THE last place former Hawthorn great Robert DiPierdomenico expected to be coaching an AFL team was in the Middle East - in the middle of summer. Especially not with footy legend Ron Barassi at his side.

Yet since Monday, the two men have been dividing their time between Tel Aviv and a training camp in northern Israel, to put one of the most unlikely AFL teams ever to take to the field through its paces - 26 players, evenly composed of Palestinians and Israelis, few of whom had even heard of Australian rules, let alone played the game, before signing up to play together as one team at the beginning of the year.

Next month, the "Peace Team" will land in Australia to compete in the AFL's version of the World Cup and will play at least five matches around the country.

"Who would ever have thought I'd end up here in Israel, with this bloke sitting next to me," DiPierdomenico said of Barassi. "You know having the great man here is like having God and his son arriving back here in the Holy Land."

The project is a simple one: to use the power of sport to unite two peoples almost universally recognised as implacable enemies. Organised by Israeli political advocacy centre The Peres Centre for Peace, the Peace Team has drawn together men from all walks of Israeli and Palestinian life - lawyers, university students, army officers and kids still in high school - and forced them to become friends. "There is a great saying in life," Barassi said. "If it is to be, it is up to me. Only 10 words, each word two letters, but it says so much about what we can achieve. This is one of the longest-running conflicts in the world, and just the hope I might be able to get people to stop and think about what they might be able to do makes me proud to be here."

Tanya Oziel, who works at the Peres Centre's Melbourne office, said the idea for the team grew from a visit to Israel by former Essendon player James Demetriou, the brother of AFL chief Andrew Demetriou.

Working together with Palestinian advocacy group the Al-Quds Association, the two organisations put the word out that AFL players were needed urgently to put together a team that would travel to Australia. "The point here is to get everyone running forward. And they're doing that with passion, with energy, and together as one," Barassi said.