Helping people find common themes, hopes and dreams
צילום: רויטרס
Jumping through hoops for Mideast peace
Tel Aviv University to host The Second Annual Friendship Games basketball tournament next month. Audience will get rare chance to watch men and women's teams from 17 countries and regions compete against each other
Where armies and politicians have failed, a Tel Aviv University (TAU) athlete and sports director is hoping that basketball might finally bring peace to the Middle East. With a generous donation from Atlanta Hawks co-owner Ed Peskowitz, TAU next month will host The Second Annual Friendship Games basketball tournament.
Slated to begin on June 3 at Tel Aviv University, and open to the public, audience members will get a rare chance to watch men and women's teams from 17 countries and regions such as Jordan, Palestine, Estonia, Ireland and Israel compete against each other in a round-robin style tournament. There will be an opening ceremony in the Arab village Zemer on June 1.
Arie Rosenzweig, athletic director at TAU, explains, “It was the vision of Ed Peskowitz that sport would be the easiest way to get people together. It was important that Arab countries would participate and that we could find a vehicle for us to get to know each other. All of us have a mutual interest in basketball so this game was the natural choice.”
In addition to the tournament, The Friendship Games give college-aged students of different ethnic and religious backgrounds the opportunity to come together in friendship by touring Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Tiberias and Tel Aviv.
This year's event will begin with a coach's clinic at Tel Aviv University featuring former a National Basketball Association (NBA) all-star player and NBA coaches. A clinic is also scheduled in Amman, Jordan. Atlanta Hawks assistant coach Herb Brown will lead the clinics.
The program was conceived in 2006 by Atlanta Hawks co-owner Ed Peskowitz after meeting with Arie Rosenzweig, athletic director of Tel Aviv University and Illan Kowalski, athletic director at the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya. Their goal was to use the game of basketball to unify countries on a grassroots, person-to-person level.
"We are not going to change the world," Peskowitz says. "But you can either wring your hands over seemingly insolvable problems or try to make a difference. This is our attempt to help people find common themes, common hopes, and common dreams, rather than focusing on their differences.
"During the Friendship Games, Arabs and Jews, Christians and Muslims, and people of all faiths will live together, play together, explore together and grow together."
This release has been produced in part by Tel Aviv University: American Council which supports Israel’s leading center of higher learning, the largest Jewish university anywhere. It is ranked among the world’s top 100 universities in science, biomedical studies, and social science, and rated one of the world’s top 200 universities overall.
For more information about The Friendship Games, see www.thefriendshipgames.org
