Soccer stars show intolerance the red card
Zionism Victoria has welcomed professional Israeli soccer players Hadas Prawer and Dima Al-Rahmi to Melbourne this week for an event at Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre, a visit to the Israel 75 Peace Garden and a soccer clinic for students at the Maharishi School in Reservoir.
Dima and Hadas address their audience
The female footballers – one Muslim, one Jewish – from the Peres Peace Centre in Jaffa, addressed tenants of Beth Weizmann on Wednesday morning at a talk co-hosted by Zionism Victoria, the Zionist Federation of Australia and UIA.
Asked by Zionism Victoria executive director Zeddy Lawrence how their respective communities regard Arabs and Jews playing on the same team, Hadas responded, “It depends. Some people are like, ‘Yay, go make peace.’ Other people are like, ‘Don’t do that.”
She added, “It’s mixed for sure; there are a lot of bad comments. Like walking around with this jacket, it has a big ‘peace’ sign on the back, sometimes you get negative comments.
But at the end of the day it’s just kids playing together. If you’re against that, then I don’t really know how to help you. Because it’s not about territory – giving back or not giving back. It’s just about kids playing together.”
In the afternoon, Hadas and Dima visited the Israel 75 Peace Garden, created earlier this year by Zionism Victoria and the City of Glen Eira to celebrate the Jewish State’s 75th anniversary.
On Thursday morning, meanwhile, Hadas and Deema spoke with young students at the Maharishi School in Reservoir before running a coaching session.
The school visit was arranged as part of the Jakob Frenkiel Connecting Cultures program run by Zionism Victoria.
