The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
The Emirates Back Down
The United Arab Emirates will allow Israeli tennis player Andy Ram to compete in next week’s ATP Dubai Open, Agence France-Presse reports. The Emirates were expected to deny Ram a visa but appear to have backed down in the face of public outrage over their earlier refusal of a visa for female Israeli player Shahar Peer:
A foreign ministry official in Abu Dhabi said a visa was being issued.
The director of consular affairs at the ministry, Sultan al-Kortassi, told the official Wam news agency that the decision was in accordance “with the obligations of Emirates to organise international sporting, cultural and economic events without restriction to the participation of individuals from UN member states.
“That is the policy we follow and which does not imply from a political point of view any form of normalisation (of links) with countries which do not have diplomatic relations” with the United Arab Emirates.
In other words, the UAE is making an exception in this case to its usual rule forbidding Israeli athletes to visit. Sports organizations should keep this in mind when considering future events in the Emirates, or in other countries that boycott Israel.
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