SPAIN: SOCCER - Combined Israeli and Palestinian team arrives in Spain for a match against Barcelona to promote peace in the Middle East, press conference by Shimon Peres and Sean Connery

Record ID: 349919

  • Title: SPAIN: SOCCER - Combined Israeli and Palestinian team arrives in Spain for a match against Barcelona to promote peace in the Middle East, press conference by Shimon Peres and Sean Connery
  • Date: 29th November 2005
  • Summary: PAN: CUTAWAY MEDIA
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: International Relations,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7KQI2UVCTF1TJWPW8QT21C574
  • Story Text: Israeli politician Shimon Peres hailed soccer as a great contributor to Middle East peace on Monday (November 28) when a combined Israeli and Palestinian team arrived in Spain to take on Spanish champions Barcelona.
    Movie actor and soccer fan Sean Connery was also on hand in Barcelona to promote Tuesday's "Match for peace", a friendly against Barcelona at the Nou Camp stadium.
    "Football is a great contributor to the peace process," Peres told a news conference. "I think all of us are coming here with one message and that is peace has a future."
    The "Peace Team" includes Israeli internationals and Palestinian players from the occupied West Bank.
    Connery said: "What we really need is to get back some of the optimism we had five years ago (in the Middle East peace process) and I'm sure there's going to be a change in the climate within a week."
    Peres, 82, is considering leaving Israel's Labour Party and joining Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist list, but said on Monday he would not announce his decision until he returned to Israel.
    Tuesday's match kicks of at 9.30 p.m. (2030 GMT).
    The Barcelona squad is packed with outstanding players such as Brazil's Ronaldinho, crowned European Footballer of the Year in Paris on Monday night, Cameroon international Samuel Eto'o and Argentine prodigy Lionel Messi.
    The match against Barcelona has been three years in the planning and is backed by the Peres Centre for Peace, a foundation set up by Peres.
    The game is aimed at building understanding and respect between Israelis and Palestinians and to contribute to the quest for peace in the Middle East.
    It will be held in Barcelona a day after leaders and ministers from the 25 European Union countries and 10 Mediterranean partners, including Israelis and Palestinians, ended a two-day summit in the city. The summit marked the 10th anniversary of the launching of the EU-Mediterranean group.
    The "Peace Team" will be coached jointly by newly-appointed Israel national team coach Dror Kashtan and Palestinian coach Jamal Hadeideh of Tulkarm.
    Kashtan said in a statement: "I hope that this game is only the first of many other joint sporting ventures which will take place in the future.
    Israeli players in a 15-strong group include national team captain Avi Nimni, veteran defenders Arik Benado and Alon Harazi, and Israeli Arabs Abbas Suan and Walid Badir.
    The 12-strong Palestinian contingent comprises West Bank players including Palestine national team captain Haldin Mahed Ali Aloara.
    Regular sporting contacts between Israelis and Palestinians, locked in violence for the past five years, have been rare. The Peres centre's soccer and basketball coaching programme for Israeli and Palestinian children begun in 2002 is an exception.
    The centre says some 2,000 children have already benefited from the programme. It has promoted projects with the help of Real Madrid's Brazilian striker Ronaldo and Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho who visited the region earlier this year.
    Tuesday's match has received media attention in Israel with TV promos by Ronaldinho calling on viewers throughout the world to watch the match in support of Middle East peace.
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