Fans in stadium

Schwartz:  It's the equivalent of the Arab Olympics - the Pan Arab Games in Jordan.

01.00.00

Football team runs on to ground

That the Palestinian football team is here is a small miracle. No one expects much more of them. Least of all their Libyan opponents. But they're in for a surprise. It's been a marathon getting here, and the Palestinians who grew up dodging Israeli bullets in the Intifada, aren't about to give up now.

00.12

Map Israel/Jordan/Egypt

FX:  Football crowd

00.33

Gaza/ Kids play ball on road

Schwartz:  In Gaza, the road's as good a place as any to play football. There's only one grassed field here and thousands of would be national players. Palestinians don't yet have an independent state, but they feel strongly they are a nation, with a national sport - soccer.

00.46

Ziad playing ball

Twenty-five year old, Ziad al Kurd has made the grade. He's been selected for the first fully fledged national team. In a few weeks, he'll be testing his mettle at the pan-Arab Games in Jordan. According to his mother, it's a dream come true.

Mother:  Since he was a child he's had a dream to play football because his father was a football player. He started playing in the streets with his friends. His father used to pay with them in the courtyard of our house.

01.09

Schwartz:  Much has changed since then.

01.40

Mother scrubbing pot

Ziad - married with a daughter - is now effectively the head of the extended family. His father is in an Israeli gaol, serving 25 years for a bombing in which several people were injured. Israelis consider him a terrorist, but not Ziad.

Ziad

Ziad:  I was a little boy then... but I know that my father is a freedom fighter.

Schwartz:  Ziad feels he is too. But in a different way.

Ziad:  I am sacrificing for Palestine --  just like my father is through his political fight.  But I am struggling on the sports field in order to raise the name of Palestine high in the Arab world and internationally.

Schwartz:  Most of the world's 8 million Palestinians reside outside the territories. Until a year ago, Ziad's team mate, Amjad Helmi, lived in Iraq with his family.

02.26

They are Palestinian refugees who lost their home during the 1948 Arab-Jewish war.

02.41

Amjad

Amjad:  My parents would love to come back to Palestine but reality has made them Iraqis - even their accent is different.  It would be great for us to have a state, and get our land back.  All Palestinians  hope for it - inside or outside the country.

Amjad walks down stairs

Schwartz:  Amjad has returned to play football for his country. But even here he's a refugee. He's staying in Amari, one of the Palestinian refugee camps run by the United Nations in the West Bank. Although Amjad lives little more than an hour's drive from Gaza, he rarely trains with Ziad. In fact, he barely knows him. Like all Palestinians, the players need Israeli permission to cross into each other's territory. That can take days to secure, even then there's no guarantee.

02.56

Ziad

Ziad:  Several times the Israelis  have turned some players back.  Once we were going abroad and eight players were turned back.

03.32

Schwartz:  Were you given a reason?

Ziad:  No, they just told them that they were not allowed to leave.

Audio tape/ guys in car

Music

03.55

Ghassan driving

Ghassan:  Sometimes we stay on checkpoint 16 hours or 24 hours, waiting for visa or something like that.

04.10

Schwartz:  Ghassan Abdul Ghani, the team manager, is a stalwart of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. He sees football as another arm of the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

04.17

Ghassan:  We have a dream to be normal people, as the others. We travel normally, we sleep normally, we play football normally. That's it.

04.28

Schwartz:  But there's nothing normal about this team's schedule.

04.44

Beach scene in Alexandria

Music

Schwartz:  In Alexandria, most visitors work up a sweat lying on the beach. Not so the Palestinians.

04.57

Team training

Only hours after their 22 hour journey, coach Azmi Nasser has the players training hard. For the next ten days they'll eat, sleep and breathe nothing but soccer.

05.07

Opening of Games

It's the Arab sporting world's night of nights. In Amman's central stadium, Jordan's King Abdullah says the words five thousand athletes have been longing to hear.

05.25

King:  In the name of God and with His blessings we open these games.

05.38

Opening entertainment/ Schwartz to camera

Schwartz:  This is the night the Palestinian footballers have been waiting for - the opening of the Pan Arab Games and their debut as a national team. After three months of frustrations and disappointments, this is finally their chance to face the world together - united and proud beneath the Palestinian flag. Tonight however, that is not to be. While all the other athletes soak up the hoopla, the Palestinians are still making their way here from Egypt. They're not due to arrive until well after these celebrations have ended.

Plane at terminal

Schwartz:  Finally after two days wrestling with tight budgets and fully booked planes, the team touches down in Jordan. Their first match, listed for later today, has had to be postponed.

05.54

Amjad:  Every hour we were told a different thing -

06.10

Amjad

Only when we were on board were we sure we were coming.

Schwartz:  The delay actually helped Ismael Khatib, one of the goalkeepers turned back at the Egyptian border. He finally joined up with his team mates, nine days late, on this third attempt.

Mosque

It's the morning of the big match. The pressure is mounting.

06.33

The head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, Ahmad Ali Arafat Al Qudwa, has flown in to wish the team luck. He brings a message from his cousin, Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

06.37

Ahmad Ali Arafat Al Qudwa

Head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee

Every household in the West Benk and Gaza and those in what was Palestine in 1948 is waiting to hear good news about you because you carry the hope of our people.

06.50

Team get on bus

Schwartz:  At four-thirty it's time to go. The team knows it'll be a hard match. They're up against Jordan, mostly professional footballers who are playing on their home turf.  Never the less the Palestinians are optimistic.

07.00

At the grounds the stands are beginning to fill. More than half of Jordan's population is Palestinian. They'll be here in force.

07.17

Changing Room

Inside the changing rooms it's like a pressure cooker. The players do whatever is necessary to let off steam.  Across the hallway they can only guess at what their opponents are doing.

07.27

Coach speaks to players

No translation

07.46

With 15 mins to go before kick off it's time to boot up. Everyone bar the players and Azmi leaves the room for the final precious moments of preparation.

Team enters stadium

Azmi:  I think the Palestinian people want to smile, need this. And I think if they have a good national soccer team there will be smiles. They want to see this team win match.

08.17

Schwartz:  But there are few smiles for Azmi and his team during the first half.

08.33

Amjad's dream of playing for Palestine is unfulfilled - he's on the bench. And the players on the ground appear rattled.

08.42

Azmi on sidelines

Azmi:  Samir... Samir... come here! Don't go to that side... come here! Donkey, donkey! Come here!

08.51

Schwartz:  A penalty goal by Jordan puts the home team one up at the break.

09.00

FX:  Cheering

Soccer match

Schwartz:  In the second half, the Palestinians go on the attack. They're looking good. But Jordan appears unstoppable. The local team scores its second goal and the game is clinched.

09.13

For the Palestinians, there is little consolation.

09.29

Ziad

Ziad:   Do you want me to be happy? Of course I'm very sad. We did not play well.

09.33

Amjad

Amjad:  We are a new team. It's th e first time we've played together so it's difficult for us to have a good result.  But God willing, we will play better.

Café

Schwartz:  The fans however, remain loyal. Palestinians everywhere continue to tune in...

09.52

...in the cafes of Amaria camp

09.58

Shop

...in the shops of the old city of Jerusalem

10.01

Ziad's home

...and of course, in Ziad's home in Gaza.

In the matches that follow - against Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Libya - win or draw - no Palestinian is disappointed.

Fan

Fan:  This is the Palestinian blood boiling... Our blood is boiling - this is Palestinian blood... Despite all the oppression and humiliation, we are strong.

10.23

Riot at stadium

Schwartz:  Some of the teams didn't take their defeat too well. The Emirates sacked their $25, 000 a month coach. Libyan fans rioted in the stands, while their footballers attacked the Palestinian players, sending a couple to hospital.

10.31

Boys watch match

But it was the match against Syria, the qualifier for the finals, which really stole the show. When Ziad scored his goal to tie the match and put the Palestinians ahead on points, the West Bank and Gaza erupted.

10.47

The rookie Palestinian team - 191 on the world soccer ladder - ended the tournament in third place. For Palestinians everywhere, it was as if they'd won.

11.09

Medallions

There was no grand ceremony for the bronze medallists. Their medallions were dropped off at the hotel bar and delivered door to door by team manager Ghassan.

11.24

Schwartz:  Not that it took away any of the joy.

11.47

Azmi in towel

Schwartz:  Azmi, did you think the team would be able to do it?

11.53

Azmi:  No. No, never, I don't believe. I think but we work very hard, we work very hard and you see - I think it's come from God.

Coach:  Thirty-five years I've had in sports and football.  This is the most valuable achievement and the most precious prize of my life - this bronze medal.

12.05

Players arrive at airport

Schwartz:  The players who left Gaza as nobodies, returned celebrities, in a jet laid on by President Arafat.

12.30

They still don't have their state, but the Palestinian spirit of nationhood is also the stronger for their efforts.

12.40