TWINNED PEACE SPORT TWINNED PEACE SPORT SCHOOLS PROGRAMSCHOOLS PROGRAM

A Coexistence Program for A Coexistence Program for Palestinian and Israeli ChildrenPalestinian and Israeli Children

The Peres Center for Peace is Israel’s leading non-profit organization promoting peacebuilding between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and in particular between Israelis and Palestinians. Founded in 1996 by the President of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres, the Peres Center conducts dozens of projects, involving thousands of Israelis and Palestinians, fostering socio-economic cooperation and people-to-people interaction in a wide range of fields, such as medicine, sports, agriculture, business, the arts, and more.

The Al Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue (AFDD) was established in 2006 with the aim of creating projects and sustainable cooperation with Israelis for mutual understanding and peace. The AFDD operates mainly in Palestinian centres and refugee camps where radicalism and hatred are easily bred. Through its programmes, AFDD aims to transform the participant’s outlook from that of hatred and cynicism to appreciation of peace, dialogue and coexistence.

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“At first, before I met the Palestinian girls, I thought we would fight more than play together. In fact, it was entirely different. Totally different from what you see on television. On television they always show the hatred that the Arabs feel towards the Jews and I'm sure that on Palestinian television it is exactly the other way around - they must show that the Jews hate the Arabs. In our reality with the Palestinian friends, we can communicate and

play together.”Liron Madar, 14, Israeli from Kiryat Gat (5 years in the program)

“I remember the first time I was full of fear. I was wondering what it would be like and I thought that the Israeli kids would curse us. I was surprised to see how nice the Israeli kids were towards us. The minute we started playing it did not matter who was Israeli and who was Palestinian. The only thing that matters is how good you play and we needed to play together as a team and pass the ball to one another in order to win”

Yizan, Age 11,Palestinian from Bethlehem (first year in project)

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The Peres Center for Peace Twinned Peace Sport Schools Programme (TPSS) annually engages 1,500 – 2,000 children aged 6 – 14 from twinned communities in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Through sport, with its unique capacity to transcend hostility and bring disparate groups together, the program enables children from conflicted areas to overcome hatred and suspicion, break down prejudices and stereotypes towards the “other”, and learn values of friendship and cooperation, in a safe, enjoyable and healthy environment.

Since its inception in 2002, the Twinned Peace Sport Schools programme has touched the lives of over 10,000 Palestinian and Israeli children, and those of tens of thousands of additional family and community members on both sides of the conflict.

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The TPSS programme specifically targets severely underprivileged and conservative communities whose citizens are less disposed to reconciliation activities and in are in greater need of high-quality sport and educational frameworks.

To maximize the impact of the program, children to take part for up to six years, greatly enhancing the benefits of the programme for both the individual participants and for the ties between Palestinian and Israeli communities. Providing stable funding for this program to ensuring its continuity and expansion is a significant challenge.

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WHAT CONFLICTWHAT CONFLICT ? ?

The ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues to have severely negative affects on individuals and communities in the region.

Children are the most vulnerable group in conflict situations, and possess limited capacity to manage high levels of emotional stress. Additionally, the protracted conflict renders little opportunity for positive interaction between Israeli and Palestinian youth, further enforcing negative attitudes and dehumanization cultivated by the media and educational systems on both sides.

The TPSS programme breaks down these barriers of enmity and mistrust through cooperative and healthy interaction with the “other”, thus promoting peace and coexistence between young Palestinians and Israelis.

One of the most compelling indicators of the program’s success is that despite the ongoing tension between the two sides, especially in times of acute conflict such as the 2009 Gaza War, TPSS has become deeply rooted in the participating locales, and children, families, coaches and communities remain profoundly committed to the project's peace and reconciliation aims.

SUMMARY OF PROGRAM SUMMARY OF PROGRAM

In each participating locality in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Peres Center for Peace and its Palestinian partner, the Al Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue, establish a football or basketball school, provides the children with weekly sport training, peace education activities and inter-language learning. The children meet with their twinned school for monthly joint Palestinian-Israeli activities and other special events.

1. Sport and Fitness Training - Palestinian and Israeli children

meet separately in their own communities twice a week for a 90 minute training session with local coaches;

2. Peace Education Instruction - focusing on issues such as conflict resolution, improving listening skills, inclusion and exclusion, similarities and differences, and more. The youngsters learn about the other side's culture, customs and holidays, and gain important life skills such as cooperation and respect. Peace Education is integrated directly into the sport training and fitness sessions, innovatively utilizing the ball in the context of teamwork and cooperation games.

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SUMMARY OF PROGRAM SUMMARY OF PROGRAM

3. Inter-Language Learning - This component promotes the instruction of Arabic for the Israeli communities and Hebrew for the Palestinian communities.

4. Joint Palestinian-Israeli Social and Sporting activities – Unquestionably, the highlight of the programme for the children are the monthly Palestinian-Israeli joint activities. These meetings include peace education activities, teamwork and cooperation games, and sport. Importantly, the youngsters always play in mixed Palestinian-Israeli teams in order to mitigate direct competition and to encourage values of teamwork, equality and mutual appreciation. During these joint sessions, basic vocabulary is taught in Hebrew and in Arabic in order to advance communication and understanding.

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COACHES TRAININGCOACHES TRAINING

The success of any educational endeavor is greatly influenced by the quality and ability of the educators. The Peres Center and Al Quds Association are dedicated to the continuous training and improvement of the coaches who teach the children who take part in the Twinned Peace Sport Schools program.

Yearly training courses enhance and refresh the skills of the Israeli and Palestinian coaches by better equipping them to lead the youth, while at the same time reinforcing appreciation for the values of peace in the coaches themselves.

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Apprentice CoachesApprentice Coaches

This year for the first time graduates of the Twinned Peace Sport Schools Program have enrolled in a special program of their own – The Twinned Peace Apprentice Coaches Program. Each 'Apprentice coach' will, whilst learning new sport training skills, also participate in this new program dedicated to connecting all apprentice coaches and engaging them in more sophisticated coexistence activities.

These 15-18 year olds are volunteering in their communities: "ambassadors" for the project's ideas - ambassadors for peace. From this excellent group, eight football players (boys and girls) have been chosen to represent the project in the Football Festival for Hope 2010 in South Africa! We hope this group will continue to grow with even more graduates joining the program.

• Building a Field of Dreams (Jpost)The mixed Israeli-Palestinian ‘Peace Team’ which will be participating in the Football for Hope Festival held in conjunction with this

summer’s World Cup in South Africa was launched in Jaffa on Tuesday.

• Joint Israeli-Palestinian team takes part in European tourney (Haaretz)While there may not be anything unusual about most of the lineup of teams at the Youth European Soccer Cup in the Austrian town of Linz yesterday, the inclusion of a joint Israeli-Palestinian squad might come as something of a surprise.

• Ultimate peace in the Middle East (Al Jazeera) Speaking of peace in relation to Palestine and Israel seems almost incongruous. But if you put aside politics and look at the many grassroots activities taking place there you can find a multiplicity of initiatives in which divided communities co-operate peacefully.

• Barcelona star Eto'o promotes peace in Israel (European Jewish Press)Eto’o's brief three-day visit was jam-packed with media photo-calls and events designed to maximise the promotion of his message of tolerance…

• Ultimate Frisbee (New Tang Dynasty TV)"I truly believe that Frisbee makes you a better person. If some of these kids are gonna play together they are gonna meet when they are older and they'll remember these games, these tournaments, I am sure it will contribute to peace."

• streetfootballworld visits network members in Israel / Palestine (streetfootballworld)For two weeks in November streetfootballworld Know-how Manager Panos Manologlou was able to sample the hospitality

of network members in Israel / Palestine as he conducted our first official field visit to the Middle East

Peres Center opens Issawiya soccer field (Ynet)Korean government funds infrastructural project to promote ‘reconciliation and respect’; Korean ambassador to Israel:

Soccer enables children to get to know each other, respect each other

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Recent Press CRecent Press Coverageoverage

• Peres Center for Peace: Farmar Checks In From Israel (NBA)I saw Palestinian kids and Israeli kids,..., play together on the same team, do drills together, and just get

along, which was real cool. Basket is a vehicle to accomplish these things

• Rio Ferdinand named Peres Center sports ambassador (Jerusalem Post)Ferdinand expressed his excitement about his talk with the children. He explained that he was especially

impressed by their ability to put aside their conflicts and simply be friends and play football together.

• Israelis, Palestinians heading down under to play rough (Jerusalem Post) "I've always been a big believer in sports being a very constructive medium to be used in any kind of conflict resolution," he says. "You have to play with a team to get towards that same goal which has nothing to do

with politics or religion. It's just sport."

• Tackling Peace (Screen Australia) The inspirational story of Israeli and Palestinian youths who unite over the game of Australian football

• A Kick For Peace (Looking for Shalom blog)Another crazy day in the Middle East. This time, with the Peres Center for Peace and the Al Quds

organisation, for a peace-building program bringing together Israeli and Palestinian schoolchildren to play soccer (otherwise known as football). This was no ordinary soccer match, in no ordinary situation.

• Eto'o takes stardom in stride (Jerusalem Post)The 25-year-old Cameroon international flew into Israel on Tuesday as a guest of the Peres Center for

Peace and promoted his message of tolerance since the moment he arrived.....

• Soccer phenom on peace mission (Ynet)Brazilian star Ronaldo to take part in Peres Centerfor Peace venture bringing Israeli, Palestinian children

together.

• Everybody speaks football (ISRAEL21C )or two weeks a year, over 100 Israeli and Palestinian kids forget about their troubles and play ball.

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Recent Press CRecent Press Coverage cont.overage cont.

Our Sport Video Muhammad & Yossie

Mini World Cup 2009Girls Basketball Project

Football Village of Hope

OUR FILMS ON YOUTUBE

Playing for Peace

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Our Twinned Sport Schools LocationsOur Twinned Sport Schools Locations

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Boys Football:•Sderot - Israel•Tul Karem - Refugee Camp, Palestinian Authority•Al-Aqabe - Palestinian Authority

•Sha’ar Hanegev - Israel•Jericho - Palestinian Authority•Ein-Rafa - Arab Community in Israel

•Merchavim – Israel•Abu-Tor - Arab Community is East Jerusalem

•Samoa-Hebron - Palestinian Authority•Kiryat-Gat -Israel•Bethleem - Palestinian Authority

•Yeruham - Israel•Yata -Hebron Palestinian Authority

Girls Football:•Beit Safafa - Arab Community in Jerusalem•Beit Sahour - Palestinian Authority•Kiryat-Malachi - Israel•Be’er Tuvia - Israel•Kiryat-Gat, Israel•Merchavim – Israel

Boys basketball:•Kiryat-Gat, Israel•Jericho - Palestinian Authority

Girls Basketball:•Beit Sahour - Palestinian Authority•Be’er Tuvia – Israel

•Kiryat-Malachi - Israel•Ein-Rafa - Arab Community in Israel•Sderot - Israel•Jericho - Palestinian Authority

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