World Footy News

When the AFL announced that one of the teams partaking in the 2008 International Cup would be comprised of Israelis and Palestinians, a few voices in the international football community expressed skepticism. Whilst football competitions existed previously in Israel, there had been no major football news from the region in years. Some questioned whether the Peace Team's involvement in the tournament would lead to a football presence in Israel and Palestine afterwards or if it was simply an AFL publicity stunt. Positive news from The Peres Centre for Peace today, suggests that the AFL made the right decision.

As a direct outcome and result of the recent visit to Australia by the Peres Centre's first-ever combined Israeli/Palestinian AFL Peace Team, a highly successful Auskick session, led by Palestinian Peace Team player, Muhammed Ibdeir (Hamudi), took place in Jerusalem on 29 January.

The Israeli and Palestinian children that participated were from the Sderot-Tulkarem "Twinned Peace Football Schools" Programme. The children spent the session learning the basic skills of Australian Football, and it is envisaged that this will be a new programme to be incorporated into the Peres Centre's existing sporting programmes, that brings together 1,600 children annually, through soccer and basketball.

It is hoped that the Auskick programme, (to be known as Footy Y'alla), will be implemented in September 2009 as a dedicated Australian initiative that will see over 500 children playing Aussie Rules, with the necessary funding to be raised by the Peres Centre's Australian office.

(Courtesy of Tanya Oziel of The Peres Centre for Peace)