Court Orders Sports Photography Festival to Reinstate Gaza Soccer Photo

This photograph of Palestinian players taking part in a soccer match in Gaza on February 14, 2026, was removed by a sports photography festival last week. | AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi

A court has ordered a sports photography festival to reinstate an Associated Press photographer’s image of a soccer game in Gaza after organizers removed it following outside pressure.

The photograph, taken by Associated Press photographer Jehad Alshrafi, was one of 300 images displayed at the Deauville Sport Images Festival in France, which runs through September 6. It shows Palestinian players taking part in a soccer match on a makeshift pitch in Gaza on February 14, with heavily damaged buildings visible around them.

Then in late August, the photograph was quietly replaced with an image of cyclists. The Deauville Sport Images Festival confirmed that the change followed requests from unnamed external sources, with organizers saying they “don’t want to get into a controversy, nor offend anyone.”

However, the decision continued to draw criticism in France, with local politicians and photography fans condemning the removal of the image. The dispute eventually reached a French court.

Not ‘Necessary’ or ‘Appropriate’

According to a report by AFP for Le Monde, a judge at an administrative court in Caen ruled Monday that Deauville city hall was not justified in removing the photograph from the festival. The ruling temporarily suspends the city’s decision and followed an emergency appeal by the Observatoire de la liberté de création, which sought to protect freedom of expression and have the photograph returned to the Deauville Sport Images Festival.

The judge noted that the municipality had not reported any incidents or demonstrations since the exhibition opened on June 6. The court therefore found that removing the photograph was not “a necessary, appropriate, and proportionate measure taken to preserve public order.” Deauville town hall argued before the court that it would take six days to reprint the photograph on a new banner before reinstalling it in its original location.

The Persistence of Sport in Terrible Situations

Gaza’s main soccer stadium was reportedly destroyed during the Israel-Hamas war and has since been used as a tent camp for displaced families. Alshrafi’s photograph, however, shows that soccer has continued in Jabalia camp, where the Palestinian Football Federation created a new space for the sport. Workers cleared rubble, laid worn artificial turf, and erected a fence next to the remains of destroyed buildings.

The photograph displayed at the Deauville Sport Images Festival shows players from the Gaza Sports Club and Egyptian club Al-Ahly taking part in a soccer game in the enclave on February 14. The festival jury said that they selected Alshrafi’s photograph to represent the persistence of sport “even in the most terrible situations” such as in Gaza. According to the festival, the photograph was selected without any political intention.