20.11.2014

Jewish and Arab children lead anti-discrimination ceremony at Euro Qualifier

Nadav Nidam and Karim Baroum, the Jewish and Arab stars of the New Fund Israel (NIF) anti-discrimination video, lead a ceremony at Sunday's (16 November) Euro 2016 Qualifier, in Haifa, focused on sharing the values of coexistence and anti-segregation [/intro_paragraph]

At the Sammy Ofer Stadium the over 30,000 spectators in attendance, including the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, watched the 'We’re all Equal, We’re all One Team' video and saw the children and players featuring the clip release a banner and balloons with the same message in Hebrew and Arabic.

The initiative and video are part of NIF's Kick it Out programme and the Israel Football Association's (IFA) newest joint campaign, which aims to highlight the values of tolerance and mutual respect though football.

The ceremony was held two days before a Synagogue attack in Jerusalem killed five men (Tuesday, 18 November).

NIF Director of Communications & Public Advocacy in Israel, Itzik Shanan said: "The situation in Israel has been extremely difficult over the last few weeks – on Tuesday morning five people were murdered in a Jerusalem synagogue – and so it's really important that initiatives like this get as wide an exposure as possible."

The ‘We’re all Equal, We’re all One Team’ video, inspired on the 2006 Adidas World Cup advertisement, brings together men, women, youth and former players of the Israeli national teams to set an example of a shared society.

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