In a post last year, I mentioned the good work of the HaPoel Tel Aviv football club’s Mifalot project, which promotes mixed children’s teams of “Jewish-Israelis, Arab-Israelis, Palestinians, Bedouins, Druze, Christians, Refugees, Ethiopian Immigrants, and Kibbutz children.”
Despite the outpouring of hatred aimed at Israel following the Mavi Marmara incident, Mifalot last week sponsored a one-day tournament in the Israeli town of Holon that included both Palestinian and Jordanian children.
HaPoel’s Israeli Arab captain, Walid Badir, was among those on hand.
This year was the first year the tournament included Jordanian students. The ability to expand the project resulted from the family relations of the Arab Israeli participants, who helped expand the program because they have relatives in Jordan who were eager to get their friends and relatives involved.