Qawmi SC until early 1940s) in Jaffa. Few Arab clubs took part: the Qawmi
SC, Arab Scout club in Haifa, Arab Sports Club in Jerusalem. Arab SC won this
championship and received the cup from Mr. Jawdat Bibi – Director of the Arab
Bank in Jaffa and a member of the Palestinian Sports Federation. The referee
was the athlete and sports activist Attallah Eqdees.[2]
The
Federation of Table Tennis was included in the – Zionist-dominated - Federation
of Amateur Sports Clubs in Palestine FASCP (established in 1931), which body
was affiliated to the Federation of Table Tennis.
In
April 1941 Palestine Post reported that “after having been in abeyance for a
couple of years, the competition for the Y.M.C.A. Table Tennis Cup and Medals
was played off this week and won by Hapoel, the holders of the trophy.” [3]
After the re-establishment of the Arab
Palestine Sports Federation district committees (Jerusalem, Jaffa, Gaza,
Nablus, Haifa and the Galilee) were established immediately and sub-committees
for all sports, including the Committee of Table Tennis Committee. This committee
was organized by Espero Eqdees, Ibrahim Nusseibeh Hazem Nusseibeh, Albert Abila
and Rock Farraj. A tournament in table tennis was scheduled to take place in
March 1946 for districts (Jerusalem,
Jaffa, Haifa, Gaza, Nablus and Galilee), in order to determine the champion of
each district. A general individual tournament was scheduled to take
place. [4]
In January 1945, few clubs in Haifa took
part in a tournament: Islamic SC, Homentmen [Armenian], Orthodox Club, Salisi
(Salesian), Carmel SC, Catholic Club and Shabab Al-Arab. [5]
Filastin reported
about a match in table tennis between the Orthodox Club in Jaffa and the team
of the Youth Institute in Ramla. [6] Also, it reported about a match in table
tennis that was held in the hall of the Orthodox Club between the team of this
club and an army team in Jaffa district. [7]
It’s worth noting
that Arab women practiced table tennis in some (Christian) clubs such as Orthodox clubs in Jaffa and Haifa.
Palestine took part in the World Table
Tennis championships for the Swaythling Cup (Men) and Marcel Corbillon Cup
(Women opened in Paris on Friday last and in the 1st. round
Palestine lost to Ireland by 5 to 4. Palestine Post reported that there
were no Palestinian representatives in the Women’s championships that time.
Both events were being played in a series of ‘round robin’ tournaments in which
each country met every other nation. [8] However, only Jewish
players took part. The Arabs were not aware about the competitions and participations that the Federation of Amateur Sports
Clubs in Palestine had been organizing because of the marginalization of the former
and the domination of the latter.
In 1962, the Palestinian Sports Federation founded in the Gaza Strip. Immediately, the Federation formed committees for different sports. These Federation submitted applications for membership in international federations, some of which were rejected and others were given temporary membership under the pretext that the Gaza Strip is not a state; that it was a “territory” under the Egyptian administration. However, the federation of table tennis which was founded in 1965 was admitted in that year in its respective International Table Tennis Federation.
In 1966 Palestine in
the Games of the
New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) and won
the 3rd place. [9] In 1967 it participated in the table tennis World
Table Tennis Championship in Sweden and finished 33 out of 71. Palestine table tennis teams took part since 1960s in the Pan Arab Games.
In 1969, the Supreme Council for Youth Care SCYC was formed in Amman Jordan. It established different federation for various sports including table tennis. In 1970 SCYC was moved from Amman to Beirut. Its first conference was held in 1974. The name was changed to the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports.[10]
The
activities of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports in Lebanon ceased in
1994 on the orders of the Executive Office, which moved to Gaza after the
establishment of Palestinian Authority.[11]
Palestine participated in the first Asian Championship in China in 1972. The team was led by the sports activist Elie Kubli, who was chairman of the SCYC. The coach was Wasif Haddad – a former table tennis player, a champion (in early 1960s) and a coach of table tennis and tennis in the American University in Beirut. Table tennis was included in the federation of racquet games (included tennis squash and golf).
In the West Bank the number of clubs before January 1982 exceeded sixty-one. Most of these clubs joined the Association of Clubs Rabitat Al-Andiyah (established in 1975) which functioned as a ministry of sports. It had a major impact on promoting and institutionalizing this game.[12] The committee of table tennis was composed of Tonny Abboud, Khalid al-Sayyed, Rasim Younis, Ma'in Hafez and Ameed al-Masri. Abboud is considered to be one of the pioneers in promoting this game. He was one of the organizers of the first, second and third tournament of table tennis which were held in the West Bank in 1984, 1985 and 1986. He also took part as a referee at these and other tournament.
Table tennis took place in the Rabita's activities.
The first single tournament was held in 1984 where 99 players (members of 26
clubs) took part. Hanna Ardakian (YMCA - East-Jerusalem) won the cup. Ahmed al-Minawi (E’bal - Nablus) in the second place, and Aiman Tuqan in the third place. The second
single tournament was 1985. Fifty-five players took part. Hanna Ardakian (YMCA)
defeated Ahmad Minawi (E’bal). The third
championship was held in 1986 when 76 players took part. Saleh Kana'an (Islamic
SC of Bethlehem) defeated Aham Minawi. Hanna Ardakian got the fourth
place. [13]
Endnotes
[1] Filastin,
21 January 1931.
[2] Al-Difa’,
27 March 1938.
[4] Filastin,
3 March 1946
[5] Al-Difa’,
19 January 1945
[6] Filastin,
7 April 1946.
[7] Filastin,
6 October 1946
[9] http://info.wafa.ps/ar_page.aspx?id=3082
[10] Khalid Ejjawi, Al-Haraka al-Riyadiayya
al-Falastiniyya fi al-Shatat, Palestine Sports Movement in Diaspora, (Damascus:
al-Dar al-Wataniyya al-Jadida, 2002), 485.
[11] Khalid Ejjawi, al-Haraka al-Riyadiyya
al-Falstiniyyafil-Shatat.
[12] Rasim
Younis, al-Haraka al-Riyadiyya fi al-Dhiffa al-Gharbiyya. Sports Movement in the West Bank, (Nablus: Hijjawi Press, 1992), p. 325
[13] Rasim Younis.
No comments:
Post a Comment