Letter from the editor: Let me introduce you to the Palestinian national baseball team
The following is from the special “Baseball Edition” of Palestine in America. The print edition of this magazine is exclusively for our subscribers. The digital version is available to the public for $2.
Baseball is my favorite sport. It’s the one I’m best at. So when I saw a 2019 Facebook post from Abder Rahman Ghouleh about starting a Palestinian national baseball team, I immediately slid into his DMs and said, “I would love to be involved in whatever capacity is available.”
Four years later, I’m still a player on Team Palestine, in addition to serving as our media liaison. But this special edition is not about me and my second chance at the game I love the most–it’s about the other players (who I consider to be the best Palestinian baseball players in the world) and coaches who have pledged their time and money to put Palestinian baseball on the map.
We’ve come a long way over the years; I remember competing in a men’s summer league two years ago in a southwest suburb of Chicago, where I was met with skepticism from our recruits who were wary about the possibility of us actually competing internationally. A Palestinian baseball team? It seemed inconceivable to other Palestinian baseball players–but our international dreams became reality in January 2023.
After an impressive second place finish at this year’s West Asia Cup in Islamabad, Pakistan, Team Palestine is looking forward to playing more international competitions in the second half of the year.
The team was invited to compete in several prestigious matches, including the Asia Cup in Taiwan, the Asian Games in China and an Arab League tournament in Dubai. Team Palestine is warming up this summer by playing in an adult league in the Chicagoland area, in addition to playing a sanctioned game against Pakistan. Recruiting new talent is also a top priority as the team gears up for more international matches.
Ghouleh deserves much of the credit for the team’s achievements thus far. It was his work behind the scenes that helped the team gain enough credibility to hire Major League Baseball royalty Ozzie Guillén Jr. to lead the team in future international play. Ghouleh took on the responsibility of managing the team on the field by making sure the team had a place to practice and enough players to compete. He had help, but it was his leadership that made the dream of a Palestinian national baseball team into a reality.
And while Ghouleh laid the groundwork for the team’s success, the players’ performance exceeded expectations and catapulted us to the next level. If not for the team’s passion for competition and will to succeed, Ghouleh’s efforts would have been for nothing. The rest of this special edition will introduce you to those players, chronicling their journey to Pakistan and their upcoming preparations for the most important stretch of games in the team’s short history.
As you flip through this edition, players like Tarik El-Abour, Malik Abdallah, Tariq Suboh, Yunis Haleem and Zaki Haj will stand out. El-Abour is currently a minor league free-agent who had a stint with the Kansas City Royals; Abdallah is the most athletic player on the team and currently plays college ball at Rockford University; Suboh is an elite catcher who most recently played professionally for Nebraska’s Lincoln SaltDogs; Haleem is easily compared to major leaguer Marcus Stroman and played Division I baseball at Chicago State University; Haj is known for his strong arm, which has topped off at 90 miles per hour.
I’m excited for our readers to learn more about the names I mentioned above, as well as the other players you’ll get to meet as you flip through these pages.
This edition and this team have a special place in my heart because of what they allow me to imagine in Palestine. As a boy, I always dreamed of bringing my favorite sport to my homeland–and now the idea of building baseball fields and starting youth baseball leagues in Palestine doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore.
