Dec 03 2009
Wacky Idea for a Complex Problem: The Limits of Football as a Tool for Engagement?
I have posted links before in which people have expressed interest in some sort of a football game to engage Israelis and Palestinians. I came across this article recently which mentions the Brazilian President trying to set up a game in which Israelis/Palestinians would join to play the Brazilian national team. I don’t know how keen two sides that are in conflict would be to join in what would surely be a rout, but the fact that football has been increasingly thought of as a space in which Israelis/Palestinians can engage in dialogue is interesting. I say interesting and hesitate to say encouraging because while I believe in the power of football to engage different communities that are unfamiliar with each other, I am skeptical about any effect it could have on Israeli/Palestinian relations. I’m curious as to hear others thoughts? What are the “limits” to football’s use as a tool of mediation and/or engagement? In what cases could such a match be successful?
One response so far
[...] Soccer Politics‘s Danny Mammo wrote on Lula’s 2009 attempt to join Israelis and Palestinians in a football match against Brazil, ‘I say [it's] interesting and hesitate to say encouraging because while I believe in the power of football to engage different communities that are unfamiliar with each other, I am skeptical about any effect it could have on Israeli/Palestinian relations.’ I lived in Brazil during this entire period and never heard of Lula’s unity match proposal , but even so, recall the anti-propaganda (and by extension, anti-normalization, anti-conciliatory) premise laid out earlier. [...]