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Nazzih Amaro works on a body bag in Am-Shalem's gym.
Na Politics Are Involved
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FRIDAY, MAY 19, 1989
_
THE JEWISH NEWS
Israel Correspondent
A
rab fighting Jew is
a long-acknowledged
reality in the Middle
East. And Shimshon Am-
Shalem, for one, doesn't think
it's always such a bad idea.
In fact, the Israeli
businessman — a member of
the pre-state Irgun under-
ground — goes out of his way
to bring together young Jews
and Arabs to square off.
But Am-Shalem's fighters
don't meet in the alleys of a
refugee camp and their
weapons aren't Molotov
cocktails or plastic bullets.
When the young men enter
one of Am-Shalem's Golden
Gloves • boxing clubs, they
leave politics behind, he says.
And when they step into the
ring, they face their oppo-
nent's timing and tactics, not
religion and ethnic
background.
Am-Shalem, a burly ex-
boxer and former president of
the Israel Boxing Federation,
conceived the idea of a Golden
Gloves network in the 1960s.
His aim was to get disadvan-
taged youth off the streets
and teach them pride and
self-confidence through the
discipline of boxing. In the
David Holzel is currently
covering Israel for The
Jewish News and The
Baltimore Jewish Times from
Jerusalem.
1970s, he integrated Israeli
Arabs into the network.
"What-can be better than to
have boys shake hands, fight,
shake hands again, then go
out together for a drink or
something to eat?" Am-
Shalem says in a low, gravel-
ly voice that only seems to
come alive when he is
coaching his boxers.
That happens Sundays and
Wednesdays at 6 p.m. in a
bomb shelter that doubles as
a gym in the Tel Aviv suburb
of Ramat Aviv. On other days,
Am-Shalem visits other
Golden Gloves clubs.
Some of the young men at
the gym near Tel Aviv
University are teenagers
from the neighborhood. They
are learning the rudiments of
the sport. Three Israeli Arabs
and their coach drive two
hours from their home in
Nazareth. They do warmups,
work out on the punching
bags and climb into the ring
to spar.
What do the Arabs have in
common with their Jewish op-
ponents? What do they talk
about?
Sports, answers Iyad
Chatib, 21, Israel's
lightweight boxing champion.
Like Chatib, Nazzih Amaro
is 21 years old and speaks
fluent Hebrew. He says the
boxers don't talk about
politics, despite the Israeli-
Palestinian strife that sur-
rounds their lives. "Politics
doesn't matter," says the
fighter who has won for Israel
in international competitions.
"Sports is far from politics."
Respect is the key to rela-
tions between boxers in
general and Arab and Jewish
boxers in particular, says U.S.-
born Bruce Lipton, who has
been boxing since childhood.
He now puts some of the
younger trainees through
their paces of the Ramat Aviv
gym:
"I just did miluim (reserve
duty) in the territories," says
Lipton, 32. "It wasn't easy.
Now I box. He's not an Arab
and I'm not a Jew. We've
found a medium in which to
communicate."
Am-Shalem boasts of the
Israeli Arabs he has trained
for victory in international
competitions. And this
Sephardi Jew, whose family
came to Israel from Morocco
generations ago, has a theory
why boxing has become im-
portant to Arabs.
"In Poland (before World
War II), the only way Jews
could show they were proud
was to stand up and fight. I
think the Arabs feel the same
way today."
Stand up and fight. Am-
Shalem uses this phrase like
a leitmotiv. It is a lesson he
learned early and has spent a
lifetime teaching.
When he tells it to others,
he is advocating not violence,
but bravery, discipline, self-
respect and self-direction, he
says.
It was in the Neve Tzedek
neighborhood — "where Jaf-