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SOCCER FOR ALL
The 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Finals kick off in
Israel on June 5. Teams from the eight quali-fying countries are
playing each other in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Jerusalem and Petah Tikva
before reaching the nal in
Jerusalems Teddy Stadium on June 18.
Participants, fans and journalists from the seven visiting
countries - England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, Hol-land and
Norway will mingle with their local hosts, friends and opponents,
as well as football fans from all overthe world.
A TV audience of 150 million is expected to view this summers
footballing highlight.
Football is a national sport in Israel. Every large city has a
local team and throughout the year the games drawthousands of
spectators. But the sport is also used as an educational tool by
both grassroots organizations andofcial ofces to promote peace and
co-existence between children from the diverse ethnic, religious
and so-cial groups in the country. It is one of the cultural arenas
where performance matters more than background and
where friendships are easily formed across divides.
PROFILE:
WALID BADIRWalid Badir is from the small town of Kafr Qassem
in
central Israel and one of the countrys most successful
players. He is from an Arab-Israeli family and just rered
as the captain of Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Highlights from his career:
The center back was capped 76 times by the national
team, scoring 12 goals.
In 2010 he lifted the Premier League trophy at Jerusa-
lems Teddy Stadium, thus becoming the rst Arab-Israeli
captain to do so.
After beginning his career at Hapoel Petah Tikva, Badir
signed for Wimbledon in the English Premier League for
the 1999-2000 season. His only goal was a wonderful
shot against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
He returned to Israel and joined Maccabi Haifa at the
start of the Avraham Grant era and together with team-
mates like Yossi Benayoun played an important part in theteams
four Premier League titles in ve years.
In his eight seasons at Hapoel Tel Aviv he added the
league title and ve cups to his personal tally of trophies.
PROGRAMS:
F4P ISRAEL / Football for Peace InternationalFootball for Peace
brings together 40 Jewish and Arab
Communies and approximately 1,500 children from all
over Israel:
F4P began modestly in a handful of villages in the Gali-lee
region of northern Israel in 2001 and involved sending
four volunteer student football coaches and one staff
member from the University of Brighton to set up basic
football coaching camps for Jewish and Arab children.
Ten years later, stretching from the northern border with
Lebanon down to the southern Negev Desert, in part-
nership with the German Sports University, the British
Council and the Israeli Sports Authority, F4P facilitates 14
CCSP training camps, bringing together 40 Jewish and
Arab Communities and approximately 1,500 children.
MIFALOTMifalot was founded by the owners of Hapoel Tel Aviv
Football Club and the Kahano Foundaon in 1997. Since
then, over 20,000 Israeli, Palesnian and Jordanian chil-
dren and youths parcipate in Mifalots programs each
year.
A mixed Israeli-Palestinian girls football team played in
April 2013 supported by the EU. The tournament broughttogether
boys and girls from Tarqumiya, Nahariya andHolon.
Mifalots vision is: To capture the power of football in
order to build more active, compassionate and cohesive
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/108108/israel-awaits-uefa-kick-pridehttps://www.facebook.com/Badir10/infohttp://www.haaretz.com/walid-badir-losing-his-battle-with-gravity-1.524994http://www.football4peace.eu/israel.htmlhttp://www.mifalot.co.il/mifalot/Language/english/info.aspx?id=69https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.519218391474857.1073741830.134470763282957&type=3https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.519218391474857.1073741830.134470763282957&type=3http://www.mifalot.co.il/mifalot/Language/english/info.aspx?id=69http://www.football4peace.eu/israel.htmlhttp://www.haaretz.com/walid-badir-losing-his-battle-with-gravity-1.524994https://www.facebook.com/Badir10/infohttp://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/108108/israel-awaits-uefa-kick-pride
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communities. To support the sustainable development
of a more engaged society. To promote peaceful coexis-
tence in our immediate region and beyond.
Mifalot has more than 300 projects that use football to
accomplish the following program objectives:
Providing much needed assistance to children living in at-
risk, disadvantaged or isolated environments in our region
and internationally;
Teaching life skills to children with special needs;
Promoting the integration and inclusion of newly arrived
immigrants into Israeli society;
Encouraging the social integration of Arab-Israelis by em-
powering the individual and the Arab-Israeli community;
Shaping socially responsible and value enriched leaders
for tomorrow.
Promoting peace and coexistence by creating bonds of
friendship between Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians.
NEIGBORHOODS LEAGUEThe Neighborhoods League is a
sporve-social-educa-
onal project, teaching children through football:
Aims to form a proper environment for children of neigh-
borhoods and communities of the social Israeli periphery
of the Jerusalem district, the Negev and Ramla-Lod.
Within the framework of the project, soccer teams are or-
ganized in neighborhoods and schools for children aged
10-12. University students volunteer to orchestrate the
teams many activities which include: receiving training
from a certied coach, access to study centers managedby
additional university students and the participation in
various social activities such as trips and excursions, as
well as the much anticipated monthly festive tournament
which brings together all of the teams from the different
districts
Neighbors living together in The League: One of the goals
achieved in the project is the promotion of the co-exis-
tence between Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians,
children from migrant families and children from rooted
families and children from often varying socio-economic
backgrounds.
GIRLS SOCCERIncreasing Israeli and Palesnian, Jewish and Arab
girls
parcipaon in the sport:
This project aims to empower girls to be involved in
physical activity and increase girls participation in foot-
ball, as well as to enable Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish
and Arab girls to get to know one another and build
friendships through sport.
BOYS SOCCERIsraeli and Palesnian boys aged 6-14 from the
periphery
are educated and empowered:
Since 2002 this project has provided Israeli and Pales-
tinian boys aged 6-14 from peripheral and disadvantaged
communities with extra-curricular football activities in
order to instill values of peaceful coexistence and encour-age
self-development through sport over a signicant
period of time.
Other sports:
Football is just one example where social acvism and
sports meet. Other examples of children from diverse
communies forming friendships and building bridgesinclude
basketball, cricket and table tennis. Tennis cham-
pion Nadine Fahoum sets the example for the younger
generaon with her superb professional results and deep
social commitment to coexistence.
http://league.org.il/en/the-project/http://www.peres-center.org/girls_footballhttp://www.peres-center.org/boys_footballhttp://www.peres-center.org/boys_footballhttp://www.peres-center.org/girls_footballhttp://league.org.il/en/the-project/
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PROFILE:
NADINE FAHOUMTennis player Nadine Fahoum is from the Northern
portcity of Haifa, Israels third largest city. She is an Arab
Mus-
limand has been celebrated as Israels unocial ambas-
sador o the court for her tennis as well as her eorts
to encourage children from all groups to pursue the sport
and co-existence.
Today she works as a development associate for the Isra-
el Tennis Centers Foundaon where she raises awareness
and funds in order to create beer opportunies for both
Arab and Jewish Children.
Highlights from her career:
When Nadine turned nine, she started playing tennis,
along with her younger brother at the Haifa Tennis Center.
When Nadine was 12, she won her rst national cham-
pionship and was ranked number 1 in Israel for the rst
time.
By the time she turned 18, she represented Israel in world
and European championships.
After graduating high school, Nadine went to the U.S.
on a full tennis scholarship to Old Dominion University.
During her rst year, she played number four for the team,
but quickly earned the number one spot, the MVP awardfor her
team and CAA conference rookie of the year.
During her sophomore season, she made it to the sec-
ond round of the NCAA tournament in doubles and as
a junior, beating the number one girl in the nation and
climbed to the number 15 spot in the country.
After her junior year, she transferred to Duke University
where she played number 1 singles and doubles for the
third-ranked team in the nation.
PROGRAMS:
CRICKET4PEACEA project bringing together Israeli and Palesnian
chil-
dren from disadvantaged communies teaching them a
new sport and strengthening their friendship:
The rst ever cross-border peace building project to uti-
lize cricket, this project brings together Israeli and
Pales-
tinian children from disadvantaged communities teaching
them a new sport, as well as instilling them with values of
peace and tolerance. Cricket has been successfully used
in other regions as a tool for bringing people of different
backgrounds, cultures and religions together, however
this is the rst time it has been applied in the context ofthe
Israeli-Palestinian conict.
GIRLS BASKETBALLIsraeli, Palesnian, Arab and
Jewish girls shaer stereo-
types about the other as
they play together.
This project fosters values
of peace and coexistence
between young Israeli,
Palestinian, Arab and Jewish
girls by improving attitudes
toward the other and
diffusing stereotypes using
the tool of basketball. The
project is often the only op-
portunity available for these girls - many from traditionalor
conservative communities - to participate in sporting
activities.
Wheelchair basketballDisabled Palesnian and Israeli boys and
girls aged 12 to
18 years receive basketball training and peace educaon:
This unique peace-building project provides wheel-
chair basketball training and peace education activities
to 30 at-risk, disabled Palestinian and Israeli boys and
girls aged 12 to 18 years together with their able-bodied
friends, family members and other children from the com-munity.
This project provides much needed healthy edu-
cational activity for disabled youngsters who have limited
access to such frameworks, particularly on the Palestinian
side, that combine sport and education in a way that is
suited to their needs.
Table TennisA project for Israeli Jewish, Israeli Arab and
Palesnian
children, teaching values of tolerance and team work:
Through introducing the sport of table tennis this project
brings together Israeli Jewish, Israeli Arab and
Palestinianchildren, teaching values of tolerance and team
work,
enabling children to get to know each others culture,
language, customs and holidays.
Contact |The Israel Project - Israel Ofce
Dor KaidarCommunications AssociateCell +972.(0)54.700.4812Ofce
+972.(0)2.623.9109
E-mail [email protected]
http://www.timesofisrael.com/coexistence-in-and-off-the-tennis-court/http://embassies.gov.il/new-york/SpeakersBureau/Pages/Nadine-Fahoum.aspxhttp://www.peres-center.org/cricket_4_peacehttp://www.peres-center.org/girls_basketballhttp://www.peres-center.org/wheelchair_basketballhttp://www.peres-center.org/table_tennismailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.peres-center.org/table_tennishttp://www.peres-center.org/wheelchair_basketballhttp://www.peres-center.org/girls_basketballhttp://www.peres-center.org/cricket_4_peacehttp://embassies.gov.il/new-york/SpeakersBureau/Pages/Nadine-Fahoum.aspxhttp://www.timesofisrael.com/coexistence-in-and-off-the-tennis-court/
