Paul Calvert spoke to George Zeidan about the Bethlehem Marathon.

Paul: What is it like running through Bethlehem?

George: It's fun. The route of the Palestine marathon is really special. It starts from Nativity Church. It's a 10km street and anyone doing a full marathon has to do the street four times and that part is not really fun. I've ran the marathon three times now and I know it's not fun. Practically, you will begin from the start line and you will come to this finish line twice. You will come to the finish line after you have finished the first 21km and you will see people who just want to run a half marathon finishing and hugging their families and getting the emotions that they are done with the race, but you still have to do another lap. It's devastating at that stage.

Bethlehem is not that small, but why we don't have land to run it, is because Israeli settlements have been taking over our land and we can't risk it to run where it's under Israeli control. An Israeli soldier could actually block the whole marathon if he wants to, so we have to run where the Palestinian Authority has control. We pass under people's houses and inside places, just to make the 10km route and then as I said, you have to run it four times. It's a powerful thing though, to run by the Wall and settlements and by the Israeli checkpoint. You run through Palestinian refugee camps and Palestinian villages and you witness the difference between Palestinian controlled land and Israeli Settlement land, land that has been confiscated from the Palestinians.

Paul: Do you have Palestinians running all over the world?

George: Through the group we didn't want to wait until people came here to hear about our story, we thought we have to go there and tell them. So in 2013 we sent a group of 20 Palestinian runners, 10 female and 10 male, to run the Copenhagen marathon. We had speaking tours and met with a lot of people to invite them to come to the Palestine marathon and experience what it is like to run in Palestine. Then we sent another delegation of seven people to the San Francisco marathon and last year we sent a delegation of 10 people to the Derry marathon in Northern Ireland. We also sent a delegation of under 17 to Italy to participate in the Olympics and we aim to send a delegation to Beirut to run the Beirut marathon. The idea is the more people we send representing our group and representing Palestine in these marathons, the more the Palestine marathon will get visibility and the more we will be able to attract people to come.

When I run it's not only about me putting on running shoes and getting outside the house and warming up and going for a run, I have so many other things to consider, whether from the Israeli occupation or whether I was a Palestinian female from the Palestinian male society.

Paul: Obviously movement is a big issue for the Palestinian people, so do you get people coming from Gaza and running in the Bethlehem marathon?

George: For the first two years the Israeli Government refused to give them permission to come to Palestine, but in the third year and through advocating through some human rights organisations, including Israeli human rights organisations and church based organisations, we managed to get a delegation of 50 people to come, including Gazan women. That was also strong, because I don't know if you are aware, but the first Palestine marathon was supposed to take place in Gaza, but the current Government in Gaza limited it to only Palestinian males running and that is where the UN cancelled the marathon. So we got these 50 runners and a Gazan won the Palestine full distance marathon. His name is Nader al-Masri and he did it in 2 hours 50 minutes, which is a Palestine Marathon record time. The half marathon was also won buy a guy from Gaza and the 10km was won by a guy from Gaza. It was like a dream come true for them to actually come here.

Paul: So is running making a difference in Bethlehem?

George: If you look at small differences and small steps, we have encouraged a lot. Our group has 100 people and we are having 50 people practice three times a week regularly. Most of them are Palestinian females. If you asked them if they thought they would ever be running in the street in Bethlehem, or if they would ever be in a unisex sports group, just doing things normally as other British, American, or groups in the world do, they would tell you they wouldn't. We have managed to be consistent and we have been successful and people are coming more and the groups are getting larger, so we have made an impact. People like to be there and feel that it's something unique.

Paul: What is your prayer for the Bethlehem Marathon and the future?

George: We aim to have 5,000 people running it. The streets of Bethlehem are quite small to accept a larger number than this. If there was a chance to change the route of the marathon, connecting it to other Palestinian cities, like East Jerusalem for example, then that would be the big ambition, because that is succeeding in claiming the right to movement of the Palestinians.