Hundreds of Jewish, Arab, Druze and Bedouin children aged 8 to 12 took part in a soccer event on Tuesday morning organized by the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, in partnership with the Israel Football Association and Adidas Israel. The children, from the center’s “Twin Schools for Soccer and Peace” program, played in mixed teams to highlight partnership, inclusion and hope.
The event also featured players, ambassadors and local leaders, including Pini Balili, Moshe Sinai, Avichai Yadin, Muhammad Abu Ria, Subhi Abu Yunis and Silvan Cani, along with the mayors of Herzliya and Ramla, the head of the Ein Kinya local council, the Canadian ambassador, the U.S. deputy ambassador and the Mexican ambassador. The three countries are hosting the 2026 World Cup.
Israel Football Association chairman Shino Zuares said football in a diverse society can be both “highly explosive” and an even greater force for tolerance. He said the project’s partners believe football is a bridge between people, cultures and nations, including for future peace with neighbors. Peres Center chairman Hami Peres said this was the center’s 18th mini World Cup and stressed that the games are always played in mixed teams, “never one against the other.” Adidas Israel CEO Yair Bell said sport can connect children across language, culture and background.
A particularly emotional moment came when Hami Peres, Zuares and Bell presented a “peace ambassador” shirt to the family of Capt. Tomer Shoham, who had served as an assistant coach in the project’s Netiv HaLah team in Mateh Yehuda and was chosen for a joint youth delegation to the 2018 World Cup in Moscow. Shoham was killed on October 7 in fighting near the Kerem Shalom outpost. His mother, Michal Shoham, said he became deeply interested in spoken Arabic through the project, studying it in several settings, including practice with a Druze soldier and an intensive course during his last army leave.
The Peres Center said the soccer project has become a communications tool used to brief organizations around the world, and that it has received international awards and recognition, with support from the Israel Football Association, Adidas, FIFA and UEFA.
