Jabal Al Mukaber

Zaid Qunbar was still on the books at Jabal Al-Mukaber when Israeli police fired tear gas into the crowd at half-time of the 2023 Yasser Arafat Cup final. The match against Markaz Balata resumed anyway, and Qunbar scored the only goal. He left for Al-Arabi in Kuwait not long after and has since scored for Palestine at the Asian Cup.

The club plays under restrictions that have nothing to do with football. Its players carry Palestinian identification, which Israel does not allow into Jerusalem, so since 2016 Jabal Al-Mukaber has had to travel to play at home — its own neighbourhood sits inside East Jerusalem.

Founded in 1996, the club waited until the 2009–10 season for its first West Bank Premier League title, taken in the last season before the league turned professional. A second followed in 2022–23, paired with a run of Yasser Arafat Cup wins in 2022 and 2023 that made Jabal Al-Mukaber, briefly, the team to beat in Palestinian football. Against Hilal Al-Quds, the derby known simply as Al-Quds, the record still tilts the other way: fourteen wins to eight across thirty-two meetings by the last count.

Ahmad Abu Khadija ran the midfield through that 2023 title win, one of a Palestine international squad Jabal Al-Mukaber has assembled largely from players who, like the club itself, cannot train or play in the city whose name they carry.