Games not guns… Tennis charity serves unique challenge in Israeli Arab village

An Israeli tennis charity founded by a British Jew, Freddie Krivine, has held an unusual event in an Israeli Arab village, aimed at doing away with the cult of guns among the village children.

The Freddie Krivine Initiative, or FKI, has been working in Jisr a Zarqa, in the north of Israel, for more than 20 years. It runs programmes to teach tennis to children in the Arab sector of Israel,  holding tournaments for Jewish and Arab children to play together, and coaching promising young players in both communities.

In recent gun violence in Jisr, two children were tragically caught in crossfire. Lee Shira, the current FKI director, said: “We couldn’t just stand by and watch”.

Instead, the charity organised an event in the Jisr sports hall, where children from the FKI after school club were invited — along with their parents.

All the children were asked to bring toy guns from home, which the FKI board members collected to be thrown away. The guns were replaced with other toys of a more peaceful nature, together with a book, in Arabic, about the Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.

Those speaking at the event included the mayor of Jisr, and FKI’s head coach, Mohammed Rashwan, who began his love affair with tennis when he took part in FKI programmes aged eight.

He told the parents at the sports hall: “If you let your children play with guns instead of balls and racquets, don’t be surprised if they end up as criminals. Instead, let’s all commit to playing sports and staying in school for a better future”.