\n Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager and one of football’s most successful coaches, has been an outspoken supporter of Palestinians since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began. [Getty]<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight Palestinian children affected by the war in Gaza<\/a> spent part of their summer in the Catalan Pyrenees this week, trading air raid sirens and displacement for football drills and swimming pools at a youth camp run by the foundation of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.<\/a><\/p>\n The children joined more than 700 participants at the annual Pep Summer Camp in Rialp, northeastern Spain, in an initiative organisers said was designed to give them a chance to experience an ordinary childhood, however briefly.<\/p>\n Rather than forming a separate group, the children were paired off and integrated into existing training squads, with interpreters helping them take part in the camp’s daily activities.<\/p>\n “Here they are just one more,” Toni Aguilar, the camp’s coordinator, told the Spanish newspaper Segre. “They forget the problems they live with day to day and enjoy playing football with the other children. Because football is universal. Behind the ball, we are all equal.”<\/p>\n The sixth edition of the camp, organised by the Guardiola Sala Foundation, came about after a young Palestinian living in Barcelona approached organisers earlier this year with the idea of bringing about 30 children from Palestine to Spain.<\/p>\n Aguilar said the children had also hoped to meet Guardiola, who has become a prominent figure among many Palestinians for his repeated public criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Pep, in the world of football and at a media level, is one of the few people who has positioned himself clearly on the situation in Palestine<\/a>. For them, this is very important,” Aguilar said.<\/p>\n Guardiola visited the camp during the week, spending time with the children and other participants.<\/p>\n Beyond football training, the programme includes workshops and talks intended to expose children to different social issues. This year’s speakers included youth workers and a lawyer specialising in online safety and sporting values.<\/p>\n Laura Guerra, director of the Guardiola Sala Foundation, said those sessions aimed to broaden participants’ understanding of the lives of others.<\/p>\n “We try to make sure the children see other realities,” she said. “It is important that they know there are people who live very different situations.”<\/p>\n Organisers described the Palestinian children’s participation as one of the defining moments of this year’s camp and said they hoped to repeat the initiative in future editions.<\/p>\n