Dubai hosts the Rugby World Cup Sevens this week, anxious to focus attention on the bruising done on the field, not the battering the sheikhdom got last month for refusing entry to Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer.
Dubai gave another Israeli, Andy Ram, a visa to play in last week’s men’s open after world tennis officials threatened to strip it of the right to hold the competition next year.
Now the emirate is counting on the March 5-7 rugby championship to put the Peer controversy behind it, said J.E. Peterson, an expert on the Arab Gulf states affiliated to the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. “They’re hoping that in the long- term, the Peer affair won’t have much impact,” he said.
It may take more than a diplomatic flip-flop and one successful sporting event to reverse the damage to Dubai’s image. The emirate seeks to portray itself as a playground for some of the world’s premier sporting events to enhance its status as a regional business hub.
“I don’t think that the full effect is known yet,” said WTA Chairman Larry Scott in a telephone interview from St. Petersburg, Florida. “The decision not to allow Peer in put a lot of terrific investments and efforts at risk.”
Scott said various businesses and cultural and scientific organizations, which he declined to identify, had expressed concern to him at Peer’s treatment.
Showcase Dubai
Asked about the fallout over the Peer decision, Salah Tahlak, director of the tennis tournament, which is staged by government-owned Dubai Duty Free, said he was confident the tournament and other events, will grow and “showcase Dubai as a first-class sports and leisure destination.”
The rugby tournament is being held in the Gulf State for the first time in its 16-year history and will be broadcast live to a global audience of 400 million in 200 countries.
It’s one of an increasing number of high-profile sporting events the emirate hosts, such as the Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest horse race, and the Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament. Dubai is also home to the world governing body for cricket, the International Cricket Council.
The emirate is building a 50 million-square foot Sports City, to be completed next year, at a cost of $3.6 billion with an 18-hole championship golf course, a global cricket academy and Manchester United’s first soccer school.
The Right Lesson
To overcome the Peer affair, Dubai has to draw the correct lessons, said U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat who approached the U.A.E. ambassador in Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, to urge him to arrange a visa for Ram.
“Dubai has earned a reputation of a moderate, welcoming face of the Middle East in large part by playing host to sporting events that attract people from around the world,” Weiner said in a phone interview from Washington. “It’s unfortunate that Peer was a victim.”
Israel, which only has about 200 part-time rugby players, didn’t qualify for the 24-nation sevens tournament, sparing Dubai officials another visa dilemma.
Officials have offered conflicting reasons for the refusal to grant a visa to Peer, who is ranked 49th on the WTA Tour.
The tournament organizers said Feb. 18 Peer had been denied entry because of concerns for her safety amid public anger at the 22-day Israeli offensive in Gaza, in which about 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
Personal Initiative
The decision was the personal initiative of a low-ranking immigration officer in Dubai, according to two Dubai government officials who refused to be identified because they aren’t authorized to publicly comment on the incident.
Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department director Mohammed Al-Marri, a federal official who has the final say on issuing all visas to Dubai, declined to comment, as did the U.A.E. embassy in Washington and Tahlak.
The real motivation was most likely Gaza, said Michael Thaidigsmann, a spokesman for the World Jewish Congress. “Sport shouldn’t be politicized,” he said by telephone from Brussels.
Some Emiratis attending the women’s tournament backed the decision to bar Peer. “It’s not that she’s the one fighting the small children,” but to allow her to play would have seemed like support for Israel, said Shereen Fouad, a 37-year-old engineer.
At the men’s tournament last week, Ram was accompanied everywhere by two bodyguards and spectators had to pass through metal detectors. Ram’s current ATP doubles ranking is 12.
Withdrawing Sponsorship
The decision to admit Ram, who last year won the Australian Open doubles title with his Israeli partner Jonathan Erlich, came after the Wall Street Journal Europe, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., withdrew sponsorship from the championship and California-based Tennis Channel decided not to broadcast the event.
Defending champion Andy Roddick, ranked sixth on the ATP World Tour, pulled out of the men’s tournament in protest.
Newsweek Magazine also said it would have withdrawn its support of the tournament if Ram had been denied access.
The long-term consequences may be to damage Dubai’s ties with U.S. business, said Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Their greatest concern is have they stopped this one or is it going to spin out of control?” Henderson said by telephone from Washington.
Dubai borrowed $80 billion to build dozens of luxury hotels, the world’s tallest tower, an indoor ski slope and a financial hub that has attracted leading banks. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co, now owned by Bank of America Corp., in 2007 both opened new regional headquarters in Dubai.
Property Slump
The Peer controversy is one in a series of incidents that have tarnished Dubai’s reputation as a more relaxed sheikhdom where decisions are driven by money, not ideology.
A book depicting a gay sheikh was banned Feb. 16 at a literary festival staged by government-owned carrier, Emirates. A law that will impose fines of up to a million dirhams ($272,000) on local journalists who harm the U.A.E. rulers’ reputation is planned. The government has made it illegal to fire an Emirati employee if a foreigner is doing the same job.
Dubai was behind the media law and the firing restrictions, which apply to the whole U.A.E., said Christopher Davidson, author of the 2008 book “Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success.”
“Dubai’s success has been based on being open,” Davidson said. “These are really bad steps that turn the clock back.”
(Source: Bloomberg)
