AFL Peace Team

The idea to utilise a sport that had no history in the region, which would allow a neutral ground upon which Israelis and Palestinians would be able to build together, acting as partners, was conceived by a Sydney businesswoman, Tanya Oziel, in early 2007.

Together with her long-time business partner, Johnny Weiss, they opened the Australian Chapter of (Shimon) Peres Center for Peace, and began to work on the idea.

Team's logo is round in shape and features a classic peace symbol: a white dove carrying an olive branch over a golden background.

[5] This pilot was put together by Tanya Oziel who managed to fundraise sufficient funds from corporate Australia, including Deloitte, Hyundai, NAB and Visy.

In the final match of the tournament Peace Team I got to experience a crushing victory against Finland Icebreakers beating them 14.5(89) to 2.2(14) finishing the International Cup on a high note.

Due to a worsening political situation in the region post 2008 AFL International Cup and funding issues regular training wasn't possible for the Peace Team I, and so the project was on hiatus.