(Casablanca) “O Palestine, my beloved, Resist! » In the Maghreb, solidarity with the Palestinians has been displayed above all, since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, in football stadiums, rare theaters of expression where the ultras shout out the anger and frustrations of the youth.
Unemployment, inequality, corruption: the ultras chant slogans which have largely disappeared from the streets since a wave of repression swept away the protest movements, in the wake of the Arab Spring, denounce human rights organizations.
Between the banners demanding more freedom, there are Palestinian flags, omnipresent since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
From October 8, the day after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil which triggered a deadly Israeli military offensive, a song from the ultras of one of the flagship clubs resounded in the Mohammed-V stadium in Casablanca. of the Moroccan economic capital.
“O Palestine, my beloved, where are the Arabs? They are asleep, O you most beautiful country, resist! », Says the tune written by the ultras of Raja and taken up for years across the Arab world.
In Algiers in November, a tifo representing a masked Palestinian, with the subtitle “I sacrifice myself for you, land of revolutionaries”, was displayed.
“The Palestinian question unites everyone,” notes Abderrahim Bourkia, Moroccan sociologist, who wrote “Ultras in the City”.
“The ultras generally place themselves on the side of the oppressed. For them, it goes without saying to sing about Palestine,” he explains.
” Duty ”
In Algeria and Tunisia, banners proclaim that “In Gaza, hunger and thirst are every day”, promise that “We will avenge the (Palestinian) children”, while Wydad Casablanca salutes the “resisters with their hearts tunnels”, in reference to Hamas fighters holed up under Gaza, bombed by Israel.
For Seif*, ultra of the “Zapatista” group of Esperance of Tunis, the Palestinian cause is one of the subjects that the ultras “share”, such as “corruption in sport” and the quest for freedom.
“Transmitting a message is the least we can do,” says Ali*, another ultra Esperantist.
“Not defending the people closest to you, your brothers, does that seem okay? », he asks: “The Palestinian cause is not a trend, it is a duty”.
The ultras interviewed by AFP indicate that they feel more comfortable in the stands than elsewhere to express political opinions.
“The stadium remains the only place” where expressing emotions “is tolerated,” notes Mr. Bourkia.
In Morocco, pro-Palestinian demonstrations denouncing the “massacres” in Gaza and the normalization between the kingdom and Israel are frequent, but largely supervised by the police, as elsewhere in the region.
Hamza*, an ultra from Wydad, believes that if his group organized a pro-Palestinian march, “the authorities would stop it from the first moment”.
“It’s much simpler to say it in a stadium”, where the “crowd effect” allows you to “let off steam”, adds the 21-year-old communications student.
“The truth always comes out of the stadiums”
According to Mr. Bourkia, the youth, who feel marginalized, “seem to have found in the ultras a voice, a channel of freedom of expression and the opportunity to train and engage in committed collective work” .
“We don’t do politics, but the truth always comes out of the stadiums (…). It’s the voice of the working-class neighborhoods,” Abdelhamid*, an ultra from Mouloudia in Algiers, told AFP.
The ultras “want to show that they are taking action, that they are not simply a group of daredevil supporters and that they too have an opinion,” analyzes Tunisian sociologist Mohamed Jouili.
Like the other ultras met by AFP, Hamza* in Casablanca denies any hooliganism and regrets that the authorities impose sentences on some – going as far as imprisonment – to “calm down” the entire group, he says. he.
In recent years, riots have broken out between ultras during matches, leading to sanctions against clubs.
“Putting so much pressure on this population who just wants to express themselves is not the right solution. It motivates me even more,” he assures: “We will not stop chanting what we want to chant and we will not stop singing (for Palestine)”.
*First names have been changed
reference: www.lapresse.ca