Israel postpones demolition of Palestinian children's football pitch
1/21/2026 6:56:00 PM
Israel has postponed the demolition of a Palestinian children's football club in the city of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.
It said the Aida Youth Centre's pitch was constructed without the necessary permits.
It said the demolition was necessary for security reasons.
An international campaign to save it, including a petition with more than half a million signatures, appears to have forced the authorities to reconsider. The club, however, said it had not yet received any official notification.
It is barely a 10th of the size of a full-scale football field, there are patches of rust on the goalposts and, towering over the length of one of the touchlines, the architecture of conflict looms large in Israel's concrete security barrier.
But while it may not rank high up among the world's iconic sporting venues, this children's football club has found itself at the centre of a hard-fought international campaign for its survival.
And despite the asymmetrical odds as it took on the Israeli state, that campaign appears - for now at least - to have worked.
The club has won a reprieve against the threat of demolition by the Israeli military, which claimed that the pitch was far too close to the barrier.
It said the Aida Youth Centre's pitch was constructed without the necessary permits.
It said the demolition was necessary for security reasons.
An international campaign to save it, including a petition with more than half a million signatures, appears to have forced the authorities to reconsider. The club, however, said it had not yet received any official notification.
It is barely a 10th of the size of a full-scale football field, there are patches of rust on the goalposts and, towering over the length of one of the touchlines, the architecture of conflict looms large in Israel's concrete security barrier.
But while it may not rank high up among the world's iconic sporting venues, this children's football club has found itself at the centre of a hard-fought international campaign for its survival.
And despite the asymmetrical odds as it took on the Israeli state, that campaign appears - for now at least - to have worked.
The club has won a reprieve against the threat of demolition by the Israeli military, which claimed that the pitch was far too close to the barrier.