After a
traumatic summer of war and death, Israeli and Palestinian children
squared off on Monday for games of football, just kilometres (miles)
away from the devastated Gaza Strip.
The Israeli children came from villages
surrounding the besieged Palestinian enclave while the Palestinians were
bused in from Yatta in the southern West Bank.
The tournament was part of an initiative
launched 12 years ago and aimed at bringing together Palestinians from
Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and disaffected Israeli youths.
Many of the boys had played together before at
other such gatherings organised by the Peres Centre for Peace, which is
run by former president Shimon Peres.
Monday’s football came nearly a week after a
ceasefire ended the Gaza war, and allowed Israeli children to return to
their homes.
Initial apprehension was obvious on both sides, but the young players’ enthusiasm for the game soon took over.
The war in Gaza killed more than 2,140
Palestinians — a quarter of them children — and 71 on the Israeli side,
mostly soldiers, but also a four-year-old boy.
“It’s great to come back here after weeks
stuck at home during the war, and to have some fun,” said 11-year-old
Ofir from Sderot in southern Israel, one of the towns most hit by Gaza
rocket fire.
“The Arab kids aren’t mean, and there are some who want peace like me,” said the curly-haired blond boy.
Eleven-year-old Qusay agreed.
“I like it when we play together. I hope one day there will be peace between Jews and Arabs, and no more war or death,” he said.
The Palestinian children had travelled for
three hours by bus, and were stopped by an Israeli army checkpoint and
searched by soldiers. For some it was their first such experience.
But any feelings of animosity they may have
had towards their Israeli hosts appeared to evaporate as they put on
their football boots and ran out on to the pitch.
- ‘Children of peace’ -
Peres, who stepped down as Israel’s 9th
president in July, made a rare public appearance to help kick off the
day and support the event.
“You won’t be playing against each other but with each other,” the 90-year-old Nobel Laureate told the boys, holding a football.
“You’re the generation of tomorrow. Show us
how to play together, how to live together, because you are children of
peace — the children who chose sport over violence.”
Meir Azram, one of the coordinators of the
project, said the football initiative aims to help children learn to
live together by playing together.
“In 12 years we’ve seen war and tension, but we know how to deal with that,” said Azram.
“The adult trainers from both sides sit down
together and say what they’ve lived through, then it’s down to the kids
to bond” through sport.
Since its inception in east Jerusalem, the
project has been extended to include children from some 15 schools on
both sides of Israel’s vast separation barrier that cuts off the West
Bank.
Monday’s tournament followed some of the worst violence in a decade.
As Israeli missiles rained down on Gaza for 50
days and Palestinian rockets soared back over the border, the army
carried out many arrests and clashed in violent stand-offs with West
Bank Palestinians protesting against the operation.
But on the pitch on Monday, Israeli and
Palestinian teammates overcame the Arabic-Hebrew language barrier by
signalling to each other and just playing the beautiful game.
