Dreaming beyond the barricades

Palestinian cyclist Alaa al-Dali tells CW about the devastating injury that changed his life but which hasn’t stopped him from striving to compete internationally

- Julian Sayarer

Despite the blockaded Palestinian territory of Gaza being just 40km long with only one small hill, in the spring of 2018 cyclist Alaa al-Dali was on the brink of realising his greatest ambition as a cyclist – representing Palestine in the Asian Games, to be held that summer in Jakarta.

“I would train almost every day, doing a lot of cardio, and I was working on putting as many kilometres as I could in my legs,” the 23-year-old tells me over Zoom. “I was also working out in the gym, building muscles, and on a strict diet. No refined sugars, low-fat – a lot of fish, boiled chicken.” Sourcing good-quality protein wasn’t easy. “It was really expensive – Gaza is like a refugee camp and that kind of food is a luxury – but I knew I needed the right food because the Asian Games were so close.”

Al-Dali had won a gold medal in the 2018 national championships and was now working hard to improve his climbing. Everything was going well until 30 March 2018 when, along with thousands of other Gazans, he made his way to the March of Return protest marking 70 years since the conflict in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were expelled from their homes by Israeli forces.

As he neared the fence that has enforced Israel’s blockade since 2007, Al-Dali was shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper, shattering bone and blood supply to the extent that the only viable treatment was above-the-knee amputation. He was not alone; around 90 Palestinians lost limbs in the conflict that spring.