Occupied Jerusalem -

Once you reach the town of Al-Isawiya in Jerusalem, the effects of the daily confrontations with the occupation forces are evident in the streets and alleys, but the townspeople insist on carrying out their normal lives despite the many forms of harassment and inconvenience.

The latest confrontations erupted after it was announced that the son of the town had received martial arts champion Yazan Jaber, who returned with a gold medal from Kyrgyzstan on Sunday evening.

To make him uncomfortable, the occupation army and special forces stormed the town and tried to disperse the crowds that gathered to receive the first Palestinian to win the gold medal for Palestinian sports in “Mixed Martial Arts” (MMA) after he participated in the 2021 Asian Gamma Championship that was held in Kyrgyzstan.

Jaber received Al-Jazeera Net at his home after returning from a medical visit due to injuries that concentrated in his legs during the three competitions he fought, and although he practices one of the most violent sports, he seemed calm, spoke in a low voice and chose his words carefully.

Yazan Jaber - inside his home in the town of Issawiya in Jerusalem - talks to Al Jazeera Net about his sports career 

stolen childhood

Yazan Jaber was born in Jerusalem in 1998, and grew up in the town of Al-Isawiya, but he was attached to the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque since his early childhood because he received his school education in the schools of the old town. Forcing him to take high school exams from inside the prison walls.

Yazan was released in 2017, during the electronic gates flare-up - which erupted in the summer of that year - which led to a series of arrests, the most recent of which was last Ramadan, and each arrest is usually followed by a decision of home confinement or deportation from Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The instability between freedom and imprisonment did not prevent this young Jerusalemite from completing his educational career and enrolling in physical education at the Palestinian Birzeit University, from which he will graduate in a few days.

Yazan Jaber holds the Palestinian flag after being crowned with the gold medal (communication sites)

He entered the world of sports early with the encouragement of his father, and swimming was the first sport he practiced at the age of 6, and then began his football training, but he did not last long after the decision to expel him from the stadium, because he resorted to beating and wrestling during the game.

Thus, his passion for martial arts began to crystallize, so he enrolled in courses to learn "kung fu" for two years, and from there to boxing, but he did not feel that he had achieved what he aspired to, so he decided to enter the world of the Thai sport of "Muay Thai" and developed in it quickly.

He was not satisfied with that, so he started his training in the sport of "Jujitsu" and about this march he said, "I did not like martial arts that are limited to the use of hands or feet, but I wanted to learn several martial arts because I tend to fight freely without laws and restrictions."

In the Asian Championship, Jaber fought 3 fights, 2 of them with two opponents from Kazakhstan, and the final competition was with an Indian player, where Yazan managed to overthrow him during the fight, which consisted of 3 rounds, each lasting 3 minutes.

Yazan Jaber during his participation in the mixed martial arts competitions in the Asian Gamma Championship in Kyrgyzstan (communication sites)

Sports and political tours

Regarding his experience in the tournament, he said, "It was not easy, especially since I was injured in the first competition and the situation worsened in the second and third competitions, but I decided not to withdraw not only to get the gold medal, but to raise the flag of Palestine and its name high in the world of sports."

And about his feeling as soon as he announced his victory in the final competition, the young man in his twenties was silent for a moment, then said, "My feeling is terrible and indescribable when I carried the flag of Palestine on the stage, and I heard the Palestinian national anthem resounding all over the place. Many there do not know where our country is located or what we suffer under occupation, Fawzi was an opportunity to introduce them to our cause."

Jaber added that it is the first time that he raises his country's flag without this leading to his arrest, as the occupation authorities arrest anyone who tries to raise the Palestinian flag in Jerusalem.

A set of medals that Yazan Jaber won during his sports career (Al-Jazeera Net)

Yazan attributes the main reason for his success to the son of his town and his coach, Fadi Mustafa, who spends his daily training hours with him in a sports club in Al-Isawiya.

His career was not without the occupation’s attempts to tempt him to adopt his sports talent and offer him a monthly salary in exchange for joining an Israeli sports federation and competing in his name. Yazan’s response to the intelligence officer was, “I will never raise the flag of your country, and I will not accept that the occupiers adopt my talent.”

Yazan recalled back when he was in Megiddo Prison for the Jerusalemite Cubs and was trying to practice his sports training in prison, and how the prison administration suppressed and prevented him from doing so by claiming that he was practicing military training.

From the darkness of prison cells in which he is forcibly thrown from time to time, Yazan Jaber went out, despite all the obstacles, to the world, and his name shined in the world of mixed martial arts, and he returned to his burning town with a gold medal that inflamed the feelings of Jerusalemites, especially after dedicating his victory to Jerusalem and Palestine.