Sports and politics do not, and should not, mix. Or so goes the tired cliché. Yet this has always been an absurd stance. There is a long history of sports being used by repressive regimes as a vehicle for normalization and also by their challengers as a venue for political protest and activism. Nicholas Blincoe's fascinating and accessible new book, More Noble Than War: A Soccer History of Israel-Palestine, traces the history of soccer in Palestine/Israel while exploring the history of the conflict. Through a mixture of historical research, interviews, and firsthand reporting, Blincoe clearly demonstrates how soccer and politics have been intimately linked from the sport's introduction to Palestine by the British up to the present day.

Blincoe is not new to the subject of Palestine/Israel. He is the author of Bethlehem: Biography of a Town (Constable, 2017), coeditor of Peace under Fire: Israel/Palestine and the International Solidarity...

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