Betty Saadeh is ranked the No. 1 champion in Palestine motor racing, and she holds the 8th position in the Top 10 male and female racers. Breaking both the stereotypes of Arab women, and the obstacles of the occupation, Betty is one of the members of the first allwomen motor racing team in the Middle East.

The mother of two lives in Ramallah, and was recently in Britain with her team mate Noor Daoud training at Silverstone with former British champion Helen Elstropo. Noor herself won a formula-three competition in Israel recently. It was a record as she was the first Palestinian to participate in and win an Israeli car race.

Noor was only allowed to participate in the competition as she holds an East Jerusalem ID card. Her teammates were excluded from taking part. Noor now lives in Ramallah and commented ‘’When I used to live in Jerusalem - before I went to the States (to study) - I was in a very bad situation in my neighbourhood, Beit Hanina. I was surrounded by checkpoints, I felt really trapped. So I went away and moved around, and when I came back here to Ramallah, even though we are still surrounded by checkpoints, driving makes me feel free.”

Palestine is a full member of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile. This means that whenever a Palestinian wins a race, the Palestine flag is raised on the podium. This means a great deal to the racers and Khaled Qaddoura, president of the Palestinian Motor Sport and Motorcycle Federation, states “‘When any Palestinian is successful on the world stage, it helps our main cause - a fully recognised Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, on 1967 borders.”

Source: Friends of Al-Aqsa