Sport Diplomacy: Sport’s Impact as a Form of Soft Power on Peacebuilding and Nation-Building in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Since the founding of the first Israeli and Palestinian soccer clubs in 1906 and 1908, respectively, sport has played an intimate role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Whether as a training ground for counter-insurgency operations or an extension of the nation’s foreign policy apparatus, sport has been utilized by both parties as a tool for peacebuilding and nation-building. The purpose of this article is to examine whether sport, through what is termed sport diplomacy, can help establish the conditions necessary for successful peace negotiations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To this effect, the paper adopts the analytical lens of sport as a form of soft power. Following this framework, the paper considers how sport diplomacy operates as a tool for image-building, constructing a platform for dialogue, trust building, and as a catalyst for reconciliation in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The article concludes that sport can indeed help establish the conditions needed for successful peace negotiations; however, sport should not yet be employed as a path to reconciliation until such time as a political peace is firmly established.