Integrating through soccer in the Middle East

As the Gaza situation continues horrifically, a tiny countervailing (and playful) wind. Tamir Sorek's Arab Soccer in a Jewish State, The Integrative Enclave is a sociological study of how Arabs and Jews have made a conscious choice that football - clubs and stadia - are places where integration across Israel's ethno-religious divides can happen. Not easily or simply, but consistently. Many of the reviewers (here and here) quote this passage:

In May 2003, Al-Aakhaa al-Nasira, the team from Nazareth, ascended to the Premier League for the first time in history. Azmi Nassar, the team's coach, climbed the fence to conduct the chorus of rejoicing supporters in the bleachers. In a hoarse Hebrew voice he said, ‘You see, this is how it should be—in soccer, as in life, on our team there are Muslims, Jews, Christians, Druze—there is no difference.'

There's a useful few preview pages on Google Books.