Perhaps the closest thing we have to a cultural Esperanto—a common language that billions share. Amid the horrors of 2024, soccer has also become something else: a tool in the effort to stop Israel’s total war on the people of Gaza. If soccer is the great uniter, then countries that slaughter and starve civilians have no place on the pitch. This athletic activism is right now coming from two directions: There are nations trying to penalize Israel through the world governing soccer body, FIFA. Then there is the American Friends Service Committee, an organization that has been practicing mutual aid from inside Gaza since 1948. This past week, the AFSC staged a youth and teen soccer tournament in Rafah—with solidarity games in cities throughout the United States—to showcase the joy and humanity that the sport can offer. The organization’s tournament should remind the world that these young people deserve to live and play—and not become casualties of Israel’s war….more