KIBBUTZ ZIKIM, Israel – As Israeli communities near the Gaza border continue to rebuild after October 7th, 2023, an American professional athlete is bringing hope and healing, one basketball court at a time.
On Israel’s Gaza border, where children grew up under rocket fire, the sound of basketball is replacing the sound of war.
American basketball player Jared Armstrong is here with a mission to help Israelis heal through sports.
CBN News met Armstrong there, and we admired the T-shirts he had brought for the kids.
He replied, “Just a reminder for them to keep.”
Although Armstrong played professionally, after the October 7th Hamas massacres and kidnappings, he felt called to do something more.
He told us, “I started in Haifa. Then I went on to Maccabi, and then Ashkelon, and again, I was there during 10/7, and I really got inspired after the – obviously, the tragedies – to really help the next generation of kids.”
Through his non-profit JAB Camp, Armstrong is renovating courts and hosting clinics nationwide.
He explained,“So we started, just really one pilot, and one clinic. It led to the kids wanting more … I wanted to renovate a court here in Israel, and one court just led to another. And now it (has) led to 17 courts that we have.”
The courts are intentionally located in hard-hit areas, both near Gaza and near the Lebanese border.
In Kibbutz Zikim, just minutes from Gaza, children are stepping onto a newly renovated court that carries a message: “Build Together.”
“We chose ‘Build Together.’ Wow – which to me means unity, means being together as one. Something that’s important on a basketball court is, you have to be one unit…and it aligns with our mission of JAB, which is bringing people together from all different backgrounds,” Armstrong said.
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On the Gaza perimeter, every community was affected by October 7th.
Kibbutz resident Laara Lagar explained that their community narrowly escaped disaster that day.
“Nine terrorists came, arrived to the fence of the kibbutz. The Civil Squad stopped them there,” she recalled. “No one was murdered in this kibbutz, thank God. We got really, really lucky.”
Residents were evacuated for nine months before returning home.
Now, Lagar believes, something as simple as a basketball court is helping restore life to the community.
“The kids love this court,” she noted. “They play here all the time.”
For many here, support from abroad carries special meaning at a time when Israel feels isolated.
Lagar told us, “Every time that someone from the outside comes, someone from another country comes here and an American, …it gives us hope that we are still loved in some places in the world.”
Jared Armstrong has hit on a universal language, the language of basketball.
He asserted, “I think basketball is the best bridge builder in the world.”
Armstrong believes sports can provide unity and perhaps bring back a sense of normality.
He observed, “We see how grateful they are. Yesterday we went to Jish. You know, we had kids. And I’m the principal crying and just thankful…”
Armstrong continued, “It’s an outlet from the war. It’s an outlet from trauma. It’s an outlet from everything that’s going on every day.”
In a region still healing from trauma, Armstrong hopes that every court becomes a reminder that these communities have not been forgotten..
He concluded, “Building together…is really teaching kids that you all need one another for this world to work, regardless if you’re Jewish, Muslim, Christian.”
