Israeli-Palestinian Soccer "Peace Team" to Face Barcelona's Stars

by Reuters and Haaretz Service

Tel Aviv - The joint Israeli-Palestinian soccer "peace team," sponsored by Shimon Peres' Centre for Peace, flew to Spain on Sunday for a friendly match against Spain's leading team Barcelona on Tuesday evening.

The "peace team" includes Israeli internationals and Palestinian players from the West Bank.

Most of the 27-member team, which was accompanied by a host of local sports and political dignitaries, flew from Tel Aviv for the match Tuesday, which comes at the end of a two-day Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona. Leaders of all 25 European Union member states and 10 of Mediterranean neighbours are meeting in the city to discuss closer regional cooperation.

The team will be jointly coached by newly-appointed Israel national team coach Dror Kashtan and Palestinian coach Jamal Hadeideh of Tul Karm.

"Soccer is a language that anybody can understand, and I'm happy to be a part of the message that will go out to the world through this match - that Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in soccer is a natural thing," Kashtan said in a statement. "I hope that this game is only the first of many other joint sporting ventures that will take place in the future."

Movie actor and soccer fan Sean Connery, who is in Barcelona to promote Monday's game said: "What we really need is to get back some of the optimism we had five years ago (in the Middle East peace process) and I'm sure there's going to be a change in the climate within a week."

Members of the 15-strong Israeli contingent include national team captain Avi Nimni, veteran defenders Arik Benado and Alon Harazi, and Israeli Arabs Abbas Suan and Walid Badir. Among the 12 Palestinian members is national team captain Haldin Mahed Ali Aloara.

Regular sporting events between Israelis and Palestinians are rare. The Peres centre's soccer and basketball coaching program for Israeli and Palestinian youth, which is begun in 2002, is an exception.

The centre says some 2,000 children already have benefited from the program, which has promoted projects with the help of Real Madrid's Brazilian striker Ronaldo and Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, who visited the region earlier this year.

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Source: Haaretz, November 29, 2005.

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