‘The only place where an Arab can hit a Jew and get a medal for it’: boxing and masculine pride among Arab citizens of Israel

Hamze Yunes' life story from Israeli boxing star to Palestinian guerrilla is highly interesting as a case study that challenges the conventional linkage between Arab sport and politics in Israel. Arab sport in Israel is publicly presented by its major actors as an integrative sphere, and Arab athletes usually distance themselves from nationalist overtones or political protest. Israeli boxing, which is dominated athletically and administratively by Arabs, is even an extreme example of this tendency. Hamze's narrative, however, ties his attraction for boxing to the humiliation of Arab men under the Israeli Military Government (1948–66), implying that boxing was a combative practice more than a channel for integration. Based on Hamze's memoirs published in 1999 and interviews with his family members, the essay contrasts these two diametrically opposed discourses and discusses the reasons for Hamze's exceptionality.