Buerger Bites
From the desk of the Jewish Times publisherDubai’s Fault
In President Barack Obama’s inaugural address, he so eloquently remarked about “why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.”
America now has a new sense of hope for equality. If an African American can live in the world’s most exclusive address, surely he can live in places such as Roland Park and elsewhere, which not long ago hung signs stating “No Blacks or Jews allowed.”
Jews, too, have reached America’s highest offices — from a Vice Presidential candidate nominee to Obama’s current Chief of Staff.
Sadly, this is not the case internationally, despite how Jews have given far more to the world in proportion to what our demographics would suggest. It’s well known that most Baltimore civic organizations would be seriously hurt without Jewish philanthropy. The same goes across the U.S. and much of the world. We’ve contributed to the sciences, medicine, education and the arts.
Yet, we still cannot tread in some places, like Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Over the weekend, the UAE pulled a poor 11th-hour move, declining to issue an entrance visa to Israeli professional tennis player Shahar Peer. She was scheduled to compete in Dubai’s Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event.
The tour promoters were galled enough to considered canceling the entire event. They decided against it so as to not punish the other athletes. Yet, the Tennis Channel announced it would not air the event, depriving both the tour and the UAE of valuable publicity.
Subsequently, the World Tennis Tour responded that it could eliminate that tour stop next year. WTA chairman and chief executive officer Larry Scott said in a statement, “The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour believes very strongly, and has a clear rule and policy, that no host country should deny a player the right to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified by ranking.”
African-American tennis star Venus Williams verbally supported Peer, telling The New York Times: “All the players support Shahar. We are all athletes, and we stand for tennis.”
The Dubai organizers claimed they were merely trying to protect the Israeli from protesters that have sprung up after the Israeli incursion into Gaza. Peer brought out such protesters when playing in New Zealand a few weeks ago.
“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,” organizers of the Dubai event said.
However, it should have been Peer’s decision — not Dubai’s –– as to whether she wanted to deal with that. Further, Dubai pulled the same move last year, long before Israel struck back at Gaza, when they denied entrance to an Israeli men’s tennis doubles team.
Muslims kill Muslims all over the world –– in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. No one protests. Yet, Israel defends itself and Arab countries punish a tennis player.
I think the Tour should go back to Dubai next year. But force them to allow Peer to play. Not only that, but the powerful Tour should insist that the Israeli national anthem be sung prior to play. Then air a two-minute American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee video highlighting the great rescue and relief work around the world by Jews and Israelis. It would be broadcast on international TV and replayed on the Tennis Channel.
This would offer real support for Israeli athletes, show the positive side of world Jewry and deliver the signal that you can’t single out Jews any longer.
Discrimination is not acceptable in America and it shouldn’t be so elsewhere. After all, Israel treats its Arab citizens better than most Muslim countries treat their own population.
This is a new day in America; it should be one around the world, too. The old signs of “No Jews, Blacks or Dogs allowed” have been taken down from every public place and every neighborhood in this country. Now it’s time to do the same across the globe.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/25/09 at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)