Sport in the Service of Peace
This project's parent organization is Peres Center for Peace
It operates in Israel and
It uses Football (Soccer)
Shortlisted for the Sport for Conflict Resolution Award
More about Sport in the Service of Peace
The opportunity for Palestinians and Israelis, and Jews and Arabs to meet each other is incredibly rare; media, education systems and the current political circumstances keep the two sides apart, while maintaining existing harmful stereotypes and dehumanization of the "other."
Children and youth are severely affected by conflict, and due to the lack of positive interaction, they are susceptible to developing fears and misconceptions of the "other." As the future of the region, they have the most to gain from the development of durable peace and thus, it crucial to engage them in peace education programming.
This holistic program utilizes sport as a peace education tool to bring together Palestinians and Israelis, and Jews and Arabs in a safe, healthy and fun environment built on principles of equality, diversity, respect, and mutual understanding. The program also disseminates the Peres Center’s peace education through sport methodologies to wider audiences in order to enhance the impact of the model, which enables youth to meet friends from "the other side," play in mixed teams, mitigate direct competition and encourgaes values of teamwork and equality.