Published: 9 September 2022
Last updated: 13 September 2022
NOMI KALTMANN talks to the captain of the Tel Aviv Cheetahs and finds out how Australian footy got a foothold in the Middle East.
SHIR SHALEV, AN Israeli who has never visited Australia, is not necessarily the first person you would pick as the captain of the Israel AFL team. His love of Aussie rules football was sparked by accident a few years ago when he was studying in Jerusalem. One day he happened to walk past a group of Israelis and Arabs from the Jerusalem Peace Lions playing AFL footy in the local park.
“They offered me to join in and I loved the game,” he says.
An athletic guy, Shalev has always enjoyed all kinds of sport. “I am a sporty guy. I live with a ball in my hand or on my leg since forever. I play all sports including soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis,” he laughs.
Shalev, 26, was born in Israel and grew up on Moshav Gea in Southern Israel, where he did not meet any Aussies. “Growing up, I did not really know Australian people. I still remember the first time I played in Jerusalem. They said: ‘it is not American football, you handball it’. I did not buy it. I did not know footy at all. I did not know what they were talking about. I said: ’that’s not real’.”
From this chance encounter, Shalev became hooked on the game and would play weekly with the team in Jerusalem. A year later, when he and other players moved to Tel Aviv, he decided to start a team there, the Tel Aviv Cheetahs, hoping that there would be interest. From there, it just grew and grew. These days, the Tel Aviv Cheetahs are the only AFL team in Israel, which represents the country at AFL international tournaments.
The genesis of AFL in Israel stems from the 2008 joint initiative by the Peres Center for Peace and its Palestinian partner, the Al Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue. The team was created, with 13 Israeli and 13 Palestinian players, with the aim of using footy to help increase dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians and encourage co-existence.
