A photograph of a soccer match played amid the ruins of Gaza is going back on the walls in Deauville — because a French judge said it must. On Monday, an administrative court in Caen suspended the city’s decision to pull Associated Press photographer Jehad Alshrafi‘s image from the Deauville Sport Images Festival, ruling that its removal was not “a necessary, appropriate, and proportionate measure taken to preserve public order.”
The picture, one of some 300 on show at the French sports photography festival, captures Palestinian players from the Gaza Sports Club and Egyptian club Al-Ahly during a match on a makeshift pitch on February 14, heavily damaged buildings looming behind them. The festival’s jury said it selected the image to represent the persistence of sport “even in the most terrible situations,” and stressed that the choice carried no political intention.
That did not stop the photograph from quietly vanishing in late August, when it was swapped for an image of cyclists. The festival confirmed the change followed requests from unnamed external sources, with organizers explaining they “don’t want to get into a controversy, nor offend anyone.”
The backlash was swift. Local politicians and photography fans condemned the removal, and the Observatoire de la liberté de création — a group defending freedom of artistic expression — filed an emergency appeal to have the image restored. In court, the city’s lawyer argued there was a risk of public disorder, pointing to a “torrent of hatred” on social media. The judge was unmoved, noting that the municipality had not reported a single incident or demonstration since the exhibition opened on June 6. Deauville’s town hall told the court it would take six days to reprint the photograph on a new banner and return it to its original location — the festival itself runs through September 6.
Behind the legal wrangling stands a remarkable piece of photojournalism. Gaza’s main soccer stadium was reportedly destroyed during the Israel-Hamas war and has since served as a tent camp for displaced families. Yet in Jabalia camp, the Palestinian Football Federation carved out a new home for the game: workers cleared rubble, laid worn artificial turf, and put up a fence beside the shells of ruined buildings. Alshrafi’s frame shows exactly that — sport carrying on where almost nothing else has.
The ruling is a pointed reminder that a photography festival’s power lies in what it dares to show. The image the organizers deemed too sensitive to hang will now finish the exhibition where the jury originally placed it.
