- Title: JERUSALEM-RUNNERS Jews and Arab runners train together ahead of Berlin race
- Date: 10th August 2015
- Summary: JERUSALEM (AUGUST 9, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ARABS AND JEWS UNDERGOING STRETCHING EXERCISES COFOUNDER OF RUNNERS WITHOUT BORDERS, ISRAEL HAAS, BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (English) COFOUNDER OF RUNNERS WITHOUT BORDERS, ISRAEL HAAS, SAYING: "We don't have any ambitions to say we are normalizing or to say we are, you know, peace Masaiah (peace messianic) or something like that, we are not coming from that point of view. We just want to create a common zone that Jews and Arabs could, you know, know each other and that's all. I mean, for us, it's better to know each other, if you know each other you wouldn't do bad things to each other like you can see in Jerusalem in these days. And that's the whole base idea of our initiative." CLOSE OF WRITINGS ON HAAS' T-SHIRT READING (Arabic, Hebrew and English) 'RUNNERS WITHOUT BORDERS' (SOUNDBITE) (English) COFOUNDER OF RUNNERS WITHOUT BORDERS, ISRAEL HAAS, SAYING: "We just want to know, this is our message, we just want to know each other to enable common ground and that's it, and we can see the reaction is quite good. Sometimes, but it's very rare and I'm happy that it's very rare, we hear some kind of nasty noises about, no it's not going to work from each side."
- Embargoed: 25th August 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Jerusalem
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVABDTQ32HDOZBMCTDS2WFSQSBDY
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Warming up ahead of a group running session, these young Arab and Jewish teenagers are joining forces to run, but to also get to know each other.
They're part of a group known as Running without borders, and they're training together to represent Jerusalem in a race in Berlin on August 23.
The running group was founded in November 2014 by Israel Haas and Shoshana Ben David, after last summer's 50-day war between Gaza militants and Israel.
Running without borders aims to create common ground between Arabs and Jews and they want to 'bridge the gaps' between Palestinians and Israelis.
"We just want to create a common zone that Jews and Arabs could, you know, know each other and that's all. I mean, for us, it's better to know each other, if you know each other you wouldn't do bad things to each other like you can see in Jerusalem in these days. And that's the whole base idea of our initiative," said Haas.
"We just want to know, this is our message, we just want to know each other to enable common ground and that's it, and we can see the reaction is quite good. Sometimes, but it's very rare and I'm happy that it's very rare, we hear some kind of nasty noises about, no it's not going to work from each side," added Haas.
Only eight young Arabs and Jews from 15 runners were chosen to participate in the Berlin race. The group is now raising funds through social media to cover its travel expenses to the German capital.
Running a distance of 10 kilometres twice a week in the old city of Jerusalem, the runners say they're enjoying the experience.
"First of all, this gives us a push to continue, and second, it makes us understand that we should seek to have hope and coexistence between us instead of wars," said Samaaha Maarouf.
"It's for a good cause. I think it does help and it does bring a new ground for Arabs and Jews to be together. I think some people might think that it's impossible and I'm in the group and I feel that it's possible. I'm having fun with other Arabs and Jews, and we run training every weekend, every week, twice a week, and it's a lot of fun," said another participant Nahoum Sak.
Encouraged by requests from the city's locals, the co-founders say they're planning to establish a similar group in Haifa. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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