Paul Calvert spoke to George Zeidan about the Bethlehem Marathon.

George Zeidan

Right To Movement is a running community in Palestine, with the stated aim of building bridges, rather than walls. They are a key partner in the Palestine Marathon, held in Bethlehem each year; an event that takes runners through Bethlehem, two refugee camps and along the Wall. Paul Calvert spoke with George Zeidan, the Co-Founder, to hear about the history of the Marathon and the impact it's having in raising awareness of the issues facing Palestinians.

Paul: What is Right To Movement?

George: Right To Movement is a running community that started in Palestine, to encourage Palestinians to participate in outdoor sports and to send a message about Palestinians to the world that we like to do normal things just like everyone else.

It was started as an initiative from myself and two Danish women. One of them was my colleague in Jerusalem, working in an international non-governmental organisation. It started because the first objective was to start a Palestinian marathon, since we didn't have one and to use this marathon to send a message about Palestinians.

Paul: How many members do you have running?

George: We have seven communities and our biggest community is in Bethlehem, with over 100 people. We practise three times a week. We have a community in Ramallah, a community in Jerusalem, in Amman, in Copenhagen and San Francisco, New York, Ghana and London.

Paul: I've seen on Facebook that you get up at 5am in the morning. Are you crazy, or just dedicated?

George: I would say it's dedication. I'm impressed when I come, because it's very difficult to get out of bed at 4.30am, to come to run at 5am. In a weekend that makes it even worse, but the idea is that we are not able to find a place to run in the streets if we want to do it at 10 o'clock in the morning, because it's still not a very accepted cultural thing. People wouldn't feel comfortable running, from the reactions. It's getting better and that's one of the main objectives of the group, but we still find it challenging to run in the street, especially for the girls. We have to either go early in the morning, or we have to go to an abstract part of the city. We have been going to an area where not a lot of people go. There is also another risk associated with this, because sometimes people will come specifically to target the people who are running, or that these areas are very close to Israeli settlements, where we have been facing challenges. We have found that the best thing is to meet at 5am in the morning to run.

Paul: Is it not very acceptable for a girl to run in Bethlehem and in a Muslim culture?

George: Bethlehem is the easiest and most clean area in Palestine, but through the continuous work of the group and the consistent practice, people see us and see our posts on Facebook and they see us in the city and they know now that Bethlehem is becoming the hub of running in Palestine. I would say also what's helped us, is the fact that there's a Christian Muslim culture in Bethlehem making things like this easier to start with.

Paul: How successful has the Bethlehem Marathon been?

George: It has improved a lot and been really successful. So far we have done four Palestinian marathons. The first one had around 700 runners, with 300 foreigners and 37 per cent female participation. It was quite unique. The second one went up to 3,000 and the third one we were able to keep it at 3,000 with a very close female participation ranging between 35 and 40 per cent. We aim in the next five years to have 5,000 runners.

Paul: Why did you do the marathon in Bethlehem?

George: There was a long discussion about where we should have the marathon. There were a lot of purposes, but most importantly Bethlehem is a famous city, so having the marathon in a famous city would make people more attracted to come and run. Bethlehem is ready to accept a larger number of tourists than any other Palestinian city, in terms of hotels, restaurants and facilities, so that was the main reason behind choosing Bethlehem.