September 27th was an historic day for Middle Eastern football. Al-Nasr Dubai,
an Emirati club from the Arabian Gulf League, signed forward Dia Saba from Guangzhou R&F.
It was the first time an Isreali footballer had been signed by an Arab club and the move
conformed to a recent pattern of co-operation that would have been unthinkable until very recently.
For decades, Arab countries have refused to accept the existence of Israel in the Middle
East. Now though, there are signs of change. In August this year, Israel and the United Arab
Emirates announced that they would sign a historic peace agreement, after years of public hostility.
And, surprisingly enough, that new agreement can trace some of its roots
back to the Faisal Husseini Stadium, the home of the Palestinian national team.
In September 2015, the Emirati national side arrived in Palestine for its first-ever official
football match in the Palestinian territories, as part of the 2018 World Cup qualifications.
It was also the first World Cup qualifier to take place in Palestine for almost three years.
At the time, nobody knew that five years and a week later, on September 15th 2020,
the UAE would sign a peace agreement with Israel. Or that, in a way,
the match in Al-Ram would be a small step towards that treaty.
Since that game, Oman, Iraq, Qatar U19s, Moroccan Raja Casablanca
and - last year - even Saudi Arabian have played at Faisal Husseini Stadium.
Unlike the previous peace agreements between Arab countries and Israel,
this one’s effect upon football has been immediate.
At first, Israeli club Hapoel Be’er Sheva invited Shabab Al-Ahly Dubai,
one of the biggest clubs in the UAE, to play a friendly in Israel. Then followed a story that
would shock the region, which was reported widely by both Arabic and Hebrew-speaking news channels.
An Emirati investor was interested in acquiring a partial share
in Beitar Jerusalem, the club with the most radical-right wing fan group in Israel
and the only club in Israeli football never to have fielded an Arab player.
The club announced the talks with an Abu Dhabi based financier on the club's website
and Beitar’s owner, Moshe Hogeg, told CNN that he was "willing to add partners in the
club's ownership to create a Jewish and Arab partnership that will help
the club win the championship and guarantee participation in the UEFA Champions League".
When questioned about the La Familia, the fan group who burned down their
own club’s offices in 2013 in response to Beitar signing two Muslim Chechen players,
the potential investor – who initially chose to remain anonymous - told i24 News that:
“Fanaticism is rooted in ignorance and fear of the other. If there is a spirit of tolerance,
we can create an atmosphere of pure friendship."
And, in the first week of December, an agreement was struck, with it announced
that Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, has acquired 50%
of Beitar and committed to around $90m worth of investment of a decade-long period.
Back in September, something even more tangible and significant had begun to take
shape, when the Emirati al-Bayan newspaper reported that Al-Nasr
Dubai was on the verge of signing Dia Saba, the Israeli national team forward.
This was no idle rumour: two days later,
the player was presented in the blue shirt of Al-Ameed, at the Al-Maktoum Stadium in Dubai.
"The people I met here were surprised that there are Arab Muslims who speak
Arabic freely in Israel. I am proud to represent my people", said Saba,
who was born in Maj al-Krum, an Arab city in the north of Israel.
"There is a sense of history in the air. There's much more than football in this transfer.”
Dia Saba has become an ambassador of sorts,
with Al-Nasr enjoying worldwide attention. But not all of it has been positive. When he
debuted at the end of October, many in Israel and the UAE celebrated. Across the region,
however, the reactions varied between ambivalence, suspicion and disappointment.
Many Arab fans mocked Saba, calling him a traitor. In Palestine, they were also
critical of the local FA for not calling Saba into the national team when he was still
available and for their policy of not selecting players from the Arab minority in Israel.
The road for complete peace in the Middle East is still far away,
clearly. Nevertheless, this peace agreement offers something new that hasn’t existed before in one of
the most diverse and fractious areas of the world. Bahrain announced it would also sign
a deal with Israel, as well as Sudan, and other Arab countries are reportedly likely to follow.
In football, it opens the door to new barrier-breaking partnerships in the Middle East.
In late October, Maccabi Haifa announced a formal cooperation agreement with Al-Ain,
of the UAE’s Arabian Gulf League, which will also involve a ‘Match of Peace’ between the two,
due to be played in Abu Dhabi.
“I have always believed it was possible to develop friendly relations through sports”,
said Yaakov Shachar, Maccabi’s owner, at the end of October. “We will sign a memorandum
of understanding between the two clubs in a matter of days to create a relationship
that will include collaborations on both the sporting and business side.”
In a first of its kind agreement, another MoU has been signed between the UAE Pro League and
the Israeli Professional Football League. At a signing ceremony on the 26th October and reported
on by the Emirati News Agency, Abdulla Naser Al Junaibi, the Chairman of the UAE Pro League,
said, "Football has always been the most important and fast path to bring people together.”
Erez Halfon, his opposite as the Chairman of the Israeli Professional Football League,
concurred, saying that “we have the ability to use it as a tool to build
relationships and break down walls between people, of all genders, and of all races.”
And Halfon evidently believes in what this partnership can inspire.
"It shall not only be a bridge between football clubs”, he said, “but shall also
be a platform for a series of initiatives - business, technologies and above all - will
be a bridge for the development of social and cultural ties between people from both sides."