‘Losing three years set us back 20’: Palestinian football’s future in peril

Sheikh Jarrah, Occupied East Jerusalem — It’s nearly three years since Mahdi Hijazi last played a professional game of football, with the war on Gaza sinking the domestic Palestinian league into limbo. The 23-year-old now spends his days on the sidelines of a series of football pitches adjacent to the Israeli police headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem. …