Collective Rooftop Jump: Conquering the Art of Parkour

“We feel like flying, like we are free and out of Gaza,” said Ahmad Mattar 20, a traceur and trainer of Gaza Parkour and Free Running. Chasing freedom in torn up Gaza is physically impossible but a group of young men are training their minds and bodies to overcome the terrible conditions and achieve psychological freedom through the discipline of parkour.

Parkour practitioners don’t need to be bitten by a spider to climb walls and jump from rooftops; nor do to they need nine lives to survive every jump. Through the repertoire of movements taught at gyms, private classes and Youtube videos, practitioners use the street and its obstacles as their main playground to conquer the mental and physical challenge of the discipline.

Though online videos of parkour make the young men skillfully jumping up and down buildings on the streets seem like immortals, the training and practice behind this unique workout requires discipline and mindfulness. Although there are parkour trainers like Mattar, the Internet is their biggest coach: “our first teacher is the computer, we try to do what we see there” said Mattar with a smile. Although many people have seen parkour practitioners, not many know the name or what the discipline is about. But, there is no strict definition as in what the workout consists of and it is also not a well-established or straightforward sport.

The word parkour comes from the French “parcours” which means “paths” and the original exercises come from a French Special Forces training program. In 1988, David Belle formed a parkour group called Yamakazi adopting the movements and changing the C for a K. Belle and his group have made parkour a worldwide movement, and it has since evolved into how we know it today, mostly because the moves and rules were adopted and adapted over time, parkour today serves as means of expression.[1]

“Free running” is the act in which participants use their urban or rural settings to perform parkour combined with acrobatic and athletic moves, trying to move freely and aesthetically through the obstacles. Therefore, people engaged in this discipline can be called free runners or traceurs.

Belonging to the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation — an international organization that gathers practitioners to support and encourage each other — groups of parkour in Gaza are gaining attention from the media and other practitioners across the globe. Despite the devastated conditions, young Gazans train around destroyed buildings and rubble resulting from the rockets thrown during the multiple wars with Israel. Gaza Parkour And Free Running is a team that has gathered the best practitioners in Gaza, who had gained fame and respect in the Arab world and in the worldwide parkour medium. They proudly represent Palestine.

Gaza Parkour And Free Running (PK) was founded in 2005. They mostly practice in the streets, in cemeteries and rubble since they have no available places to train in. Though founder Belle visited Gaza to talk to them about the possibility of a project, Mattar said they don’t receive money from anyone; they pay for themselves and teach parkour to younger kids for free. “Our dream is to make a big generation of parkour and practice out of Gaza, free and away from the war,” said Mattar during the interview. He also expressed the frustration of living under occupation; it is extremely difficult to leave Gaza both from the Israeli and Egyptian borders, which are closed and visas are given very rarely. “They [Egpytians] are supposed to be our brothers, but they are closing the border and helping the Israelis to keep the occupation” Mattar pointed out. This is a sad reality for the traceurs who are constantly invited to compete in other countries but don’t get permission from Israel to travel. “I should have been in Italy right now” said Mattar thoughtfully.

Mattar’s Skype connection came and went and was mostly very bad; having electricity shortages of around 6 to 12 hours, online connection is sporadic. Besides practicing a dangerous sport, Gazans live fearfully of bombings and the eruption of a future war, which are usually unexpected and devastating.

About 38 miles away from Mattar, Mohanad Rabi 20, is a traceur from Nablus in the West Bank. Unlike Mattar, who started doing parkour 10 years ago, Rabi started three years ago. While studying sports studies at An-Najah National University, he got involved in parkour and started his own team with two other men; today they are five. Just like in Gaza, traceurs in the West Bank don’t have gyms and special places to train, so they train in the streets, “life is very hard with the war, we don’t have anything” said Rabi. However, parkour in the West Bank is far less known and Rabi points out the lack of international support and attention they get, envious of the spotlight traceurs in Gaza have. Despite this, team members from both places are in contact with each other. Rabi wants to have his own parkour academy and unite all traceurs so that they can become known and expand.

Between the West Bank and Gaza in the Arab town of Abu Snan, Israel, actor and traceur Samir Hazzan 27, is the Israeli Champion in parkour. Hazzan started jumping from one place to another to save time and get places faster when he was only 9 years old. Neither he had training nor he knew about parkour until later in life when he started watching videos on Youtube. “How everyone said, ‘it’s not a game!’ They kept telling me. ‘No, no, no, you’re crazy.’ But I didn’t care what they say, I cared about what I wanted and so I kept doing it and won the first place” Hazzan said. Today, he trains others providing them with the opportunity he didn’t have of learning the discipline. He has been in different advertisements and the famous Oscar winning movie “Omar”.

Still developing, parkour is more than just a workout routine, and jumping from rooftops, it is a philosophy and way of life that has influenced the life of young men, even those living under appalling conditions. The rigorous training and sense of belonging bring kids in Gaza and the West Bank hope within misery, psychological liberation through every jump. Parkour can be seen as a type of resistance, far from guns and violence, turning the battlefield where they live into a playground.