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Shooting For Equality:
On the Soccer Field and Off
[ARABIC] [HEBREW]
Daniel Ben-Tal
 Jerusalem
- Israeli Arab soccer players have made tremendous inroads in the game in
recent years, and now are featured on the roster of almost every Premier
League club in the country.
Numerous Arab players star in the national team
alongside their Jewish teammates, and have made headlines by scoring
critical goals in important international matches.
But Ichud (United) Abu Ghosh-Mevasseret has taken coexistence one step
further by forming Israel's first combined Jewish-Arab club that is
explicitly more than just about soccer.
"We are not engaging ourselves in sport only. The united club is an
important test-case in Arab-Jewish coexistence, and we intend to pass that
test," says the club's president Alon Liel, a former Foreign Ministry
director-general and the country's ambassador to Turkey.
Liel bases his belief in the power of soccer to bring communities together
on his experiences in South Africa. During the 1980s, Liel lobbied within
the foreign ministry to deepen ties with supporters of then-imprisoned civil
rights leader Nelson Mandela. As a special envoy to the country from 1986 to
1988, he first made contact with black soccer teams.
"The South African Football Association was one of the strongest forces in
the fight against apartheid. Through soccer, black South Africans achieved
much. I've been a soccer fan since my childhood in Tel Aviv. Soccer is one
of the few sectors of Israeli society in which Arab citizens can reach the
very top of their profession on the national level," Liel told ISRAEL21c,
noting that last season, for the first time in Israel's history, an Israeli
Arab club, Ichud Bnei Sakhnin, won the State Cup.
Mevasseret Zion, a suburb of Jerusalem, has expanded
in recent years and now numbers 25,000 residents. The population of
neighbouring Abu Ghosh and the nearby Arab villages Ein Rafah and Ein Nakura
totals about 10,000.
"Our area is one of normal life and coexistence. Abu Ghosh has extensive
business connections with Mevaseret, and everybody appreciates the
cooperation with our neighbours," says Abu Ghosh local council head and club
co-chairman Salim Jabber.
"The club is attracting growing interest, and many young players in Abu
Ghosh want to join the team. The only criterion is that they are good
players," he told ISRAEL21c.
For years, Hapoel Mevasseret Zion languished in the sixth division. "We had
the infrastructure but no interest. The original idea was to take six or
seven good players from Abu Ghosh to strengthen the squad," says Liel.
The idea spurned a meeting last October in Abu Ghosh, where the club's
management structure was set down: four directors from Abu Ghosh and four
from Mevaseret, each with mutual right of veto. A senior squad of 25 players
was elected - 15 Jews and 10 Arabs.
"There's nothing special in that nowadays - but this is the only club in the
country - and in the world - based on a 50-50 management partnership between
Jews and Arabs. All the Arab players are defenders and the Jews are
attackers - it wasn't intended, it just worked out like that," says Liel.
The team also features one non-Israeli player, full back Allah Awad from the
Jabal Mukaber neighbourhood of east Jerusalem. The two youth teams have also
been united, and compete under the joint banner in a local youth league.
The senior players first gathered for training three days before the season
began late last October. After a series of disastrous results, the team
gradually clawed its way out of the relegation zone before ending the
campaign with a seven-game unbeaten run.
In the season's final encounter, the players defeated Givat Zeev 2-1. Ichud
Mevasseret-Abu Ghosh finished its inaugural season mid-table, in ninth
place. "This was a surprise because we're the youngest team in the league,"
says an elated Liel.
In February this year, a 17-strong squad of players flew to the town of
Lahti in Finland, where they competed in an international soccer tournament
for workers' committees. The team exceeded all expectations by reaching the
final, where they lost 1-0 to a team from Estonia.
Such success would have been impossible without a happy boardroom.
"The best part of the story is how the management has grown close. The team
is excellently managed, and does not owe money to any tax authorities -
unlike 90 percent of Israeli clubs. Dozens of small soccer clubs fold every
year because of poor administration. Teams at this level have no form of
income and cannot pay to advertise their games," explains Liel.
"Local councils in Israel are much poorer than they used to be. In many
cases, there's no budget for sport. All our budget came from donations,"
adds Liel, who used his diplomatic connections to secure funding for the
club.
"Six foreign embassies are helping us: the Americans, Swiss, the EU, Dutch,
Turkish and especially the British, to whom soccer is a religion. This
includes donating all our equipment. It would have been impossible with out
their help. At least six diplomats have visited games, because they support
Jewish-Arab cooperation."
Liel recently returned from a fundraising trip to Britain. "There I met a
good London Jew who brought me sacks of soccer kit - so much that I couldn't
bring it all with me back to Israel."
Now that it has the combined backing of both communities, a bright future is
expected for the Ichud Abu Ghosh-Mevasseret soccer team.
"We will continue to support the club, as it brings us much honour. I'm
looking forward to the team having a successful future," says Jabber.
Mevasseret mayor Carmi Gilon and Jabber have talked of eventually merging
the whole scope of sport and recreation activities if this project succeeds,
bringing the two communities closer together.
"It's not an easy project," admits Liel. "Many Jews hate Arabs. They grew up
in an anti-Arab atmosphere, although they realize that we have to coexist.
The coexistence is working out. The players just needs time to settle. I
hope the joint energies of both communities will push them forward.
Source: This is an abbreviated version of an article that
appeared in ISRAEL21c, May 15, 2005. Visit Israel21C:
www.israel21c.org
Eine häufig gestellte Frage, beantwortet von Ariel Scharon:
Warum heißt
haGalil - haGalil?
Der Galil, also Galiläa, ist der nördlichste Teil des Landes
Israel und somit der Europa am nächsten liegende...
Meeting People’s
Expectations
by George S. Hishmeh
Washington-based columnist George Hishmeh comments
on President Abbas’ successful trip to Washington, during which President
Bush, somewhat surprisingly, met many Palestinians’ high expectations.
However, Hishmeh warns that “the key point that has yet to be spelled out by
the administration is setting a timetable for all these expectations.”
(Source: AMIN.org, June 2, 2005)
When Left and Right Are Right
by David Kimche
David Kimche, former Foreign Ministry director-general, writes, “We are all
- Left and Right - entrenched in our views, convinced we know best what is
good for Israel. But what if diehard right-wingers and diehard leftists
started listening to each other's arguments? What if sane rightists - not
the messianics - and sane leftists - not the Israel-bashers - opened
themselves up to the other point of view?” (Source: The Jerusalem Post, June
2, 2005)
Advertising for a Lasting Peace
by Maurice Levy
Maurice Levy, of the advertising and communications company, Publicis
Groupe, reveals how months of secret sessions has lead to a joint Israeli
and Palestinian advertising campaign promoting peace. “We aren't deluding
ourselves. Advertising will never be a substitute for the hard work needed
to craft a peace agreement. That has to do with fundamental issues like
land, justice, liberty and security. Yet we must remember that without an
underlying popular will and desire to move forward, any Israeli-Palestinian
agreement will be much more difficult to reach - and will be much less
solid.” (Source: International Herald Tribune, June 9, 2005)
Jerusalem: The Candle of Humanity
by Rami Assali
Rami Assali describes a walk through the Old City of Jerusalem. “What
makes a garden beautiful is the arrangement of various kinds of flowers in a
way that harmonizes the colours combined together. What’s a garden with only
roses, or daisies, or lilies, or trees? It’s a garden with no harmony, no
life, no spirit. Even if the roses are very beautiful, they won’t make a
beautiful garden. What makes my Jerusalem unique and special is its
diversity, not its holiness. Why did God make Jerusalem holy for all
religions in the first place? Because it is a message that Jerusalem is
nobody’s and everybody’s city.” (Source: CGNews, June 10, 2005) |
