In the midst of the Israeli missiles that have inflicted death and devastation of unimaginable scale in Gaza, it’s difficult to envision a few young Palestinian men fretting over a game of bat and ball. Yunis Halim, an American baseball player born to Palestinian parents in Chicago, was equally incredulous when he received messages from his former teammates in Gaza, inquiring about his well-being and his preparations for the Arab Classic, a Baseball United-organized tournament featuring national teams from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, and Palestine, set to be held in Dubai this November.
Halim, who represented his country of origin in international baseball tournaments last year, played alongside eight players from Gaza. However, since the war erupted in October, Halim has joined forces with players of Palestinian heritage living across the globe to form a team, as the ongoing conflict has left Gaza in ruins. The war has also claimed the life of Ashraf, a promising baseball player from Gaza who played alongside Halim during a period of relative peace in the region. “He died in an air strike this year. He played with us last year in Pakistan,” Halim recounted during a Zoom video call from the US.
Despite the loss of a rising star, the spirit of baseball in Gaza remains undiminished. “The rest of the players are still in touch with us; they are the greatest people on earth. They always check on us. It’s incredible that, given their circumstances, they can still care about others,” Halim said. “Whenever we speak to them, they always ask, ‘Are we training, which tournament are we going to play next?’ They say, ‘Go and play for Palestine and make us proud.’
While Halim is not an expert on the origins of baseball in his homeland, he does know how his father became involved in the sport in Palestine before moving to the US three decades ago. “My father actually played baseball growing up in Palestine surprisingly. Back then, he played for fun with friends and family, those were not organized games of baseball,” Halim said. “They didn’t have the equipment, so they used a stick and a rubber ball, and he played catcher with no gear, which was just amazing.”
Remarkably, Halim, who also played for the Chicago State University team, noted that it was around 2017 when the first steps were taken to establish a Palestinian national baseball team in Gaza. “Actually, the Team Palestine started from players in Gaza around 2017. It wasn’t well known. It was very small, they barely had eight players, then Palestinian-origin players from the US also joined,” he said. “We started to grow. Over the years, we started becoming a lot better as a team. We had players from all over the world.
Unfortunately, the players from Gaza and other parts of Palestine are no longer part of the team because nobody is safe there now.” The Arab Classic in Dubai presents a significant opportunity to uplift the spirits of their trapped teammates in Gaza. “It’s a blessing, it’s everybody’s dream. In Palestine, it’s the dream of everyone to be able to play for their country. This is a huge honor, something we take pride in especially in a moment like this when the country is going through a hard time,” Halim said. “Our dream is to win this tournament and raise the trophy. I know they (teammates from Gaza) are going to follow our matches and our progress.
Of course, baseball is just a game, but it’s more than a game for every player in the Palestinian national team now.” Halim also expressed his gratitude to Kash Shaikh, Chairman and Co-founder of Baseball United, for bringing the sport to the UAE. The ambitious league, which began with a couple of exhibition matches last year at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, is set to kick off in October 2025 with five professional teams featuring some of the game’s biggest names.
The Arab Classic is an initiative from the Baseball United organizers to help the sport grow at the grassroots level in the region. “I spoke to Kash about it. For this region, it’s amazing to have a baseball tournament of this scale. There is so much hidden talent out there that he is going to find and he is going to change peoples’ lives,” he said. “And Dubai is one of the world’s most beautiful places. So, nobody is going to say no to it.”
Halim believes Shaikh could not have chosen a better name for this tournament. “It’s called Baseball United for a reason, it has got people from so many countries together at a time when there is so much pain in this world,” he said. “Last year at the showcase (two exhibition matches), we saw flags from Japan, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Palestine and so many countries. So, he came up with the perfect name, Baseball United. It’s indeed uniting the whole world. It’s beautiful.”
The 27-year-old, who draws inspiration from Russian UFC star Khabib Nurmagomedov and American boxing icon Muhammad Ali, prays daily for the war to end. “When I used to visit Palestine, I always brought a couple of extra balls and gloves so I could play with the kids out there,” he recalled. “Then they had men’s baseball teams and they also had softball tournaments for women. It was beautiful to see the girls swing a bat and hit the softball because not many Arab girls play sports.”
The sport was beginning to gain momentum each year before the war started. “Hopefully this madness will end soon and we can go back to Gaza and build a baseball field for every kid that wants to play this beautiful sport,” he said. “They have so many hidden talents that need to be discovered.”
