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Neil King | 09.06.2009
Arabs and Jews try to bend it like Beckham

Can sport succeed where politics have failed?
Arabs and Jews often live completely separate lives in Israel. A team of volunteers from Germany, England and Israel are trying to bridge the gap with a cross-community soccer project.

Some 1,000 Arab and Jewish children are to gather for a special cross-community event in northern Israel this summer. "Football for Peace" brings together kids aged 10 to 13 for a week of mixed sport activities specially designed to foster fair play, respect and mutual trust. Most of the kids participating in the project from July 4-13 live in purely Arab or Jewish communities in northern Israel and have never mixed with their counterparts.This year's event comprises 11 cross-community sport projects. All kids are put into mixed teams supervised by volunteer coaches from Germany, the UK and Israel. After a week of trust-building and fair play exercises the children hold their own soccer tournament without any referees or adult intervention. John Sugden, a professor from Brighton University, knows all about divided societies. Following a successful sport initiative in Northern Ireland which brought together young Catholics and Protestants from war-torn Belfast, Sugden went on to launch the first "Football for Peace" project in Israel in 2001.

The shadow of Gaza

The backers of the Israel project include the British Council, the English Football Association, the Israeli Sports Authority, the University of Brighton and the German Sports University. While all those involved in the project are convinced that it can help reduce prejudices among Arabs and Jews, they are often frustrated by the political developments in Israel. 

"We can't go over there and pretend - no matter how enthusiastic we are about sport's ability to bring people together - that the Israeli Defense Force incursion into Gaza this year didn't happen and that the smoke is still rising," said Sugden. 

Yakov, a 30-year-old Jewish Israeli from Bet shean, who is taking part in the July project said the Gaza conflict shook the foundations of the project.

"After the war the Israeli Jews and Arabs were afraid to play together. Parents were reluctant to let their children play with the others. I think all the problems start with the parents."

Coaching sport peacemakers

Adrian Haasner from the German Sports University has been spearheading the German contribution to the Football for Peace project for years and also organized this year's workshop in Cologne for coaching volunteers. He has seen how sport can break down barriers between bitter enemies, however, he also knows how fragile any progress is in Israel.
"Of course the Gaza war changed the attitudes of people and this was a huge obstacle," said Haasner. "However, I do not see such obstacles with the children or the participating coaches."

Haasner's optimism is backed by the fact that the initiative to relaunch the project following the Lebanon war in 2006 or the Gaza war earlier this year came from the Jewish and Arab communities themselves. Almost 40 Jewish and Arab Israelis signed up for an annual coaching program at the German Sport University in Cologne at the end of May. An equal number came from the UK and Germany - most of them are students from Brighton and Cologne. The week-long coaching ahead of the actual project aims to prepare English and German volunteers for the difficult conditions on the ground. However, it also serves another and potentially more important purpose. The workshop includes a broad range of trust-building exercises in mixed teams which are very effective at breaking down barriers, and many Arab and Israeli coaches actually make the same sort of bonding experiences which they are to trigger in the children later.

"I must say quite frankly that I was never aware of who had a Jewish or Arabic background - I never found out and I never witnessed any tension," said Hauke, a 22-year-old German student at Cologne Sports University and a participant in this year's workshop.

"No politics!"

As much as many English and German participants would like to discuss the Middle East conflict with their Israeli counterparts the Arabs and Jews emphasize that it is crucial to steer clear of politics if the project is to work. In a reversal of Winston Churchill's famous statement "No sports," the Football for Peace coaches have adopted the motto "No politics."

"It's best to avoid politics. If you begin to speak politics you cannot finish. I have my ideas and he has his ideas and these are very difficult to change," said 32-year-old coach Mohammed from the small Arab Muslim community Dabburya.

Sugden also knows from his experiences in Northern Ireland that it's often better to let bygones be bygones.

"Israel is not going to disappear and the Arabs are not going to get their land back," Sugden said. "The Arabs understand that the Holocaust happened that dreadful things happened to the Jews throughout the world - you can't change that. There are some terrible things done to them and their families. They don't even have to forgive. It's not about forgiveness. It's just about saying: OK, but now is now and for our children we need a better future."

The organizers of Football for Peace say they are looking to extend the program to southern Israel, and according to Haasner, the project has also drawn interest from other divided countries such as Cyprus, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Author: Neil King
Editor: Trinity Hartman