Majed Abu Maraheel (Arabic: ماجد أبو مراحيل, romanized: Mājid ʾAbū Marāḥīl, Arabic pronunciation: [maːd͡ʒid ʔabuː maraħiːl]; 5 June 1963 – 11 June 2024) was a Palestinian long-distance runner, football player, security officer, and athletics coach, who was the first Palestinian to compete at the Olympic Games. Born into a refugee family in the Nuseirat refugee camp of the Gaza Strip, Abu Maraheel took part in athletics and football as a child. Before his international sporting career, he self-trained as a long-distance runner on Gazan streets and beaches, becoming locally famous after winning a variety of local competitions. After winning an eight-kilometer race in 1995, he was recruited by Palestinian National Authority leader Yasser Arafat into Force 17, his personal security force.
Before pursuing his athletics career, Abu Maraheel was a football player for the Al-Zaytoun Sports Club. With his two brothers, he played with the team ever since its formation until switching to athletics in the 1990s. He was the captain and played as a defender for the team, playing in the Gaza Strip Premier League every time the team had a match. Although he came out of retirement in 2004, to compete for his former team in a tournament organized in the Palestine Stadium by the Palestinian Al-Ahly Club.
In his international sporting career, Abu Maraheel competed in the 1995 Arab Athletics Championships, barely being able to attend the event after a lengthy detainment by Egyptian border authorities. The following year, he represented Palestine at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, becoming the country's first Olympian and Olympic flag-bearer. He competed in the men's 10,000 meters, ultimately being eliminated after placing 21st in his qualification group.
He retired from athletics upon completing his university education, later serving as an athletics coach to multiple runners of the Palestinian national athletics team, such as Olympians Nader al-Masri, Bahaa al-Farra, and Woroud Sawalha. He died on 11 June 2024, following kidney failure.
Majed Abu Maraheel was born on 5 June 1963, in a family of Bedouin Palestinian refugees at the Nuseirat camp in the Gaza Strip. His family were maize farmers and ranchers who lived in Beersheba and owned fifteen acres (6.1 ha) of land in the Negev before they were forced to flee in 1948 by the Israel Defense Forces due to the 1948 Palestine war. He and his family eventually lived in the district of Zeitoun.
For his primary school education, he studied at Al-Falah Refugee School in the district of Zeitoun and was named as one of the "stars" of the school's football team. He then studied at Al-Zaytoun School for Refugees in the same district for his preparatory school education and was also part of the school's football team, which was stated to be one of the best preparatory school teams at the time. He dropped out of school at twelve years old and continued to play football, initially hoping to represent the Palestinian national team. He then came back to schooling, studying at Palestine High School and Carmel High School for Boys in Rimal, also taking part in both of the school's football teams.
He later began work as a laborer, tending flowers in Israeli greenhouses and regularly running around 20 kilometers (12 mi) barefoot from his home in Gaza City to catch a bus at the Erez border checkpoint. During these runs, he began considering athletic running to represent Palestine in international competition. His father's interest in sports influenced him and his brothers, Mohamed and Magdy, to pursue sporting careers. Abu Maraheel stated that his father would "pray to God for my success and wait at the door to hear my result."
In 1991, during the First Intifada, he was caught in a crossfire and shot in the arm by an Israeli soldier, penetrating the bone and leaving a three-inch (7.6 cm) scar.
Starting at a young age, Abu Maraheel initially played football for his former school's teams. He eventually joined the Al-Zaytoun Sports Club at its founding in 1981. He was the captain and a defender for the team and played alongside his brothers, Mohamed, who also played as a defender, and Magdy, who played as a goalkeeper.
He played for the team in 1985 for classification matches that were organized by the Palestinian Football Association, which eventually made the team qualify for the Gaza Strip Premier League, one of the two top divisions in Palestine. After his team's qualification to the league, he played on every occasion the team had a match. He retired from football on c. 1994, after switching to athletics. Though he came out of retirement in 2004, to represent the team in a summer tournament organized by the Palestinian Al-Ahly Club, which was held at the Palestine Stadium. They reached the finals, placing as the runner-up behind the Rafah Services Club, with the latter winning 0–2 through penalty kicks.
Early and local athletics career
Abu Maraheel trained by himself without a coach, initially wearing improper running shoes and using a Casio wristwatch to time his runs along Gazan streets or beside the Mediterranean on Al Deira Beach. He competed in and won many running competitions in Gaza, garnering him a considerable degree of local fame, to such a degree that many locals began requesting photographs with him.
Nabil Mabrouk, president of the Palestinian Track and Field Federation and member of the Palestine Olympic Committee (POC), saw Abu Maraheel in a football match in 1994 between his team and the Al-Tuffah Club. After the match, Mabrouk invited him to the Yarmouk Stadium to train, with Abu Maraheel coming in the next day. Mabrouk eventually served as his coach, with the two alternating between training on the beach and at the stadium. Through Mabrouk's coaching, he won the Gaza Cross Country Championship in January 1995.
He competed in an Olympic Day festival in June 1995, held in Gaza by the Palestinian Ministry of Youth and Sports. He won his division in an eight-kilometer (4.97 mi) race against 500 other men, receiving a trophy and a kiss from Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian National Authority and senior leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, during the awards ceremony. Arafat reportedly told Abu Maraheel, "You will now be with Force 17". He returned a kiss to Arafat and agreed to join the force.
Abu Maraheel worked for four hours a day in Force 17 and trained on the force's rifle range. He stood in the second circle around Arafat during his visits to Gaza, keeping a distance of around 50 meters (160 ft) from the president. Gaza was considered a particularly dangerous area for Arafat, due to intense opposition from the political and militant organization Hamas. Abu Maraheel said that he enjoyed his job, and that he was not in particular danger due to his presence in the second circle of security.
International athletics career
For his first international competition, Abu Maraheel competed at the 1995 Arab Athletics Championships in Cairo, Egypt, in August 1995. He ran in the men's 10,000-metre event alongside Yasser Ali-Dib, a Palestinian racewalker who was born in Cairo. Prior to the championships, he was detained by Egyptian border security for 10 hours, causing him to almost miss the event. He arrived shortly before the event, and without prior sleep, placed tenth in 36:22.0, with Alyan Sultan Al-Qahtani of Saudi Arabia winning the gold medal seven minutes ahead of him. The following year, Abu Maraheel was set to compete in the 1996 Paris Marathon but could not travel nor compete in the race due to the nation's closure imposed by the Israeli government.
While a multi-ethnic Palestinian Olympic Committee (including both Jewish and Arab athletes) had been recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the 1930s, it was unable to participate in the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics due to Nazi policy. The Palestinian Authority-sponsored team competed at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, becoming the first Palestinian Olympic team to compete in the Games. The modern Palestinian Olympic Committee was created in 1976. The IOC extended recognition to the POC at the IOC's annual meeting in September 1993, following the ratification of the Oslo Accords.