Giant-killers

Here's a story of a different sort about Arabs and Israelis, a footballing story. It isn't up-to-the-minute news, but I only just found out about it and haven't seen anything on it round the blogs. Scott and friends don't seem to have covered it:

They have no grass on their lopsided pitch, no changing rooms and only a few thousand regular fans but an unfancied team from Galilee stunned Israeli football last week by becoming the first Arab club to qualify for Europe.

In their first season playing in Israel's top division, the giant-killers of Sakhnin pulled off a stunning 4-1 victory over Hapoel Haifa in Israel's equivalent of the FA Cup on Tuesday night. Mazen Ghanayem, Sakhnin's chairman, has boldly predicted that his players can now beat the best of the English Premiership if they draw them in the Uefa Cup next season.
.....
For the residents of Sakhnin, however, the victory - the first in the State Cup by an Arab team since Israel was founded in 1948 - is a source of local pride, and a filip for the 1.2 million Arabs who hold Israeli citizenship but have long seen themselves as second class citizens.

In addition to the team captain, Abbas Suan, 13 other members of the Sakhnin squad are Arab Israelis. The club also boasts seven Jewish and four foreign players, from Poland, Cameroon, Brazil and Ghana.

Nidal Shalata, 29, a defender who was born in Sakhnin and has played for the team for the past 10 years, said: "Our team is comprised of Arabs, Jews and foreigners but we're one family. To tell you the truth though, it would have been even sweeter if an Arab player had scored the winning goals."

After the win, euphoria swept through Arab communities with thousands of fans converging on Sakhnin, playing loud music, letting off fireworks, singing and dancing.

Yet the victory was also hailed as a bridge between Arab and Jewish Israelis. One of Sakhnin's Jewish strikers, Lior Asulin, scored twice and ran over to hail the support of the Arab fans.

"This was a historic day," said Abu Saleh, a club official. "The Arab leaders should come to Sakhnin and see how Jews and Muslims live together, drink and eat together and play together. We always talk about the disasters that have been inflicted on us, but this is a victory for Sakhnin and for peace."

Also here and here. (Hat tip: Sue Leaf.)

Postscript: Just by the way, Sakhnin's chairman, Mazen Ghanayem, also said this:

We love English football, teams like Manchester United and Newcastle United. We would like to play them as we want to play with the best. It will be difficult to beat them but we are optimistic.

See. Did he mention Liverpool? Naah, why would he?