DUBAI: Israeli tennis players unwittingly court controversy
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Politics and sports make a volatile mix when a game involves Israeli athletes competing in the Middle East in an environment of hostility toward the Jewish state.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates recently denied a star Israeli female tennis player entry to the city-state of Dubai to participate in an international tournament.
The incident was met with a wave of condemnations by journalists, sports associations and politicians in the U.S.
For now, it looks like the oil-rich Arab country might backtrack on its earlier decision to bar Israeli players.
U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) told a news conference in New York that the UAE would grant male doubles player Andy Ram a visa to take part in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships next week.
Organizers of the tournament argued that the presence of an Israeli player would anger local crowds and create an unacceptable security situation.
Anti-Israeli sentiment has been exacerbated throughout the Arab world after the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which ended last month.
For weeks, Arab TV viewers were exposed to daily footage of Israeli jets causing havoc in Palestinian towns and of children agonizing in hospital beds.
Like all but a handful of Arab countries, the UAE has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Authorities tried to explain in diplomatic terms why they denied 20-year-old Israeli tennis phenom Shahar Peer a visa to the country this week.
Tournament director Salah Tahlak told reporters at a news conference:
We do not wish to politicize sports, but we have to be sensitive to recent events in the region and not alienate or put at risk the players and the many tennis fans of different nationalities that we have here in the UAE. … Public sentiment remains high in the Middle East and it is believed that Ms. Peer’s presence would have antagonized our fans who have watched live television coverage of recent attacks in Gaza.
The UAE came under a lot of pressure from the West after the decision.
The Wall Street Journal’s European edition withdrew its sponsorship of the Dubai sports event on Tuesday. Some sports channels refrained from airing the tournament.
Peer, ranked 48th worldwide, took part in the nearby Arab country of Qatar last year, but the Gaza war has aggravated Arab attitudes toward Israel.
Stay tuned to see if Ram makes it to the Dubai next week and, if he does, how tennis fans in the UAE react.
-- Raed Rafei in Beirut