When martial arts champion Danny Hakim came to Israel with the Australian contingent for the 10th Maccabiah Games in 1977, he was a one-man karate team and went home with a bronze medal.
He never dreamed at the time that he would one day be a member of the Secretariat and the Board of the Maccabi World Union, serving as the chairman of the Australia-Asia Desk.
Hakim, 66, is among the few people who have represented three different countries in international karate competitions. First Australia, then Israel, and, after that, Japan, where he lived for a period of time, learning the discipline and etiquette of karate directly from karate master Hirokazu Kanazawa.
The years he spent in Japan reinforce his belief that sports can lead to friendship, peace, and harmony among people of vastly different backgrounds. It had initially occurred to him when he was a member of the Australian team competing at the World Karate Championship, where he has twice won silver medals.
Across cultures
Australia is a country of immigrants. Born in Australia to Egyptian parents, Hakim, the only Jew on the karate team, got on well with teammates from Lebanon, Ukraine, and European, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries.
None denied their backgrounds, but essentially they were all Australians, while simultaneously representing their national backgrounds. Hakim was the only one representing his religious affiliation.
“I was proud to represent the Jewish community,” he said in an interview with The Jerusalem Report.
In Japan, it was not as easy due to the difference in physical features between the non-Japanese and the indigenous population.
“You were either a Japanese or a gaijin,” Hakim recalled, referring to the abbreviated Japanese word meaning “foreigner” or “outsider.”
All the martial arts students, though treated with traditional Japanese politeness, were nonetheless aware of the differences between them and their hosts, and they banded together regardless of their respective religions or nationalities.
“We had nothing in common with each other except martial arts; and as foreigners, we all had to adapt to Japanese culture,” he said, pointing out that the unifying factor was karate.
This made a profound impression on Hakim, who also learned the Japanese trait of strong self-discipline. “You can never tell from the facial expression of a Japanese person what he’s thinking,” said Hakim, explaining the extent of that self-control.
Coaching change
After making aliyah in 2003, Hakim began coaching girls in karate, knowing that it would give them a sense of empowerment and enable them to withstand the bullying to which some children are subjected at school or by street gangs. He coached both Jewish and Arab girls, including Bedouin.
In international competitions, he met Palestinians with whom he developed friendships. One in particular became a very close friend, and they would meet close to the Israel-Gaza border or communicate with each other on FaceTime. The Gazan man had a daughter, Manar, who was also a karate exponent.
Hakim, whose other interests include producing sport-themed documentaries, asked if he could make a film about them. The response was affirmative, providing that the project didn’t take place in Israel.
However, when Hakim arrived with his film crew, the Palestinians backed off, saying that any overtures toward peace had to come from the top echelons, whereas Hakim argued that such efforts could succeed only from the ground up.
Because Manar spoke neither Hebrew nor English, Hakim brought along Shadya, the daughter of one of his Bedouin friends, herself a karate champion, to act as interpreter.
The two young women constantly argued with each other, with Manar telling Shadya that she should be disseminating the Palestinian narrative about occupied territory, and Shadya, the loyal Arab Israeli, refusing to say anything critical of Israel.
Hakim was fascinated by the exchange. Realizing that Shadya had an identity crisis both within her community and her family, he made a film about her instead, which he released in 2007.
His second film, Rabbi Capoeira, is about the opening of a capoeira school for boys in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, where parents were initially opposed to their unathletic sons learning the combination of martial arts and lithe dancing that characterizes capoeira. But when they saw how their sons were empowered and the positive changes in their movements and personalities, they became supportive and raised no objections when a similar school for girls was established.
A third film, Marathon Mom, is about Beatie Deutsch, the ultra-Orthodox national marathon champion and mother of five.
Hakim is now completing his fourth film, Champions of the Desert, which will be screened at the annual Jerusalem Film Festival in July.
Sports for impact
Hakim has a series of titles, most of which are related to some kind of sport, with the exception of sitting on the board of the Azrieli Foundation, where sports is included among a variety of philanthropic engagements but not as a primary project. He is married to Danna Azrieli, who chairs the Israel section of the foundation.
Hakim’s own projects and involvements include Kids Kicking Cancer, which was founded in 1999 in the US by Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg. He has a black belt in martial arts and contacted Hakim and asked him to start a similar program in Israel.
The youngsters are taught to use martial arts to cope with pain and stress. They are also encouraged to teach karate to other children under the slogans of Power, Peace, and Purpose.
Hakim is also the honorary president of the Israel Paralympic Committee; a board member of the Alliance for Middle East Peace; a board member of Surf Life Saving Israel (founded by his brother Paul); co-founder of Women Champions for Change; and founder of Sports for Social Impact, a coalition of 32 Israeli organizations.
Hakim admits that there’s something strange in saying “martial arts for peace” but clarifies that empowerment enables people to live in harmony with themselves and with others.
“If I attack strongly, he will hit back strongly. But if I attack him weakly, he will hit back weakly. Even if I hurt him, I am empowering him,” he told the Report.■