At the age of 27, Dia Saba is already a historical figure. A few days ago, the Israeli national soccer player from Guangzhou, China, moved to Al Nasr club in Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates. Dia Saba is the first prominent athlete from the Jewish state in an Arab league – more are likely to follow. The basis is a historical agreement: Israel establishes diplomatic relations with the Emirates and with Bahrain.
“For the first time, Israel will be open to investments from the Middle East,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. For weeks there has also been discussion in Israeli football about investors from the Emirates, for example at Hapoel Tel Aviv. “There could also be friendlies between the two countries soon,” says Middle East expert James M. Dorsey. “For the Emirates, football is a kind of soft power. They obviously want to soften anti-Arab attitudes in Israel, even in the complicated relationship with the Palestinians. “
Arab money for Beitar?
How far this change extends can be seen in another club. Beitar Jerusalem was established in the British Mandate Palestine in the 1930s to resist the occupiers. After the founding of Israel in 1948, Beitar established itself as a network of Jewish nationalists. As the only professional club in Israel, Beitar has never signed an Arab-Muslim player. Can that change with the rapprochement between Israel and the Emirates?
Moshe Hogeg wants to try. The IT entrepreneur has owned Beitar since 2018 and is now looking for investors in the Emirates. In this way he supports the course of the Israeli government. “Beitar is an important factor in right-wing political circles,” says Israeli journalist Felix Tamsut. “Every election campaign includes a visit to a home game of Beitar.” Benjamin Netanyahu has met fellow campaigners of his Likud party several times in the grandstand of the six-time champion. President Reuven Rivlin was formerly president of the club. But not all supporters support the new contacts in the Arab world. “Beitar’s La Familia fan group is one of the most influential right-wing extremist structures in Israel,” says Felix Tamsut. “The group is also active in violent protests on the streets.” In 2019, Beitar Ali Mohamed signed up from Niger. “La Familia” asked the Christian player to give up his Muslim-sounding name.
More than almost any other functionary, Beitar’s owner Moshe Hogeg positions himself against racism. He threatened hostile fans with ads. Now, with the opening up to Arab investors, he apparently wants to strengthen moderate groups. »Money doesn’t matter to us, principles do«, »La Familia« replied on Facebook. “We would like to remind you that Jerusalem is a holy city for Jews and that Beitar is the only team in the world that has the Jewish menorah as a symbol.” This refers to the seven-armed candlestick, one of the most important symbols of Judaism. “La Familia” ended their statement with a biblical battle cry calling on soldiers to fight for the Jewish people.
The group often justifies its motivation by citing the marginalization that Jewish athletes have experienced since the founding of Israel. Lebanon had already forbidden its citizens to compete against Israelis by law in the 1950s. Time and again, Israeli delegations have been excluded from sporting events. In 1974, two years after the attack on Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich, the Asian Football Association ruled out the Jewish state. Israeli athletes had to switch competitive structures over decades, between Asia, Oceania and even South America.
Israel has been a member of UEFA since 1994 and is now an integral part of European competitions. In 2013 even as host of the U21 European Championship. But even after that, several Israeli footballers did not receive a visa for training camps for their European clubs in the United Arab Emirates. Iranian wrestlers like Alireza Karimi had to deliberately admit defeat at world championships in order to later avoid Israeli opponents. International sports federations could not agree on a strategy against such actions.
Opponents and allies
Sport has long provided a platform for hostility towards Israel, but it also revealed signs of change. In October 2018, the Israeli judoka Sagi Muki won a tournament in Abu Dhabi. In their capital, the Emirates allowed the Israeli anthem to be played for the first time in the presence of the Israeli Minister of Sports at the time, Miri Regev. Apparently a preliminary stage for establishing diplomatic relations two years later. There are still a number of countries in Asia that clearly reject Israel: Iran, Lebanon and Malaysia. But Israel also has powerful allies like China and India. And in the Arab world, too, more governments are following a pragmatic course. The publicist James Dorsey believes: “If there were a new vote in the Asian Football Association to accept Israel, Israel could win this election.” The Israeli team qualified for the World Cup only once, in 1970, but never for a European Championship . At the Asian Cup, your chances would be better.
»Football can connect us. Let’s play! ”These are the words that the Israel Football Association recently wrote on a message on social media. Its logo was framed by the emirate and Bahrain emblem. It is likely that symbols like this are coordinated with the great power Saudi Arabia, says the scientist Danyel Reiche: “All four countries have the same goal: the isolation of the common enemy Iran.” Reiche does not consider it to be out of the question that in the Saudi Arabia will also establish diplomatic relations with Israel in the coming years.
However, such a move could complicate relations between Israel and Qatar. The host of the 2022 World Cup shares the world’s largest natural gas field with Iran and is therefore dependent on cooperation with Tehran. Iran’s rivals Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Bahrain have maintained an economic boycott of Qatar since 2017. This alliance would not like it if Qatar also established diplomatic relations with Israel, but networks between the two countries have existed for a long time.
A Doha stadium in Israel
This becomes clear in the city of Sachnin, in the north of Israel. Of the 30,000 inhabitants, more than 90 percent are Muslim Arabs. In 2003, FC Bnei Sachnin became the second Arab team to make it to the first division of Israel, and a year later they won the cup. Qatar wants to expand its influence in the region, for example by financing mosques. The Qatar Olympic Committee donated six million dollars to the new stadium in Sachnin, which was named after the Qatari capital Doha in 2006. The first investment by a Gulf state in Israel.
Around twenty percent of the total Israeli population are Arabs. For decades, however, the soccer centers have been in the predominantly Jewish cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. The City Football Group should play a central role in future partnerships with the Emirates. This group from Abu Dhabi is known for investing in Manchester City. But beyond sporting success, she is pursuing three major goals with football, says sports economics expert Simon Chadwick. First: The promotion of talent, with locations like Lommel in Belgium or Girona in Spain. Second: networking in the entertainment industry, with locations like New York and Mumbai. “The third pillar aims at political rapprochement and trade relations,” says Chadwick. “This becomes clear at the Chinese site in Chengdu. And it is quite possible that another location in Israel will be added in two or three years. “
Many politicians in the Palestinian Territories would not want to imagine that. In their opinion, Arab investments in Israel mean approval of Benjamin Netanyahu’s settlement policy in the West Bank. “The Emirates are not only betraying the Palestinians, but also their own roots,” repeated Jibril Rajoub, General Secretary of the Palestinian Party of Fatah, several times in interviews. Jibril Rajoub is also President of the Palestinian Football Association and the National Olympic Committee. For years he has criticized Israeli security measures as harassment, such as the arrest of Palestinian athletes. In 2015, Rajoub applied to FIFA to exclude Israel. In 2018 Argentina planned a test match in Jerusalem. Rajoub called for Lionel Messi jerseys to be burned. The game was canceled and Rajoub suspended from Fifa.
For many Arabs, Rajoub is a freedom fighter, for many Israelis a terrorist. As a teenager he threw a grenade at Israeli soldiers. Even after his sentence, he organized protests. In 2015, Rajoub and the Palestinian footballers welcomed the Emirates’ national team in the Jerusalem suburb of Al Ram. More than 10,000 spectators cheered and cursed together, including against Israel. Can the Emirates now mediate between Israelis and Palestinians in football? At least it doesn’t seem like an illusion anymore.
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