For four hectic days in August 2005, 44 Israeli children between the ages of 10 and 12 took part in Camp Coexistence, a football project organized by Soccer for Peace (www.soccerforpeace.com) and Givat Haviva (www.givathaviva.org.il). The aim of the camp was to bring Jewish and Arab children from within Israel together for a football training camp, in order to demonstrate the possibility of living and playing together. For the duration of the camp, children from three communities (Kiryat Gat in the South, and Andur and Kfar Meiser in the North) played together, ate together and slept together in the same buildings for the first time in their lives!
As a keen football player and a committee member of a refugee football league in Edinburgh, I was delighted to be made project coordinator of this camp. I knew that football has proven useful in bringing together communities in my country – and I now had a chance to find out if it could do the same in Israel, where there are far more barriers between people – the language barrier (Arab children only start to learn Hebrew at the age of ten, and Jewish children are never obliged to learn Arabic in school), the cultural differences and the lack of trust.
Playing for up to five hours a day in brand new Soccer for Peace strips, it was very hard to distinguish the Jews from the Arabs on the football field. Three football coaches (Fiad Shalaby, Maayan Castel and Bashar Zoubi) worked the children hard both on and off the field, teaching them not only to hone their soccer skills, but also about the morality of football and the importance of sportsmanship and teamwork. This clearly had a positive effect on the children – on the second day of the camp I witnessed Ga'ra from Andur (who won the prize for the 'most improved player') high-fiving an Arab boy after exchanging a neat one-two with him. I also saw Fadil Masalha from Daburiyya foul one of the Jewish players, pick him up from the ground, apologize and shake hands! In Europe, these two events would be mundane and unworthy of mention. However, in this situation, it goes to show that football can indeed overcome barriers and facilitate interaction between Arabs and Jews. As Shachar Yanai, Director of Education of the Jewish Arab Centre for Peace at Givat Haviva, said in one of the dialogue sessions, 'football is the shared language'.
For the duration of this camp, this was certainly true. The love of football transcended many traditional barriers between the groups. When Ashraf Suleiman of Upper Nazareth (an Israeli Premier League team) visited the camp for a couple of hours to play with the kids, both Jewish and Arab children alike were scrambling for his autograph and to have a photo taken with the Israeli football star!
Although football was the focus of this project, it was not the only activity used to demonstrate the possibility of coexistence. The children were given the opportunity to participate in a number of dialogue sessions, run by professionally trained facilitators. During these sessions, the children became better acquainted and more comfortable with each other thanks to ice-breaking games offered by the facilitators. Further discussions centered on soccer, with groups of children creating their 'Israeli Fantasy 11', consisting of Israeli footballers (past and present) and foreigners playing in Israel. Once more, the love of the game overcame cultural differences, with Arab and Jewish children choosing their favourite players together, based not on their race or religion but on their footballing prowess! Discussions during the dialogue sessions really highlighted the similarities between the groups in a very positive way. The children themselves realized this, and grasped that the differences between them need not be so important. Or Raz from Shoham told the group that 'we should work with people who are different from us, we should make friends with them.' It was emphasized that differences are unimportant when one is playing football – in almost every league in the world we see people from different countries, speaking different languages, playing on the same team. On the football field, the shared aim of scoring a goal is simply more important than any differences between members of the same team.
For the more creative camp members, there was the opportunity to express themselves on stage during the theatre session. Wearing masks to hide their identity, both Jewish and Arab children danced around the room together, enacting different scenes and situations. The second half of the session gave the children the opportunity to make Plaster of Paris masks of each other's faces. For half an hour, Jewish children were lying down with their heads in the laps of Arab children – and vice versa! – putting all their trust in their partner. Having spread the plaster over each other's faces, the children were left with a memento of the workshop – a mask of their own face!
From a social perspective, the culmination of Camp Coexistence was the barbeque on the final night. Families from each community were invited (and told to bring extra food!), and thus in total over 100 people sat down to a feast in the grounds of Givat Haviva. Speeches of praise were delivered both in Hebrew and Arabic, and the crowd was treated to a musical extravaganza in the form of Paul Moore, a one-man band who describes himself as a 'singer, musician, actor, story teller, environmental artist and dreamer'. Playing a variety of household 'instruments', including a comb, a suitcase and even an ironing board, Paul entertained children and adults alike. At one point, he had over ten children on stage with him trying their hand at the instruments!
This is a show which is clearly universal, appealing to both children and adults, to both Arabs and Jews.
For the more creative camp members, there was the opportunity to express themselves on stage during the theatre session. Wearing masks to hide their identity, both Jewish and Arab children danced around the room together, enacting different scenes and situations. The second half of the session gave the children the opportunity to make Plaster of Paris masks of each other's faces. For half an hour, Jewish children were lying down with their heads in the laps of Arab children – and vice versa! – putting all their trust in their partner. Having spread the plaster over each other's faces, the children were left with a memento of the workshop – a mask of their own face!
From a social perspective, the culmination of Camp Coexistence was the barbeque on the final night. Families from each community were invited (and told to bring extra food!), and thus in total over 100 people sat down to a feast in the grounds of Givat Haviva. Speeches of praise were delivered both in Hebrew and Arabic, and the crowd was treated to a musical extravaganza in the form of Paul Moore, a one-man band who describes himself as a 'singer, musician, actor, story teller, environmental artist and dreamer'. Playing a variety of household 'instruments', including a comb, a suitcase and even an ironing board, Paul entertained children and adults alike. At one point, he had over ten children on stage with him trying their hand at the instruments!
This is a show which is clearly universal, appealing to both children and adults, to both Arabs and Jews.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of the language barrier between Jews and Arabs of this age, it seems that this camp succeeded in overcoming these difficulties. On the pitch, according to Faris Darawshe from Iksal, 'we communicate with movements and signs'. Fiad Shalaby, the head coach, said that he noticed much interaction between Jewish and Arab children, despite the language barriers. As soon as the children were on the football pitch, communication problems dissolved. When the children themselves discovered this, they realized that communication off the field was also a real possibility.
The final day of the camp really highlighted the progress the children have made. A final competition was organized, involving six different teams, all made up of Jews and Arabs. It was a real pleasure to see these children playing football together as children throughout the world do – not as Arabs and Jews, but as football players on the same team, trying to score a goal and beat the other team. Seeing Jewish and Arab children play together, commiserate together, and celebrate together really highlighted the value of this project.
While a majority of children had already had experiences and acquaintances with 'the other', less than half of the children from Kiryat Gat had any acquaintance with Arabs before the trip. This camp provided a great opportunity for all the children to spend a meaningful amount of time interacting with 'the other', demonstrating that it is possible to work and play with people who are different, even without a common language. Through the medium of football, a shared passion of all the camp's participants, Jewish and Arab children (and adults!) lived and played together in a spirit of harmony and cooperation.
With the vast majority of the participants reporting the desire to stay in contact with children from the other groups, and to take part in another camp (should it run), Givat Haviva and Soccer for Peace's Camp Coexistence is well placed to run again next summer and build on this extremely positive start.
