Abdullah, 18 years old, was born in Qalqilya on the first of February 2000 … In the middle of the second intifada.
Abduallah is Palestinian …
Abdullah is a skateboarder, one of the most talented skateboarder in Palestine.
Qalqilya is a small city of the West Bank. Located one hour north west of Ramallah, right on the Israel / Palestine border, surrounded by the apartheid wall. Israeli military occupation there is heavy. Added to this Qalqilya is a relatively conservative muslim town.
We met each other there in 2015 while I was taking part as a volunteer in a project called " Skatepal", which aims to introduce skateboarding to the children of the West Bank, by building skateparks, offering skateboards and teaching skateboarding.
Abdullah started skateboarding at the age of 13. He found a really basic used skateboard in a flea-market in Nablus and tried it. With some friends he started a crowdfunding in order to built a miniramp in Qalqilya. In the same time Charlie Davis, founder of skatepal, was on the way to build the first skatepark in Palestine.
One of the main thing about skateboarding is that it brings people together, and that's what happend with Abdullah, Charlie and all the people that came to volunteer for "Skatepal".
He realized then that he wasn't alone and was actually now part of a the big skateboard's family and started skateboarding with them around the West Bank (Asira ash Shamilya and Jayyous where the last two skateparks have been built by "Skatepal" but also Nablus and Ramallah to skate streets).
« Here we have no freedom of movement … no opportunity to play, study, or work … skateboard help me clear my mind, and it's pretty much all we can do »
The occupation forces opperate all over the West Bank and Palestinians confront it in their every day life, there are physical violent confrontations but there is also a strong psycholigical aspect from being occupied.
In a place like Qalqilya, surrounded by the wall, this psychological aspect of colonisation plays a strong role, it is a everyday face to face to the apartheid politic of Israel, bringing very complex issues as well as some easier to understand like not seeing the horizon, having soldiers watching over you 24/7 or even not having air because the wall blocks all the wind coming from the see located only 30 min drive away.
In this situation skateboard for Abdullah has become a tool for self developement, self confidence, perseverance, giving him the chance to reappropriate himself his own urban space, looking at his surrounding with a new perspective, turning it into a playground.
Skateboarding helped Abdullah to make the best of a situation where he felt locked up and oppressed. But being now part of the skateboard community brought a new issue, he was now a marginal from the conservative muslim community of Qalqilya, facing critics and questions.
So at the age of 16 he went to Ramallah, which is less conservative, in order to run away from this face to face with the Israeli occupation, and this conservative society where it's hard to break rules and be who he want to be.
« skateboarding here is a message to say that no matter what they do,
no matter what walls they put, we are gonna keep having fun, we are gonna keep skating and we are gonna Live. »
Skateboarding is a lifestyle made of sharing, travelling, discovering, having fun with your friends without barriers of class, "race", age and gender. There are job opportunities in the West Bank of course but they are rare and not well paid, cultural, educational and sporting opportunities such as "Skatepal" offer a chance for young people to be involved productively in their community.
Skateboard has become an important part of him … He would like to turn his passion as his main activity, in order to give the chance he had to discover skateboarding to other kids in Palestine. He would like to create a sustainable skateboard scene in his country, helped by the whole "Skat
