The tough letter signed by Palestinian children for Argentina's top scorer

Sourse

In Argentina they have considered it as a lucky game. An old cabal of Argentine soccer says that the last friendly match before the World Cup has to be played against Israel, just like the Argentinian who won the World Cup in 1986. This will happen next June 9, when Argentina faces Israel seven days before his debut in Russia 2018.

But what is a game of good vibes for South Americans, on the Palestinian side is sad. A group of 70 Palestinian children wrote a letter to the Argentine striker Lionel Messi in which they ask him not to participate in that friendly.

And the game will be held at the Teddy Kollek Stadium in southern Jerusalem, which was built in the Malha neighborhood that was destroyed 70 years ago in a battle of the Arab-Israeli war.

The letter, attributed to children descended from those Palestinians expelled from Malha, was delivered this Sunday at the Argentine embassy in Israel.

"On the tombs" In the document the Palestinian children assure that they are daughters and children of original families of the neighborhood on which the Teddy Kollek Stadium is now built.

"As we have been told, you come to play with your friends Malha, in a stadium built on our destroyed village," says the text directed for Messi.

They say that, despite feeling happy to have their idol nearby, they are also disappointed that the match is in that place. The 1986 game had been taken in Ramat Gan.

"But our happiness turned into tears and our hearts broke, is it logical that Messi, the hero, is going to play in a stadium built on the tombs of our ancestors?" They ask in the letter. For them, on June 9, when the Argentina team faces Israel, it will be a "sad day". "We, on behalf of our friends, pray to God to grant our wish that Messi not break our hearts," the children conclude in the letter.

The player has not offered a public response.