Unreported World

Gaza Going for Gold (2011x16)

Air date: Nov 11, 2011

Unreported World meets members of the Palestinian Paralympic team hoping to qualify for London 2012. They find athletes struggling to train in the conflict zone. In a territory where those who die fighting the Israelis are considered the true heroes, the Paralympic team goes completely unrecognised by its own people. Nobody knows who team captain and discus thrower Khamis Zaqout is, despite the international medals he's won since he helped establish disabled sports in the Occupied Territories two decades ago. This is in spite of the fact that the only athletes representing Palestine in London will be disabled ones, since there is no Palestinian Olympic team. Reporter Aidan Hartley and director Richard Cookson meet Khamis as he struggles to find a taxi to take him to the gym. He introduces them to the rest of his eight-man squad at the training ground: a little patch of green in an overcrowded enclave of bombed-out buildings and shanties. The news is that, as things stand, only four Palestinians are going to qualify to make it to the Games. The athletes are shocked and tensions boil over. Mohammed Fanuna, a partially sighted long jumper and javelin thrower, loses his temper. The news is too much for him to take when he also has all the other daily worries of living in Gaza - the air strikes, the siege, the lack of freedom to travel, the poverty - and of course his disability. Another very worried young athlete is 20-year-old Abed Abuwatfa, who invites the team back to the home he shares with his parents. Abed tells Hartley that the suspense over whether he will qualify for London is adding to the pressure on him to give up sport and find a job. Three of Abed's cousins are deaf and his two sisters are also disabled, placing an enormous burden on the family. In Gaza it's common for poor people to marry into their extended families, which is a major reason why it has one of the highest rates of disability in the world. The team learn that there's