Peace Team
UNITED WE STANDPeace team shows that co-existence is possible.
This time last year you would not have been able to find many Israelis or Palestinians who were familiar with Australian Football.
Now, a team of 26 players (13 Israelis, 13 Palestinians) are competingin the 2008 Australian Football International Cup, using the game tobridge differences and join forces for a common goal.
The unique AFL Peace Team is a mixed Israeli-Palestinian side,initiated by Israeli NGO and the Peres Center for Peace(peres-center.org), in cooperation with Palestinian NGO and the Al-Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue. The Peres Center is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in 1996 by then president of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres with the aim of furthering his vision in which people of the Middle East region work together to build peace through socio-economic cooperation and development, and people-to-people interaction.
In cooperation with various Palestinian partner organisations, the Peres Center designs and facilitates tangible peace building projects across a range of fields, including sport, agriculture, business and economics, culture and arts and medicine and healthcare, thereby strengthening Palestinian-Israeli relations.
In January 2008, preparations began for an AFL Peace Team, with some 100 Palestinians and Israelis attending the introductory meeting held by the Peres Center and Al-Quds Association.
Following a period of tryouts, 26 players - 13 from each side - were selected to compete in the International Cup under the banner of the Peace Team, thereby demonstrating to everyday Australians and other people around the globe that Palestinian-Israeli cooperation is not only desirable, but also entirely feasible.
The team represents a diverse group of Palestinians and Israelis - 16 to 36 years old, Muslim, Jewish and Christian - who hail from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Kiriyat Gat, Beersheva, Yeruham and Ra'anana on the Israeli side, and Tulkarem, Jericho, East Jerusalem and Hebron on the Palestinian side.
The Peace Team has had to overcome many obstacles in order to learn the game; there is no Australian Football field in Israel or within the confines of the Palestinian Authority; AFL equipment such as footballs and goal posts cannot be purchased in the region; there are no professionally-trained coaches to assist with the players' development in the new code; and the players speak different languages - Hebrew and Arabic - meaning that all instructions must be translated into both.
Some players have travelled for up to four hours just to get to training, which includes passing through military checkpoints using temporary visas. At an early team dinner, conversing through interpreters, the Peace Team developed its mission statement to play "with courage, pride, togetherness, and with respect for each other".
Through some 20-25 training sessions, the players have learned as many ins and outs of Australian Football as possible in such a short time frame, as well as becoming acquainted with the "other side" and learning values of coexistence.
The players have run together, sweated together, ached together, and ultimately, have succeeded in mastering the sport of Australian Football and in building strong relationships with former "foes" now teammates. Hopefully, they will be lifelong friends.
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