Promoting Coexistence In Palestine Through Sports

While most Palestinians continue to foster hate by encouraging children to embrace martyrdom through Islamic jihad, a few are trying to foment peace through coexistence. In a perfect world, we would all live together in peace, but that will never happen as long as adults continue to teach children to hate. We are not born with the prejudice and bias, it is something that is taught and passed down from generation to generation. And if we want to some day live in harmony it will have to start with our children, especially the Palestinian kids who have been brainwashed from a very young age, by parents and the media alike, into loathing the Israelis enough to sacrifice their own lives to get rid of the Jews.

So what better way to promote peace, cooperation and coexistence than sports. Apparently, the European Union, along with an Israeli organization Hapoel Tel Aviv Club, funded a project 'Football- Our Common Denominator' which brought Israeli and Palestinian kids together to play "a friendly game of football" south of Hebron, in the PA, in early December.

The offical Palestinian Authority daily- Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 11, 2010- reported the following [excerpt]:

Headline: "Game for coexistence between Palestinian and Israeli children"
"On Friday, Palestinian children hosted a group of Israeli peers for a friendly game of football between two mixed teams, in the first visit of its kind, in order to demonstrate the possibility of peaceful coexistence between two states in the future... The mixed game was organized with the support of the 'Football - Our Common Denominator' project, funded by the European Union, in conjunction with the Israeli Ha-Poel Tel Aviv club."

It must start with the children who need to learn the importance of coexisting with others if there is ever to be peace in that region. A sports match is only the beginning. There needs to be many more projects like this.

Source: Palestinian Media Watch