Arab and Jewish Teens Play Ball
By Tzippe Barrow
CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau
July 7, 2007
CBNNews.com - NAHALAL, Israel - By anyone's standards, the three-day basketball camp held at the WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization) Youth Village in the upper Galilee was an amazing success.
Dubbed Streetball Hafla, the camp provided the venue for Arab and Jewish youth to have fun together in a friendship-building atmosphere, ultimately aimed at breaking down generational stereotypes.
The pilot project was the first of its kind to use Streetball basketball to bring Muslim, Christian and Jewish kids together. The fast-paced three-on-three game sweeping America can be played anywhere six players with a basketball get together.
A joint undertaking by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Israel's Ministry of Science, Culture and Sports, the camp's sports activities were interspersed with an ADL training program from A World of Difference Institute, which teaches people how to overcome bias and prejudice.
There were a few bumps to navigate the first day of camp.
Some kids didn't like the intentional mixing of two Arab and two Jewish teens in a room so they took their stuff and moved to other rooms. But the coaches convinced them to give it a try.
By the second day, everyone was getting along well with one another, as they focused on playing ball.
"Even if they never see each other again, even if they don't exchange phone numbers or e-mail addresses, this camp experience is bound to have an impact on their lives because they will, sometime in the future I'm sure, recall that they once played together and were friends, even if it was only for three days," said ADL's Israeli spokesman Arieh O'Sullivan.
Nearly 160 seventh and eighth graders, hailing from 14 communities and villages in the north, participated in the first-of-its-kind pilot project.
"This [camp] changed me because it made me think that they [the Arabs] are like us" said 14-year-old Nitai Yaffee from Kibbutz Ginagar.
"We do the same things," the long-haired, blonde teenager said. "They think like us and play like us. We aren't so different," she said.
One of the camp's highlights was a visit by Israeli Arab soccer player Abbas Swan, who spoke to an enthusiastic crowd about overcoming bigotry and hatred with clean sportsmanship.
Streetball Tournament
The camp culminated with a Streetball tournament, with the first teams to score 15 points moving up to the next round.
With just three players on each team, the game requires quick transitions from offense to defense, with no player left out of the action.
"The Jews are good," said 14-year-old Amer Musa Arabe, wrapping his arms around his Jewish teammate, Almog.
"We won two games already in the tournament," Amer said. "They know how to play well -- not great -- just well," he laughed.
Mike Saltman, the Las Vegas businessman whose vision and generous donation from the Saltman Center for Resolution Conflict made the Streetball Hafla pilot project possible, was elated with the outcome.
"You can see it's successful," said Saltman. "Just look at them speaking together and tossing the ball back and forth. It has exceeded my expectations," he said.
Abud Tuma, from Nazareth, who came to watch his son Halil, 12, echoed Saltman.
"It was a great success," said Tuma. "I wanted my son to participate. It's important for them to have contacts when they are young," he said.
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