Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national team may have bowed out of the World Cup after being eliminated by the United States on Wednesday, but their fans will be remembered for giving a platform to the Palestinian cause at the world’s biggest football event, as Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks in the West Bank persist.
Since the Bosnian national squad began their World Cup campaign earlier in June, their supporters have taken to the streets to show support for their team like any fan would, but Palestine featured heavily in their chants.
In videos which have gone viral, tens of thousands of Bosnians chanted "Palestina!" as they banged drums and clapped in unison in the streets of Toronto, ahead of their national team’s opening game against Canada on 12 June.
The gesture was repeated before Bosnia’s remaining matches at the World Cup, whether in Canada or in the US. Their bout against Qatar on 24 June saw fans chant for a free Palestine inside the stadium in Seattle; supporters also brought Palestinian flags and waved them before kick-off.
On Wednesday, Bosnian fans invoked Palestine’s name in their chants one final time at the World Cup, before they exited the competition with a Round of 32 loss to the USA in Santa Clara.
Despite their early departure, Bosnian fans’ consistent displays of solidarity with Palestine will be remembered as one of the highlights of the World Cup. But their support can be understood as going beyond simple acts of sympathy and being based on a deep understanding of what it’s like to suffer from oppression, injustice, and genocide.
"We very well know how important it is for a nation that is suffering to have someone who will keep mentioning it worldwide,” Lejla Turcilo, a professor at the University of Sarajevo’s Department of Communication, told The New Arab .
“Bosnians (and Bosniaks especially) know very well how it feels to be exposed to genocide and how it feels to fight not only aggressors, but also to fight for justice and the right to be heard and supported globally. In that context, we stand for Palestine maybe even more than others. We have been in the same shoes, and it is our obligation to let Palestinian people know that we feel them and understand them,” she said.
Like the Palestinians in Gaza today, Bosnians were subjected to devastating tragedies during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, which took place following the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Bosniak Muslim men and boys were the targets of an ethnic cleansing campaign and genocide by Bosnian Serb forces during the conflict. 8,372 were killed in the Srebrenica massacre with an estimated 200,000 being killed in the conflict as whole.
Bosniak women were victims of mass rape and sexual violence. Bosnian Serb forces also pillaged villages, seized and destroyed properties, and expelled thousands of Bosniaks from their homes - as Israel has done in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, and during its decades-long occupation of the West Bank.
These acts were found to amount to genocide by several international courts. NGOs, world leaders, and experts have also called Israel's atrocities in Gaza genocidal, with a United Nations inquiry acknowledging such in a landmark ruling last year. 'Never again!' must be applied to Palestinians too As Israel’s war in Gaza unfolded, several Bosnian scholars and activists drew parallels with the genocide against Bosniak Muslims and the horrors in the Palestinian enclave, such as the use of dehumanising language, targeted killings, and sieges.
Ahmet Alibasic, an Islamic Studies professor at the University of Sarajevo, told The New Arab that "it is a generally accepted view that their own suffering in the 1990s has sensitised Bosniaks to the suffering of other groups" such as Palestinians, but also towards other oppressed minorities.
Bosnian fans’ support for Palestine can also be explained as being exacerbated by the lack of accountability and justice in the world, which they, as a population, have experienced, specifically in the context of FIFA’s refusal to bar Israeli teams and clubs from competing in football amid the war in Gaza, despite multiple petitions and campaigns, and the international community’s lack of action to stop the war in Gaza.
"For most Bosniaks, 'never Again' must apply universally in order to have moral appeal. If it is just 'never again for our group', then it is just an expression of tribalism that has led the world to the suffering of different groups in the first place,” Alibasic added.
Turcilo also explained that the tournament, and the appearance of the Bosnian team - only their second in history as an independent nation, has sought to deliver a message to the Palestinian people that they can also survive and prevail, as they did.
“This World Cup is a confirmation that children of Bosnians who survived genocide managed not only to play for the national team, but also to show the world that we survived and we succeeded, in spite of those who did the worst atrocities in order to erase both the country and its people”.
“In that sense, by mentioning Palestine when rooting for Bosnia, our supporters send the message to Palestinian people: if we made it, you will too.”