‘We can relate’: Bosnia fans bring passion, Palestine support, to World Cup

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Waiters dart through Euro Grill, whose walls are adorned with posters from the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, serving heaping portions of cevapi and burek to groups of fans sporting the blue jerseys of the Bosnian national team on Tuesday evening. Outside the restaurant, groups of men smoke cigarettes and snap photos of vehicles decked out with flags and paraphernalia. Many have travelled long distances – one fan says he drove 25 hours from Canada in a truck covered with faces of various players, a Free Palestine sticker, and an enormous model of the Marvel character, the Hulk, in a Bosnia jersey – to support their team as they fight to advance to the Round of 16 for the first time in history. For members of the country’s diaspora, many of whom were displaced as a result of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, the tournament has been a testament to the tenacity of their shared identity. “It’s like a big family,” 60-year-old Senad Durakovic, who moved to the US city of Boston in 1996, said of the many fans who have converged on the restaurant from around the US and further afield. “We’re all here for the same reason.” “It feels like I’m part of something bigger than me,” he adds. “It feels like we’ve already won.” Bosnian fans have also used the tournament to express solidarity with Palestine, a connection they say is informed by their own experiences of violence and displacement. “There’s a mutual traumatic experience. I think they’re going through the same things that we went through,” 22-year-old Aldin Muminovic said. “So we’ll never forget them. We’ll always be there for them.” Bosnia and Herzegovina qualified for the 2026 World Cup with a shock win over Italy in April, sending them to the global tournament for the first time since 2014 courtesy of a dramatic penalty shootout that prompted delirious celebrations across the country. Helmed by the 40-year-old Edin Dzeko, the team has benefitted from tenacious defence and a new generation of talent in the form of younger players such as Kerim Alajbegovic and Ermin Mahmic. The team won its last game, against Qatar, in convincing style, netting three goals to their opponents’ one and advancing to the knockout round of the tournament, where they will face a formidable US team that will be eager to move forward as one of the host nations. “If we play like we did against Qatar, I think we’ll pull through,” 20-year-old Elvis Graco, who travelled to California from Jacksonville, Florida, told Al Jazeera. “We’ll win, of course.” But the tournament has brought attention to more than Bosnia’s talented World Cup squad. Videos of joyous fans marching through host cities have placed the country’s large and vibrant diaspora in the spotlight, many of them scattered around the world during and after the war. “Prior to the war, there was hardly any Bosnian diaspora to speak of,” Jasmin Mujanovic, a scholar who specialises in Balkan history, told Al Jazeera, adding that many members of the current national team were born outside of the country to parents who had fled during the war and its aftermath. “But they have attempted to instil a relationship with Bosnian identity and culture in their children.” “I think this particular team and this particular World Cup run is a really beautiful expression of that,” he added. The Bosnian War was the bloodiest of a series of conflicts that took place along ethnic and national lines during the violent breakup of formerly socialist Yugoslavia during the 1990s, with an estimated 100,000 people killed. Bosniak Muslims made up a large majority of the victims in the conflict, which included systematic ethnic cleansing and the forcible expulsion of large numbers of Bosniak Muslims and Croats by Serb forces and paramilitaries. A massacre of 8,372 Bosniak Muslim men and boys by Serb forces in the town of Srebrenica in 1995 was also found to constitute the crime of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT). Some fans say that history has informed their strong support for Palestine, especially amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza. More than 70,000 people, a majority of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Videos shared on social media during the World Cup have shown crowds of supporters chanting “Palestina, Palestina”, and others holding Palestinian flags. “Many Bosnians see images of Palestinian civilians’ suffering that remind them of their own past,” Ildaj Husovic, who manages an Instagram account showcasing the connection between Bosnia and Palestine, told Al Jazeera in a message. “The fans are using this opportunity to draw the world’s attention to the suffering of the people in Palestine, which they believe should be a top priority for the international community in this moment,” they added. “We can obviously relate to what they’re going through, because our country went through it as well,” said Graco, standing outside of the restaurant in Santa Clara. “We want to see justice for Palestine and for the violence to end. It isn’t in the news as much now, but we want to remind people that the Palestinians are still living through this every day.” Advertisement AboutAboutShow moreAbout UsCode of EthicsTerms and ConditionsEU/EEA Regulatory NoticePrivacy PolicyCookie PolicyCookie PreferencesAccessibility StatementSitemapWork for usConnectConnectShow moreContact UsUser Accounts HelpAdvertise with usStay ConnectedNewslettersChannel FinderTV SchedulePodcastsSubmit a TipPaid Partner ContentOur ChannelsOur ChannelsShow moreAl Jazeera ArabicAl Jazeera EnglishAl Jazeera Investigative UnitAl Jazeera MubasherAl Jazeera DocumentaryAl Jazeera BalkansAJ+Our NetworkOur NetworkShow moreAl Jazeera Centre for StudiesAl Jazeera Media InstituteLearn ArabicAl Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human RightsAl Jazeera ForumAl Jazeera Hotel PartnersFollow Al Jazeera English: