The Benevolent Game: Soccer, a Tool for Community-Building in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Soccer, and other sports, has provided and will continue to be a tool for community building and peace making in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. This thesis will analyze the local, national and international efforts striving to provide the next generation living in conflict zones, specifically Israel, with the tools, skills and abilities needed to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of global development and peace. In order to understand these efforts, the reader will be provided with Israel’s recent history as well as the current status of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. This history and status will provide the context needed to help the reader appreciate how the Sport for Development and Peace Movement can positively effect the existing situation in Israel and the complex and problematic relationship between the Israelis and Palestinians. Three case studies of Israeli grassroots organizations, the Peres Center for Peace, Mifalot and Football4Peace, shape the discussion surrounding the effectiveness of using soccer as a powerful tool to build a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the continued role soccer initiatives and other grassroots organizations must play in Israel to achieve a peaceful, co-existent society. The conclusions drawn in this thesis help the reader understand the usage of soccer as a tool and powerful division of the global “Sport for Development and Peace” movement at the local, national and international levels, in the hopes of supporting and furthering the efforts of the many grassroots soccer organizations and programs around the world