Coexistence on the pitch: "An Arab boy passed to a Jewish boy who scored - and they hugged"

The less pleasant side of football is the one where politics mixes with the game: when Lamine Yamal waves the Palestinian flag, or when Montreal fans insult Dor Turgeman and call out to him "Death to Israel". However, there are also places where the round ball and the grass pitch serve as a tool for connection. A decade ago, in 2016, a social-educational project called "Football Camp for Peace" was established in Givat Haviva, which brings together teenagers from nearby local authorities such as Pardes Hanna-Karkur and Basma (Barta'a, Ein as-Sahla, and Muawiya). The goal is to create a common language, bring hearts closer, and promote shared life through the values of sports and team play. The project is funded by the English "Bloom Foundation", which is connected to the owners of Brighton from the English Premier League. Givat Haviva – The Center for a Shared Society – is one of the largest civil organizations in Israel for promoting a shared society. The organization works to bring together Jewish and Arab citizens to foster trust, understanding, and cooperation through education, language learning, art, and vocational training.

"Concerns among parents"

Zakaria Khamis, director of the Football Camp for Peace in Givat Haviva, says: "We wanted to do a football camp for Jews and Arabs, and it grew into a project for shared life. The idea is to break the separation between Jewish and Arab teenagers, who have no meeting point in any form. We reach out to football clubs in the Menashe area, which includes Jewish and Arab settlements, and build the project together with the clubs and coaches from the surrounding settlements."

"We started in 2016 with 30-40 children. Following October 7, we stopped the project, and returned to operate in 2025 with two Jewish coaches and two Arab coaches. This year, at the end of July, 44 children participated in the project – 24 Arabs and 20 Jews. There are many concerns and fears on the part of the children and parents. Everyone asks many questions and checks with a magnifying glass, but they have courage. The idea is to do exactly the opposite in a place where there is hostility, distance, and incitement."

"Football, this round object, breaks all partitions. The children play together and are connected as if they were born in the same neighborhood. Children from both sides who had language difficulties communicated with their eyes, with respect and affection. We hold joint dialogue groups and have introduced language lessons, where the Arabs learn football terms in Hebrew like ball, pitch, and pass, and the Jewish children learn the same terms in Arabic. We also hold cultural introductions. For example, we go to eat falafel together, the Jewish children learn about Arab holidays and the Arab children about Jewish holidays."

As part of the activity, the children met Iyad Abu Abaid from Bnei Sakhnin, who gave them a joint training session, and Israel Tzarfati, the professional manager of Hapoel Hadera, who held a workshop on professionalism. The children went on a visit to the Sammy Ofer Stadium and Wadi Nisnas, met with Samir Issa, who told them about the importance of football in promoting a shared society. Or as Khamis says: "The moment I saw Jewish and Arab children swimming together, splashing water on each other, or playing a kind of water polo, it was a spectacular sight."

On the 23rd of the month, 18 students, nine Jews and nine Arabs, together with two coaches – a Jew and an Arab – will go to a training camp in San Marino. Khamis concludes: "It is impossible to want this world to be normal and for there to be a connection between the peoples without doing anything. If the adults don't succeed, we will bring the good to Israeli society."

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Let the adults learn from them

Ola Najmi Youssef, director of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace in Givat Haviva, has been working for 25 years to promote a shared society and life, out of the belief that in the State of Israel two societies live and both deserve to live in peace and receive equal opportunities.

"Whoever comes to our camp is greatly influenced by the political reality in which we live," says Najmi Youssef. "These are parents who, despite the polarization and fear, take responsibility for their children's future and send them to us, because they know that this is a space that allows for a meeting with the other. In the Jewish and Arab education systems, meetings are not held."

"Usually, such meetings only happen when you reach academia or the health system. Givat Haviva does this. Football is just the excuse. The story here is the exposure to the other side – so that no Arab child will think that Hebrew is an enemy language, and no Jewish child will think so about the Arabic language. That they will know how to respect each other and the identity of the other."

"We issue reports on what happens in football matches in the Premier League. We discovered that if you educate that the football pitch is a place for everyone and that the goal is to arrive and enjoy the game, the pitch is not a danger. The idea is to educate for values. In the last camp, we had Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Ethiopian children. There is a saying in Arabic that says 'children are like dough' – you can shape them however you want, and that is exactly what we do. We can play and win together."

"No one here is sugarcoating the reality. Two days before October 7, we met to launch a project for 3,000 children for the end of October. Members of our team, Jews and Arabs, lost family members at Nova. There was darkness that could not be escaped. For six months we did not hold meetings, but we did not give up. We held mono-national meetings, where Jews met separately and Arabs separately, until it was possible to digest what happened and return to joint activity. Parents who in the current reality choose to send their children to our camp are brave people who want to take responsibility and light up their lives."

Ali Shamia, 15, from the village of Jat and entering the ninth grade, heard about the camp from the director of the sports department in the village. "I arrived with many concerns, because I don't speak Hebrew that well and I also didn't know the children," he explains. "After the first and second day, everything became easier. Our common language was the ball. Despite all the barriers, we created friendships. After the camp ended, I keep in touch by phone with some of the Jewish children, but because of the large geographical distance, it will be difficult for us to meet. I am happy about this experience, about the people I met, and that I learned a lot of new things."

Chaim Dukerker, a coach from Hadera who was invited to conduct training sessions at the camp, took one moment in particular from there. "We had a game in Nof HaGalil," he recalls. "An Arab boy passed the ball to a Jewish boy who scored, and they ran to each other and hugged. For me, this moment tells the whole story." Dukerker adds: "We did registration for the rooms. Naturally, in the sleeping arrangements, there were no shared rooms for Arabs and Jews, but complete separation. But to see how each side comes to the other side's room, and they sit together, talk, play, and spend the evening – it warms the heart. It is an amazing cooperation, which I wish would spill over into other areas of life."

"A small step for hope"

Wassim Nasser, a coach from Tur'an and director of the Tur'an Sports Association, who is also part of the camp, sees it as a formative experience. "The connection between the children and between the Jewish and Arab professionals who came to instruct was perfect. We learned a different culture, and so did they. In the end, we all want to play together, eat together, drink together, and live together, and it turns out it is possible. We will not fix the world, but it is a small step that will give hope. For us, because the violence in the sector is raging, we showed our children that it is possible otherwise. Seeing them go up together, side by side, during our visit to Sammy Ofer, was a very moving moment."

Peleg Madmoni Yazdi, 12, from Pardes Hanna, describes: "When we arrived at the camp, it was difficult to communicate, but because we learned Arabic there and the Arab children learned a little Hebrew, it became easier from day to day. I also learn Arabic at school, so I used that. Because everyone loves football, it was easy for us to communicate, because it is a game that everyone knows. I learned in this camp that it is possible and necessary to get along together. Close relationships were formed and it was fun. No one looked at the other at any stage with suspicion or as someone different. We just came to have fun."