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PeacePlayers International
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Our mission is “to use the game of basketball to unite and
educate children and their communities.”
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Our vision is to “bridge divides.”
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Our goals include:
– Developing future leaders
– Educating children to lead healthy, constructive lives
– Building community involvement to ensure long-term sustainability
Children who play together can learn to live together
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Our Background and History
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Founded in 2001
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Five international programs
– South Africa (2001);
– Northern Ireland (2002);
– Israel / West Bank (2005);
– Cyprus (2006); and
– New Orleans (2008)
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45,000 children served
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Staff: 200 full-time and part-time staff members worldwide, consisting of:
– Fellows
– Local Coaches
– 6 Washington, DC-based staff
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Middle East: Intractable Conflict
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Bottom-up Transformation
– The idea that a fundamental shift in the attitudes of
both sides is necessary to support a political solutions
– Micro vs. macro level
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People-to-people (P2P)
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Over 400 coexistence programs in Israel alone
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The Context:
Challenges and Solutions
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Segregation of neighborhoods, schools and cultural institutions
Provide forum for positive interaction
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Disadvantaged communities/limited opportunity
Cater to underprivileged communities, symbolic fee
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Lack of social norms that favour equality
Unequal Distribution of municipal funds and services
Girls’ league example
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Limited opportunities for girls in sports and in basketball
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Contact Theory
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Bringing opposing groups together under certain
conditions can be an effective way to promote
positive attitude change
Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice, 1954
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Conditions Necessary for
Positive Contact

Status Symmetry
• language
• Arab coach, Jewish coach
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Friendship Potential
• Frequent and long-term interaction
• Intimate versus superficial interaction
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Superordinate Goal
• A goal that requires the mutual efforts of both groups
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Institutional Support
• Social and institutional norms that favor equality
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Middle East
Who We serve:

Palestinian and Israeli boys and girls in
Israel and the West Bank
 Ages 10 – 16 years
 Palestinian and Israeli coaches and
educators
 International post-collegiate scholars
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Programs

Twinned Basketball Clubs
– Peace League
– Girls’ League
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BasketPal
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Uses basketball to teach youth life skills and leadership
Integration between refugee camps, cities, urban, rural
Youth Activities and Training
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Why Single Identity?
o
o
o
o
Lack of symmetry
Travel restrictions – crossing checkpoints
Working to create a level playing field
Providing a constructive framework
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Leadership Development Program
– The participants design and lead the program
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Key Accomplishments
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Worked with more than 5,500 girls and boys in Israel and the West Bank;
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Partnered with the Municipality of Jerusalem to operate the Jerusalem Girls’
Basketball League and the Jerusalem Peace Basketball League;
Trained and employed more than 300 Arab and Jewish coaches and educators;
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Conducted twenty tournaments with community co-participation Jaffa, Tel Aviv,
Bet Shemesh, Bethlehem and Ramallah, reaching more than 2,000 children;
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Led two “Building Bridges” Overnight Summer Camps in August 2005 and 2007,
bringing together some 200 Arab and Jewish boys at the Wingate Institute for
Physical Education;
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Held Leadership Development summer camps for 400 Arab boys and girls in the
West Bank;
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Sent a delegation of 25 Arab and Jewish youth ambassadors and local coaches
to the U.S. in July 2007 sponsored by Friedman Billings Ramsey;
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Sent a delegation of 12 Arab coaches to the U.S. for the Youth Sport
Management Exchange sponsored by the U.S. Department of State in the
summer of 2008; and
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Curriculum
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Partnership: Arbinger Institute and Laureus
Sport for Good Foundation
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Arbinger is a worldwide Institute that helps
organizations, families, individuals solve
problems created by self-deception
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Goal: To develop tool-kit for technical
assistance
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20 Sessions on the basketball court
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Time-line: Three year plan
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The Anatomy of Peace Curriculum
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Provides a tool for solving intergroup and
interpersonal conflict
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Goal is to create an “out of the box”
space in which people can begin to see
each other as people
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Delivered on the basketball court through
drills and storytelling
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Provides a lexicon to communicate and
develop as a player and a team
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Concepts
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Something Deeper
 People versus Objects
 Way of Being and Influence
 Vehicles, Irrelevant, obstacles
 The Box and its Symptoms
 Better Than, Worse Than, I
Deserve, Must be seen as
 Collusion
 Getting out of the box: on the
basketball court and in life
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Stages
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Coaches Training
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Facilitator Training
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Pilot Curriculum
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Workshops
Reuters Photography, 2008
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Revisions
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Roll out to other PPI sites (adapt)
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Roll out tool-kit to sports programs
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Testimonials
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Amir: "the material helped me to become a better
human being and player. It helped me to
understand that we are five on a team, and not
one"
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Ali: "it helped me become aware of the boxes I
have in my personal relationships, and gave me
tools to get out of them"
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Mohammad: "this workshop taught me a lot
about being part of a team, rather than the
master of the team. I know now that this will
actually help the team"
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Khaled: "i realized that I need to try to see people
more as people, and to consider them as equals.
It taught me how to deal with people in a better
way".
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Thank you!
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