REPORTER: Amos Roberts
Until recently, Palestine wasn't known for its prowess at the beautiful game.
SAEB JENDEYA, COACH (Translation):  Come on, pass one properly. Drop back.
But for footballers and their fans, there's more at stake here than in most parts of the world. 
SAEB JENDEYA (Translation):   I’ll teach you a lesson.
Like all aspects of life under occupation, football is political. 
FAN (Translation):  To me, football was initially a sport, then…football became a form of resistance really. Football became a method of conveying the Palestinians’ message.
Six months ago Palestinian football went from obscurity to earning a spot on the world stage to convey that message. 
TV COMMENTATOR: The winner of this title does get straight automatic qualification into the 2015 Asian Cup. So it's all happening right here.
This was the greatest moment in Palestinian football history. 
TV COMMENTATOR: It's going to be a free kick opportunity. Oh, that's a solid goal.
In May thousands of Palestinians celebrated after their national team defeated The Philippines, qualifying for the Asian Cup. 
TV COMMENTATOR: A moment you've all been waiting for.
REPORTER: How would you rate their performance at the moment? Especially considering where they've come from? 
JEROME CHAMPAGNE, ADVISOR TO PALESTINIAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION: It's huge. It's unbelievable. It's - no-one could have dreamt of something like that.
Based in Zurich Switzerland, Jerome Champagne is a former FIFA executive who started working with the Palestinian Football Association back in 1999. 
JEROME CHAMPAGNE: It's a miracle. It's unbelievable to see the Palestine national teams in the first 16 teams in Asia. It's like, unbelievable.
It's an opportunity that the team's newly-appointed coach is determined to grasp. 
SAEB JENDEYA (Translation): You’re not just sportsmen, you carry a message to the world saying “We have the right to a country and a better life.” Just like you have an ambassador, a foreign minister or a minister, you’re the same, no less than them. Don’t think you’re just a footballer. As a Palestinian, football is different for you. Any questions? Let’s go.
The players have made it this far in the face of extraordinary odds. Right now it's a struggle for coach Saeb Jendeya just to concentrate. He's from Gaza where just a few months ago his life was turned upside down. For almost two months Saeb experienced the terror of the recent war. His family lives inShujaiya, one of the worst-hit areas. More than 70% of the neighbourhood was flattened, several rockets hit his home. 
SAEB JENDEYA (Translation):  This is the bedroom that was destroyed in my house. And these are the shells that were there in the bedroom. This is Hamza, he wanted to be photographed beside it.
Saeb is anxious about being so far from his wife and children. He's unable to help rebuild. 
REPORTER: How difficult is it for you coming back to work after what happened in Gaza? 
SAEB JENDEYA (Translation):  It was a difficult situation. The things happening there, it’s not something you get over easily. But the national team requires our presence. I have to get over this very quickly because life has to go on.
Today the national team is training in Jericho, but just getting together like this can be challenging and risky. The West Bank is Chris-crossed with security checkpoints that severely hamper movement and filming. As team coach, Saeb has a permit to travel from Gaza to Ramallah in the West Bank but not to visit Jericho, a half-hour's drive away. 
SAEB JENDEYA (Translation):  Yesterday I went from Ramallah to Jericho and praise be to God, it was an easy trip, there were no roadblocks... No one stopped us or searched us. Otherwise who knows what might have happened.
REPORTER: Does it seem crazy to you that you are competing in Australia in the Asian Cup, but legally you can't even travel to Jericho, for the training of the team? 
SAEB JENDEYA (Translation):  This is not new to us, we suffer from this.
Abdelhamid Abuhabib joined the national team three years ago.
ABDELHAMID ABUHABIB, PLAYER (Translation):  This is one of the most beautiful things. My club made this for me.
He also comes from Gaza, but now lives in Nablus and plays for a club in the West Bank Premier League. 
ABDELHAMID ABUHABIB (Translation):  This is the most important medal I got, it was when we qualified for Asia and Australia. We won the Challenge Cup, the most important competition for me. This is from President Abu Mazen for qualifying for Asia. It’s fantastic. It made us feel really happy.
Abdelhamid apologises for the mess in his flat. He blames it on being a bachelor, far from his mother and sisters in Gaza.
ABDELHAMID ABUHABIB (Translation):  This is my mum. Mama in Arabic. Or Emi, in Gaza we say Ami. Every dialect is different.
Incredibly, although he lives just an hour's drive away, in five years he's only been able to visit his family three times. 
REPORTER: What stops you from going back to visit them? 
ABDELHAMID ABUHABIB (Translation):  Gaza is only 60 kilometres away from Nablus but the trip takes us almost 48 hours.
Instead of a short drive from Nablus to his home in Khan Yunis, Abdelhamid has to drive to the border crossing with Jordan, wait several hours and drive to Amman. Then he has to fly to Cairo, drive to the border crossing with Gaza and wait for hours before finally going home and once he's there, he worries about being able to get back again. 
ABDELHAMID ABUHABIB (Translation):  The crossings might be closed, they might not put my name on the list to return to the West Bank and that can give me big problems. I wouldn’t be able to represent my country in the national team.
Even for players on the West Bank with the right permits, travel can be difficult. The main road linking different towns passes by the Qalandia check point, a border crossing to Jerusalem, and traffic often grinds to a halt. 
REPORTER: So where are we, Roberto? 
ROBERTO KETTLUM:  We are at the Qalandia Checkpoint, I think the most inhuman place on earth.
Roberto Kettlum is a Chilean Palestinian who was in the national team for years. Now he lives in Ramallah and plays for a Premier League club. 
REPORTER: What's the toughest part of being a footballer in Palestine in terms of the occupation? 
ROBERTO KETTLUM:  Mobility. I think mobility. You're supposed to go for a competition, you should be happy, free, concentrating on the game, but sometimes you spend eight hours with interrogation, or in checkpoints or because the line is too big.
Once Roberto and his teammates were tear gassed inside their bus, but even that's not the worse that can happen. 
SOLDIER (Translation):  Go. Get away from here. Go! Go! Get away from here!
This is what happened to a FIFA referee who stumbled upon some clashes at a checkpoint in September. 
REFEREE (Translation):  I’m to referee a match between Jericho and Beit Ummar, semi-professional, at Jericho International Stadium and since 4.30, I’ve been held here.
REPORTER (Translation):  He came to practise sport, they handcuffed him, blindfolded him and brought him here. This international sport card did not help him.
The Palestinian Football Association says Israel restricts the movement of everything from soccer balls to its own chairman, especially at the border crossing with Jordan. 
JIBRIL RAJOUB: I have to wait four and five hours on the bridge and sometimes humiliated by those racist Israelis, just because I am in charge of football.
Jibril Rajoub used to be Yasser Arafat’s security chief on the West Bank. 
REPORTER: Do you think footballers are specifically targeted? 
JIBRIL RAJOUB: I think so, yes. Look, I can't understand sometimes the movement of the people, but I can't understand the equipment, uniforms, coming from FIFA. Once even the Israelis kept it in the airport for maybe 16 months and they had to pay as a ransom about $32,000, but the price of the whole equipment was not more 8,000 euros.
Abdelhamid Abuhabib is on his way to a Premier League match with his club, Balata, the players are lucky today, there are no soldiers at the checkpoints outside Nablus. The occupation means that even when he's selected for international games, Abdelhamid isn't certain he can make it past the border crossing with Jordan.
ABDELHAMID ABUHABIB (Translation):  On the national team for the Olympic qualifier, I was the only one from Gaza. So when we were leaving, the whole team went except me. They sent me back because I’m from Gaza.
For the first time, the West Bank has a professional football league. Tonight's match is in Palestine's only inter-National Stadium. It's not far from Ramallah and Israel. Jibril Rajoub is credited with the professionalism and success of Palestinian football today. This former militant who spent many years in Israeli prisons, is now respected internationally as a sports administrator, players, grateful for their facilities, fame and relative fortune, see him as a sporting Messiah. 
ABDELHAMID ABUHABIB (Translation):  We were successful in this field, praise be to God. He sent us a man who revolutionised sport in Palestine. This is Jibril Rajoub or Abu Rami. He improved sport, he gave players status. Before, players meant this much but he made them very important and most of our players became famous.
But no matter how famous they become, they understand that the Israeli occupation acts as a break on their success. From her office next to the stadium, the Palestinian Football Association's International Director tries to rustle up travel permits for visiting FIFA instructors. They're due in a few weeks, but Susan Shalabi says there's still no news from the Israeli authorities. 
REPORTER: So sometimes you don't know until the last minute whether someone can come or leave? 
SUSAN SHALABI:  Yes, happens all the time.
REPORTER:  Does this make it difficult for you to know who you will send to Australia, for example? 
SUSAN SHALABI:  Yes, yes.
Attempts by FIFA to get to the bottom of the problem always run into the same brick wall. 
SUSAN SHALABI:  There's always this pretext of security, security. It's for security reasons. When anybody in Israel says security, everybody just - so they have the reason. They have the justification to do whatever they want.
As a member of FIFA, Palestine enjoys diplomatic clout in sport that it lacks in other international forums and it warns of legal consequences - even suspension from FIFA - if Israel refuses to play ball. 
JIBRIL RAJOUB: It's not sanctions is the only choice. I think it is clear that we have a majority. It's clear that no-one among the family of FIFA, supporting Israel. No-one.
Dateline approached Israeli Sport and Culture Minister Limor Livnat several times to request an interview. We also asked Israeli Football Association Chairman Ofer Eini, spokesman for the Prime Minister, Mark Regev and Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Paul Hirschon, but no-one wanted to speak to us about this story. Palestinians are hoping for the best at the Asian Cup in January, but the former FIFA executive who advises them says that doing well on the field can lead to more trouble off it. 
JEROME CHAMPAGNE: Listen, I'm not someone who believes in the conspiracy theory, not at all. But I know that some of the cases are pure, purely harassment issues and to some extent to punish the fact that now Palestinian football is doing fine, Palestinian football is waving the Palestinian flag outside with pride and I think when you see Palestinian players proud of themselves, not aggressive, including not aggressive towards their neighbours, that's an example which probably tickles the negativity in some people.
REPORTER:  This is one of the things the Israelis criticise you for - they say you use football to disseminate anti-Israeli propaganda. 
JIBRIL RAJOUB: This is 100% right, this is 100% right it's a tool to assure, to achieve my people's international aspirations. I think using football as a tool is better than using machine guns and grenades.
ANJALI RAO:  What a remarkable tale. Make sure you follow Palestinian's progress at the Asian Cup - their first match is against Japan in Newcastle on January 12th.
Reporter/Camera
AMOS ROBERTS
Fixer
NIDAL RAFA
Producer
ALLAN HOGAN
Researcher
MELANIE MORRISON
Editor
WAYNE LOVE
Translations
HEBA KASSOUA
Subtitles
DALIA MATAR
18th November 2014