President of the Moroccan Basketball Association: "I hope the agreement will send a message to the whole world" | Israel today

Since the signing of the Avraham Agreements, the Basketball Association has been in contact with several associations around the Arab world to sign cooperation agreements.

The Bahraini union and the union in the United Arab Emirates expressed interest, and even contacted the heads of the Israeli union, chairman Amiram Halevi and CEO Yaakov Ben-Shoshan, but the contacts have not yet matured into an agreement.

Last month, history took place, and Morocco became the first Arab country to sign a cooperation agreement with the Israel Basketball Association.

"I am happy for the two countries from the cooperation we have signed," the president of the Moroccan Basketball Association, Mustafa Orch, said in an exclusive first interview with Israel Today.

"This project is for many years, not only for an official and symbolic signing without continuation, but it is important for us to have implications for the future. We have set goals for this cooperation for the future of the children of both peoples."

The President lengths.

"For the future of the children of the two peoples",

What can both parties gain from the cooperation?

"Israel has advantages and Morocco has advantages as well. The Israeli association has reached a high level of professional basketball and is highly valued in Europe. Basketball in Morocco is also professional and with good progress.

"We will take the benefits of both sides to meet the goals of cooperation, and through it we will also use each other as a bridge to the world, and each union will be able to connect the corresponding union to other countries and unions it knows.

"The cooperation will be expressed not only sportingly, but also culturally and socially. I hope this agreement will send a message to the whole world that sport can connect peoples and nations."

"The people in Morocco are very happy about the normalization with Israel," he adds, "there have always been ties between Israel and Morocco, and now they are getting stronger. I am very happy to meet our Moroccan Jewish brothers from Israel soon, and we plan to come to Israel in the future. The people, and I'm sure it will benefit everyone. "

Abu Arisha.

Graduate of the young Israeli national team, Photo: Emmy Basket

Women's League, despite the difficulties

Length and his people have been leading in recent years a comprehensive plan to make the basketball industry popular in the country.

One of the first steps was to overcome the stigmas and obstacles and establish a professional basketball league for women, and today many women play basketball across the country.

Also, in many schools across the country basketball is a profession that children learn, and the goal is for many to continue in the industry, some amateurishly and some professionally.

There is also a program for training basketball coaches across the country, and many of them have been sent to countries across Europe to study and specialize.

"In recent years we have worked hard to strengthen the professional leagues in Morocco, also in terms of women's basketball," says the president of the Moroccan association, "In recent years women have started playing basketball at a good and organized level.

In the current season, history has been made when an Israeli player named Muhammad Abu Arisha from Fureidis, a graduate of the young Israeli national team, came to play in the league in Morocco and has so far been considered one of the top players in the league.

"We have a strong desire to see more players from Israel come to play in Morocco, for example boys players of Moroccan Jews who will come here and other Israelis. It will be a great pride for us. We will work so that Moroccan players also come to play in Israel. It will help basketball in both countries." .

Abu Arisha in a training match in Israel.

A sign of things to come ?, Photo: Liron Moldovan

When will we see you come to visit here in Israel?

"Everything is in God's hands. For me, I would like to be in Israel yesterday, but because of the corona, everything became more difficult. I would love to come and see my brothers in Israel."

Work on creating cooperation between the two unions began shortly after the signing of the normalization agreement with Israel in December 2020 and lasted almost a year.

The person behind the efforts is Ms. Leah Ben Sheetrit, a Jew living in Morocco and the coordinator of the cooperation.

Ben Sheetrit is also responsible for the cooperation agreement signed a few months ago between the education ministries of the two countries.

"The day after the signing of the normalization between Israel and Morocco, we started working on this cooperation," says Ben Sheetrit.

"It was very important for us to reach basketball, which is a very popular sport in both countries. I believe that this agreement will lead in the future to further collaborations in economic and social projects and perhaps in other sports. I also want to thank the King of Morocco for cooperating.

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