Where diplomacy and sport meet

Where diplomacy and sport meet

Sport is the way to meet, sport is the way to solve the problems and to achieve world peace. If you live in sensitive areas sport can solve the problems. Take for example Israel and Friendship Games. They bring together people of different cultures and different nationalities where the main goal is to unite.

Thanks to Sports Business Daily we bring you the atmosphere from Friendships Games 2018

Sponsored by former Atlanta Hawks co-owner Ed Peskowitz, the 12th annual installment of the Games in the scenic beach town of Eilat, Israel, brought together basketball players between the ages of 18 and 32 from eight countries.

“It was an opportunity, just by happenstance, to do something with international understanding,” said Peskowitz, who was originally asked to help create a traditional peace summit, but instead proposed an event surrounding sports.

American and Israeli professor Michael Leitner, who surveys participants before and after the tournament to gauge its effectiveness, said: “I believe, through personal observation but also data that we’ve collected, that it really changes Arabs’ and Jews’ attitudes toward each other, making it more positive, increasing trust and decreasing the perception that the other side hates them.”

While traditional “peace summits” may have trouble attracting young participants, the Friendship Games uses basketball to bring together people from conflicting countries, who otherwise would never consider boarding a boat or simply conversing with someone long considered an enemy.

 “This is the power of sport, people from different nationalities, different religions,” games organizer Arie Rosenzweig said at the event’s closing ceremonies, which were held on the shores of the Red Sea. “We have Christians, Muslims and [Jews] in Israel … together.”

With sites sacred to three prominent religions, Israel is oftentimes at the center of international conflict. The challenge the Friendship Games organizers face each year is getting attendees to find common ground.

This year’s participants hailed from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. Expecting a shared love of the sport to unify countries with historically rocky relationships may sound too good to be true, but for more than a decade, it has been reality.

The setup revolves around basketball, where players vary in skill level: Some play for their university teams, others play professionally in their respective countries or are looking to go pro in others. However, sport turned out to be perhaps the least important aspect of the Games.

Instead, social events were the focal point. Because while the Games essentially pit two countries at a time against each other, each evening’s social event gave the athletes no choice but to come together. Over the course of the week, participants gradually took to socializing with others instead of just sticking with their compatriots.

Read the entire text on the following link..