The Israeli contingent has finally been allowed into the UAE for the World Championships that begin in about 7 hours, albeit without a visa.
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that upon landing in Dubai, undercover police officers escorted the contingent through the airport and to their hotel: which is segregated from the rest of the athletes participating in the meet. Their hotel is also under heavy security. It is not clear what it means in the big picture if the delegation did not receive visas nor stamps on their passports, but hopefully that doesn’t create any further problems. Unfortunately, at the least it probably limits the abilities of the swimmers to experience the culture of Dubai and their fellow athletes: an experience that is the true meaning of these large events. If it weren’t for the cultural experiences, then there would be no reason to take World Championships, Olympics, and other events around the world. It is an experience that could bring at least the tiniest sliver of mutual understanding between these opposing nations.
Of course, the Jerusalem Post might have a slight bias in the reporting of the facts (as the self-proclaimed “Best-selling English daily and most-read English website” in Israel), but they also said that Israel’s luggage was more heavily scrutinized than anybody else’s in the airport. Though the original reporting portrayed this as an act of repression by the UAE police, the added security is likely as much for the safety of the athletes as it is anything.
While UAE officials have to be very careful with allowing any athletes from a hostile nation inside their borders (just read Wikileaks if you don’t believe a country would use athletes for espionage-stranger things have happened), these arrangements should have been arrived upon ahead of time so that there were no surprises and no delay in the athletes entering the country. Even without regard to the politics of the situation, the inability of the UAE to arrange logistics for what would clearly be a problem further demonstrates why FINA needs to think long and hard before allowing them to host any further FINA sanctioned events.
On a positive note, the JP is also reporting that the Israeli flag has been allowed to fly in the Dubai Sports Complex, thus avoiding another embarrassment for the UAE and more distraction for the Israeli contingent.
