International soccer stars coach Jewish and Arab children in Haifa

Local news from the across the country.

By COMPILEDTAMARA ZIEVE
Israel fans hold placards during their Euro 2016 Group B qualifying soccer match against Wales at the Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Israel fans hold placards during their Euro 2016 Group B qualifying soccer match against Wales at the Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
NORTH
A day after the Israeli national soccer team was crushed by Wales in a European championship qualifier in Haifa, the Welsh national soccer team played a game with a group of Jewish and Arab children in the same city.
On Sunday, 23 children from Jewish and Arab communities across the North were coached on ball skills by leading names in soccer, including Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale and Liverpool’s Joe Allen.
The event was organized by the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, in partnership with major youth soccer league the Equalizer, which brings together young Jewish and Arab teams to play soccer, interact and build coexistence and reconciliation between Israel’s communities.
British Ambassador Matthew Gould commented: “Soccer is a great equalizer; we are proud to support this initiative that breaks down barriers between communities through the sport. I am delighted that the Welsh Football Association supported it during their visit to Israel. It sends a strong message.”
Stun grenade thrown at home in Shlomi, no injuries reported
A stun grenade was thrown at the home of a 50-year-old man in the northern community of Shlomi on Sunday. No injuries or damages were reported. The Nahariya police station launched an investigation into the incident.
CENTER
Man shot dead in parked car in Netanya
A man in his 30s was shot dead and a 19-year-old was moderately wounded while sitting in a parked car on Netanya’s Giborei Yisrael Street early Sunday morning. Magen David Adom paramedics pronounced the victim dead at the scene; police launched an investigation into the incident.
2 youths hurt in Bnei Brak shooting
One youth was seriously injured and another lightly hurt when their vehicle was shot at last week in Bnei Brak. United Hatzalah medics administered first aid at the gas station at the entrance to the city, before evacuating the two by ambulance to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.
Police launched an investigation into the incident.
Plethora of hand sculptures displayed on Bauhaus Rothschild building
Dozens of sculptures of hands, frozen in a variety of gestures, were displayed on Sunday on the walls of a Bauhaus building due to be demolished on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard. The goal is to produce a positive act of art and establish a free dialogue with the environment.
The project marks a decade of operation of the Muses high school in Jaffa, which provides a last chance for youth who have been ejected from educational institutions throughout their lives; the school integrates artistic work with matriculation exam studies. The initiative is in collaboration with post-graffiti artist Know Hope Israel, who began exhibiting his works in 2005 in Tel Aviv’s streets and city squares, on the walls of abandoned buildings and in public gardens.
Over the past decade, Know Hope has developed a visual iconography and language used to mirror real-life situations and observations, documenting the notion of a collective human struggle. By placing his works in public spaces, the artist aims to make the separation between the emotional and political nonexistent, and allow viewers to see themselves in the larger context of their surroundings, simply by recognizing each other.
Know Hope has worked and exhibited internationally, and has projects and exhibitions scheduled in New York City, Paris, Cologne and Tel Aviv throughout 2015 and 2016; the artist lives and works in Tel Aviv.
Jaffa art exhibit spotlights values of tolerance, equality
“Different Together,” a tolerance project displayed at Jaffa Port, is open to visitors until April 11. It is the Israeli extension of the “Embracing Our Differences” initiative, which was founded a decade ago in Sarasota, Florida, and has since been running successfully throughout the US.
This is the first year of Different Together, founded in Israel by the Daniel Centers for Progressive Judaism with the support of the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, which raised the funds to finance the project. The exhibit, aimed at instilling values of equality, tolerance, recognition of the other and coexistence, displays 37 works of art selected by a judging panel.
Bat Yam marks women’s month
Women’s month was marked in Bat Yam in a variety of ways, and created unique collaborations, the Bat Yam Municipality said this week. These included the Center for Urban and Mediterranean culture and the women’s council of Bat Yam. Last week a meeting was held on Rothschild Street, discussing the connection between women and daily life in Bat Yam. The meeting was moderated by Avirama Golan, director of the Center of Urban and Mediterranean Culture, and attended by Anat Livnat, head of the Council of Women, Dr. Einat Kalish, architect and urban planner from the Haifa city council, and Yael Hasson, researcher and lecturer at the Adva Center.
Livnat said: “On March 8 every year we women come together for a day to express solidarity and to pay our respects to groundbreaking brave women who struggle for their rights as workers and as citizens with equal rights. These women have paved the way for us, so that we can choose the right way for each of us to live our lives, with equal opportunities in all aspects of life.”
SOUTH
Beduin student stabbed near Beersheba
A student was stabbed during an altercation with another student at a high school in the Beduin village of Aroer in the Negev on Sunday.
The youth, 18, was evacuated by emergency services to Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center, where he was treated for critical injuries to his torso. Police were investigating the incident.
Eilateva movement established in Eilat
A new youth movement called Eilateva (Eilat Nature) was recently founded in Eilat, adding to some 20 other youth organizations already operating in the city. The movement is based on values of environmental education and social leadership; 50 children from third through 10th grade are already active in it, with some of the older students trained as counselors.
Eilateva’s leaders are from the city’s field studies center of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel; it was founded by the municipality’s youth and sport wing, the Community Centers Network and SPNI. The movement’s establishment was part of a policy laid down by Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi, in favor of keeping youth busy and involved in non-formal activity focusing on education about sustainability, love of the country, conservation and encouraging involvement in restoration processes and environmental development in the city.
Eilateva members meet on a weekly basis on Tuesday afternoons, and take part in environmental activities and leadership development. On Tu Bishvat, for instance, they took a weekend trip to Nahal Shahmon – where they conducted environmental patrols in which they cleaned up the valley, collecting over 30 bags of garbage.


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