Since the signing of the Abraham Accords, the Israel Basketball Association has been in touch with several basketball associations in the Arab world with the aim of signing cooperation agreements with them. The Bahrain Basketball Association and the United Arab Emirates Basketball Association have both expressed an interest and have been in touch with the head of the IBA, Amiram Halevy, and its CEO, Jacob Ben Shoshan. But the contacts have yet to mature into a signed agreement.
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Last month, history was made when Morocco became the first Arab country to sign a cooperation agreement with the Israel Basketball Association.
"I am very happy for both countries about the agreement we have signed," said Moustafa Aourach, president of the Moroccan Royal Basketball Federation (FAMBB), in an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom. "The project is one for many years, not just a symbolic signature, without continuation. It is important to us for it to stretch into the future. We have set goals for cooperation for the future of the children of both countries."
Q: What do both sides have to gain from this cooperation?
"Israel has its advantages and Morocco has its advantages. The Israeli Basketball Association has reached a high standard of professional basketball and is held in high esteem in Europe. Moroccan basketball is also professional and is making good progress.
"We will take the advantages of both sides in order to meet our goals of cooperation and through this, we shall create a bridge to the world and every association will be able to connect to parallel associations in other countries."
"The cooperation between the sides will be reflected not only from a sporting perspective but also from a cultural and social perspective. I hope that this agreement will send a message to the world that sport can connect nations and peoples
"People in Morocco are very happy about the normalization with Israel," Aourach said. "There have always been connections between Israel and Morocco and now they are growing stronger. I am happy that I will meet our Jewish Moroccan brothers from Israel and we plan to come to Israel in the future. Normalization is very important to both peoples and I'm sure it will have great benefits for everyone."
Over the past few years, Aourach and his people have been leading a comprehensive program to make basketball a popular sport in Morocco. One of the first steps they took was to overcome stigmas and obstacles and set up a professional basketball league for women. There are now many women who play the game in the country. Basketball is now part of the curriculum in many schools around the country and the aim is for many of the kids to come to continue playing, some of them as amateurs and some as professionals. There are also plans to train basketball coaches across the country. Several have been sent to countries in Europe to increase their level of professionalism.
"In recent years we have worked very hard to strengthen the professional leagues in Morocco, including the Women's League," said Aourach. "Women have begun to play basketball at a strong and organized level and we want everyone who wants to play basketball in Morocco to have the opportunity to do so."
History was made in the current season of the Moroccan basketball league when an Israeli player by the name of Mohamed Abu Arisha from the Arab town of Fureidis near Zichron Yaakov joined AMI Basket, one of the top teams in the Moroccan league. A graduate of Israel's national youth team, Abu Arisha, has been a star for AMI and is considered one of the leading players in the league.
"We have a strong desire to see more Israeli players in Morocco," said Aourach. "For example, we would like to see players who are the children of Moroccan Jews come to play here, and other Israeli as well. That would be a source of great pride for all of us. We will work to get Moroccan players coming to Israel as well. That will help basketball in both countries."
Q: When will we see you here in Israel?
"Everything is in the hands of God. From my perspective, I would like to have come to visit Israel already but because of the coronavirus, everything has become more difficult. I would love to come and see my brothers in Israel."
Work on creating collaboration between the two basketball associations began after the signing of the normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco in December 2020 and went on for almost a year. The woman behind the effort is Leah Ben Sheetrit, a Jewish resident of Morocco, who has coordinated collaboration efforts. She was also responsible for the collaboration agreements signed a few months ago between the education ministries of the two countries.
"A day after the signing of the normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco we started to work on this," said Ben Sheetrit. "It was very important for us to include basketball, which is a very popular sport in both countries. I believe that the agreement will lead in the future to additional collaboration in economic and social projects, and perhaps in other branches of sport. I would like to thank the King of Morocco, who stood behind the cooperation between the countries, and strengthened the connection between the peoples."
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