On the day the UN commission of inquiry officially declared that Israel is committing a genocide in Palestine, Mohammed Dwedar urged his people to keep safe and keep going, from Tokyo.
The 24-year-old from Jericho in the West Bank is the only Palestinian competing at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, a year after he was one of just four Palestinians at the Olympics.
Where his fellow competitors in the men’s 800m are challenging records thanks to new-age spikes and the latest developments in nutrition, Dwedar has to leave his homeland just to get a track on which to train.
He was able to spend the two months preceding Tokyo in Germany but, prior to that, his training was done on the streets in his homeland.
Given the gulf in circumstances, the fact that he came home nearly nine seconds behind heat winner Max Burgin in a time of 1:53.63 in Tuesday’s first round, is not only understandable, it should be expected.
And yet Dwedar is not just here as a token athlete, he wants to compete and fulfil his potential in a way that is not currently possible.
But how can you compete with athletes who plan every aspect of their season to the final detail months in advance when you do not even know if you will wake up tomorrow?
He said: “I don’t think in the future, I’m just thinking for the day by day. I am alive, every day when I wake up, I am just thinking for this day because I don’t know the second day if I will live or not.”
Dwedar was competing just hours after the United Nations independent international commission of inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the UN, declared that ‘genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur’. Israel’s foreign ministry categorically said it rejected the report and called for the COI to be abolished.
According to figures from the health ministry in Gaza, nearly 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’ attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
For Dwedar, who has family back in Jericho in the West Bank, even thinking about the situation almost brings him to tears. It has got to the point that he cannot watch the television or look at a phone for risk of seeing what is going on in his country.
Instead, he wanted to send a message to Palestinians back home.
He said: “Keep safe, keep going, trust in God, trust in your body. Keep dreaming. We can arrive, we just need a little safe.
“I need to send a message to the world, children in Palestine, we have a lot of dreams. We have eyes, we have heads, we have arms, we have muscles.”
Against the backdrop of devastation in Palestine, Dwedar just wants to be able to live as a normal athlete. He dreams of breaking the Palestinian national record over 800m, which stands at 1:47.04, some five seconds quicker than his best.
His chances of doing so would be helped by leaving Palestine and training abroad, but Dwedar insists that he does not want to abandon his homeland.
He said: “My family live in Palestine. I can live outside Palestine, it’s very important for me to train and I can stay outside Palestine for two, three, four years. But in the end, I need to go back to Palestine, this is my country, this is my city.
“In Palestine, the West Bank, I don’t have a track. I need a track. I can sleep at the track, that is easy, I can eat at the track. I need a track first.
“After the Olympics, I went back to Palestine. Training is so difficult, I’m training in the streets. I spent six to eight months in the streets. Then I went for two months of training on the track (in Saarbrucken, Germany).
“For the last two months, I have been able to train with spikes on a track. It’s very difficult for me to train in Palestine.”
Dwedar will remain in Japan until the end of these championships, returning home to Palestine to see his mother and the rest of his family next Monday.
He has one more competition lined up this season, the Islamic Solidarity Games in November.
Trying to appreciate Dwedar’s story requires a remarkable level of compartmentalisation. This is a man who is trying to work out how he can break the one minute 50-barrier while avoiding the news of destruction 9,000km away.
And everything he does is with one person in mind, his late father.
He added: “My late dad is my biggest supporter. His dream was for me to be a champion. I’m doing this for my dad. I am running, I am doing it, but the biggest supporter was dad. I love you dad, I love you, mum. I’m sorry, dad.”
