September 14^th. The “Football Beyond Borders” team of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, UK visited An-Najah University where they were received by Dr. Sam Alfoqahaa, Director of the Public Relations Department at the University. During the meeting Dr. Alfoqahaa welcomed the team and expressed his pleasure to meet with them.

He then introduced the guests to An-Najah, its academic programs, faculties, facilities, study fields and the different aspects of advancement that the University has seen over the last years. After the meeting, the team visited the Martyr Zafer Al-Masri Auditorium where a short documentary was presented that described the history of An-Najah, its accomplishments, stages of development and the different projects that are implemented at the University including the Teaching Hospital project. The film also described the different study fields, equipments, infrastructures and public facilities that the University has.

Additionally, another documentary titled “Nablus…Under Siege” was also presented which talked about the difficult conditions that the people in Nablus experience because of the Israeli siege and closure. Moreover, the guests visited the New Campus where they were introduced to the different facilities there including the Media Center, the Library and the Faculty of Physical Education where they met with the Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Waleed Khanfar, who presented them with a detailed description of the Faculty’s different academic programs and specializations and the scale of equipments it contains.

As part of their visit, a football match was organized between the British team and An-Najah’s; the match ended 10-3 for An-Najah’s team, after which Dr. Khanfar honored the visiting team and valued their visit to Palestine.

Football Beyond Borders is a student led project with the ethos of the tour based upon the idea of football as a global language that has the ability to unite people who might otherwise be perceived to be different. The Beyond Borders project is multi-faceted with a strong emphasis on engaging with local communities and establishing cross-educational football workshops for some segments of the local community. What is more, the tour is also based on partaking in football matches with universities in the different countries and engaging with like-minded students, initially through football and with post game meals and presentations.