It was with much fanfare that President Shimon Peres and the president of FC
Barcelona, Sandro Rosell, announced last Thursday the plan to hold a match for
peace between the Spanish powerhouse and a mixed team of Israeli and Palestinian
players on July 31.
The two spoke at length about the benefit such a
match would bring and how soccer “brings down barriers, eliminates racism and
teaches us to compete in friendship rather than fight in anger,” as Peres put
it.
However, in the Middle East even what looks to be a harmless
feel-good initiative somehow ultimately deteriorates into conflict.
Hours
after Peres and Rosell spoke about how “football is a universal language that
should be used to bring people together,” Palestinian Football Association
chief, Jibril Rajoub, poured cold water on the idea saying that “it is too
soon.”
The senior Palestinian Authority official added after his meeting
with Rosell on Friday that “the conditions are not ready for this idea as Israel
does not even recognize us as a sporting entity.”
Rajoub claimed on
Monday that the Peres Center for Peace had arranged the match without consulting
the Palestinians and that there are other issues which need to be resolved
before they agree to cooperate with the initiative.
“This is a good and
amazing idea which I love. I really think that sports and soccer can be used to
build trust and create peace,” Rajoub told radio station 102FM. “However, the
decision was made without consulting us. They think that it is our obligation to
do what the masters of the region demand.”
Rajoub complained that the
Israeli authorities have withheld the entrance of a FIFA expert to the West Bank
over the past few days and that four Palestinian national team players are not
being allowed to travel from Gaza to Ramallah, eventually explaining that the
“current atmosphere is not appropriate for a match like this.”
That final
comment likely stands at the core of the opposition Rajoub is currently
displaying towards the match for peace.
The escalating tensions in the
West Bank over recent days have surely contributed to Rajoub’s stance, resulting
in the unrelated requests he is demanding as a precondition to agreeing to
Barca’s visit.
“Several issues were brought up by the Palestinian
authorities regarding the game with Barcelona which need to be dealt with by the
Israeli side,” Ido Sharir, the Director General of the Peres Center, told me on
Tuesday.
“We are studying them and hope to find a solution. In the same
breath, we continue to hope that we will succeed in arranging the game which
will send out a message of peace to the children and the entire public in the
Middle East which believe in dialogue and coexistence.”
Rajoub protested
on Monday that he had heard about the idea to hold the match from the Peres
Center after they had already made all the arrangements, but Sharir claimed that
the sides are working together.
“The Peres Center for Peace is working in
cooperation with the Palestinian side and with other authorities in order to
promote the holding of a peace match with Barcelona in the upcoming summer,” he
said.
“We hope that the atmosphere in the region will calm down and that
we will succeed in promoting a message of peace the way we have done through
sports over the past decade.”
Standing beside Peres last week, Rosell
elaborated on how Barcelona “want to make our team available to take part in a
football match with the hope that this game will serve to extend the channels of
dialogue within the two communities and help bring them closer
together.”
Little did he know that even arranging a seemingly innocent
match would result in dispute.
Peres even went on to say that he is
“convinced that the day will come and we shall celebrate together full peace
between our two nations.”
Maybe Messi will bring peace? For the time
being, however, the world’s greatest player isn’t even coming to play in the
Holy Land as the two sides can’t even agree to combine forces on the field of
play.
“We are the Peres Center for Peace. We are always optimistic,”
Sharir said when asked of the chances the match will go ahead as
planned.
“But we must also be realistic. There is a lot of
willingness on Barca’s side and a lot of willingness on our side.
“The
Palestinians have made requests, some more legitimate than others, and we are
trying to deal with that. There are a lot of variables that are out of our
control and can affect an initiative like this. But we have a good base [for
arranging the match].”
allon@jpost.com
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