Journalist Taghreed Alemoure: the participation of Palestinian athletes in the Paris 2024 Olympics is a message to all countries of the world

BY: Al-Zahraa Rashad

A media professional, correspondent and sports program presenter who loves covering sports in various disciplines. She has succeeded in working for several sports channels in Palestine and the Arab world. She has also covered the participation of Palestinian players in various local, Arab and Asian tournaments. She has traveled to several countries to do her media work, in addition to her work as a member of the Board of Directors of Al-Hilal Sports Club in Gaza and her position as Vice President of the Palestinian Sports Media Federation from September 1, 2022 to September 2023. About her media and life experience, her vision of the reality in Gaza since last October, and her analysis of various sporting events, we had this interview with her...

First, we want to know the secret of your interest in sports?

The first reason is that I grew up in a sports family. My father is a first-class sports fan and follower of Zamalek Club, and my mother is a fan of Al-Ahly Club of Egypt. My father also followed the Egyptian and Saudi league matches because we were living in Saudi Arabia. He used to travel to take us to watch the matches in Jordan. I lived the atmosphere of following and talking about sports in my childhood until high school with my father. The second reason for my interest in sports is my brothers` football journey. I am the eldest sister of three young men who played football in Saudi Arabia. When we returned to the Gaza Strip in 1996, my brothers graduated from football fans in schools to being present in clubs, starting with Al-Mashtal Club in Gaza until entering the professional journey. I lived the atmosphere of deals when my middle brother Ismail Al-Amur moved to Al-Dhahiriya Club in the West Bank on loan in 2008 and was also present with the Palestine national football team from 2002 to 2015, and the same thing with my older brother Ibrahim, who spent two decades in the local clubs of Gaza, moving between thirteen clubs, and my younger brother Mohammed continued the journey, playing for several years in several local clubs. All of this affected me, whether following sports and matches, which constituted an incentive for me to specialize in sports in my journalistic work.

Who is the journalist and media figure Taghreed Alemoure?

I am a Palestinian journalist from the Gaza Strip. My work journey as a broadcaster and correspondent began in 2003. I specialized in sports and my work actually began with the 2010 World Cup; Where I presented a morning news meal on a daily radio program in parallel with the championship days, and in 2012 I was the executive director of a specialized sports radio, and from 2014 to 2016 I was a correspondent for the Saudi sports< .

What is the most important station in your professional life?

I consider the most important stage of my work to be my presence as a correspondent with Palestine Sports since 2021, which is the official sports channel in Palestine. Within the work agenda, I covered the matches of the Premier, First and Second Division Football League, basketball, handball and volleyball leagues, Athletics Federation championships, Chess Federation championships, and all sporting events within the sector, as well as championships and training for women`s football, basketball and other games, as well as championships and participations of people with disabilities within the national teams and external participations as well, in addition to completing reports on the preparations and training of Gaza Strip players and their joining external participations for Palestine in the Arab, Asian and regional arenas.

What about your university studies?

I am a graduate of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, Department of Radio and Television, and I also obtained a diploma in Journalism and Public Relations from Al-Azhar University in Gaza, and I want to complete my master`s degree in Cairo. A few days ago, I obtained a certificate of passing the "Digital ABC" course - Unit "B" for the second year in a row with the "Women in News" WIN Foundation. This training motivated me to complete my studies and link the field of sports journalism to digital transformation.

You were nominated for the Pearl Award for Sports Journalism. Tell us about that?

Indeed, you were nominated for the Pearl Award for Sports Journalism, which included the names of 85 competitors in nine categories for the 2015 award. At that time, you cooperated with the National News Agency to produce a short film about Palestinian runners in the Gaza Strip and the training journey in difficult conditions to reach the podiums.

And how were you affected by the events in the Gaza Strip since last October?

The crimes of the occupation have not stopped in all of Palestine, whether Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the occupied interior. Now, what is happening in terms of aggression against the Gaza Strip, which is still suffering from the woes of the 2008, 2012, and 2014 aggressions, the 2021 aggression, the 2022 aggression that continued for several days, and the 2023 aggression so far, the genocide since October 10 until now. For me, this aggression in which I was not with my husband, son, daughter, and family, I am in Cairo because I was on a work mission with the Palestine Sports Channel in China to cover the Asian Games and I have not been able to return. I have spent 334 days without my family, who were displaced after my home and my family’s home were destroyed several times. They were exposed to death, fear, and loss of security. Every moment of the aggression is a double suffering of diseases, searching for water and survival supplies, and the suffering that I am here in Cairo following the aggression while I am unable to save them and protect them, and the suffering of daily communication, internet outages, and attempts to communicate with them, and the suffering of following the news every moment, and the bombing does not stop, and the destruction is everywhere, and the smell of death is an indescribable situation. Life is like a slow death.

How do you see Palestine`s participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics?

Despite all these difficulties? Despite the freezing of sports activities in Palestine due to the crimes of the occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestine`s presence in the Paris Olympics was a message that must reach the world through participation for the eighth time since the Atlanta Games in 1996 in the Paris Olympics officially with eight athletes. This presence and participation is a message to raise awareness of what is happening in Palestine regarding sports and the arrival of these players to France in exhausting and modest preparation and training conditions. Despite this, the Palestinian flag was raised at the opening ceremony and its athletes participated despite the obstacles in six games. This is a message to raise public awareness about the struggle and the Palestinian cause, and an existence and challenge that the occupation has always tried to obliterate. This participation came in a war of extermination that has not stopped. 400 sports cadres, volunteers and employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been injured and martyred since October 10, 2023. The sports infrastructure was not spared, as it was deliberately targeted and razed to the ground in Gaza, and the stadiums were turned into detention centers. They were also destroyed and were not spared. However, the external participation of our teams was the way to respond with the right to be present as Palestinians in all forums to the obstacles and violations of the occupation against them.

As a Palestinian sports journalist, how do you view the experience of Palestinian players playing professionally in the Egyptian league?

There are roots of football relations between Egypt and Palestine dating back to 1943; Where Al-Ahly club traveled to Palestine to play a friendly match in support of the Palestinian revolution against the occupation and the British mandate is a historical event mentioned by the fans of the Red Castle in many of its songs. And it was completed again with the presence of Palestinian players in the Egyptian League, this is not a new thing, for many years the names of Palestinian players have shone in Egypt, not limited to, such as player Marwan Kanafani, the goalkeeper who joined Al-Ahly in the sixties of the last century, and also player Ramzi Saleh, the goalkeeper who joined Al-Ahly and achieved the Egyptian League title with the team in the 2009/2010 season, and now the names of players have shone again who have become part of the legacy and history of sports and football in Egypt and Palestine, as well as the achievements on the football scene in Egypt, specifically the 2022 season, including Wissam Abu Ali, Khaled Al-Nabris and Mahmoud Wadi. The most important thing in what I mentioned is that the experience of a Palestinian player playing professionally in the Egyptian League is a rich and successful experience; The decision to treat the Palestinian player as a local player, similar to the Egyptian player, reflects on the Palestinian player by enhancing his ambitions to become a professional in one of the strongest Arab leagues, which is the Egyptian league.