Political or Personal: Ashkahn Dejagah’s Refusal to play against Israel

By: Jan | October 10th, 2007

There’s a story that has quickly generated a lot of buzz in Germany. VfL Wolfsburg’s Ashkahn Dejagah was originally nominated by U21 coach Dieter Eilts to play in a Euro qualifier against Israel in Tel Aviv on Friday, but the German-Iranian asked the coach to leave him out of the squad for personal reasons. This was followed by a report of the tabloid paper Bild, with a contradictory quote by Dejagah:

There are political reasons. Everyone knows I’m a German Iranian.

The hint of a politically/ideologically motivated boycott has caused quite stir, with both politicians and the Central Council of Jews in Germany voicing their concerns and asking for a ban from the national team. DFB president Theo Zwanziger who had previously accepted Dejagah’s request on behalf of the player’s personal concerns, has now announced to take a closer look, and stated:

My fundamental position and the position of the DFB are quite clear, however. We will not tolerate a German national player cancelling his participation in an international match because of his world view. A player who wears our team strip must identify with this country and its values. Otherwise one has to do without him.

And I agree with this notion, should Dejagah indeed sympathise with the antisemitic and Holocaust denying regime in Iran. But there is fairly little evidence for that, except for a clumsy remark, which is coming from a tabloid paper that likes to take things out of context or rewrite quotes all the way. He might have called it “political reasons”, to point at the current situation in Iran, instead of agreeing with the regime’s agenda on Israel. He is actually on record as saying to the BZ newspaper:

I have nothing against Israel. But I’m worried about having problems later when traveling to Iran.

And that’s a valid point. There is actually a law in Iran, that makes it a criminal offence to travel to Israel, punished with a prison sentence of up to two years. Now, as a German citizen he shouldn’t be concerned about such a law, but he also has an Iranian passport, and fears legal charges against him, if he visits his family in Iran. Apart from that he is also concerned about possible actions that could be taken against his family.

A difficult situation, further complicated by the very sensitive relationship between Germany and Israel.

I currently give Dejagah the benefit of the doubt, that he only has concerns over his personal and his family’s safety, and thus can understand his decision.

UPDATE: Deutsche Welle has published two opinion pieces, looking at Dejagah’s decision from different angles.
Opinion: Soccer Player Within His Rights to Boycott Israel
Opinion: Dejagah’s Attitudes at Odds with Sportsmanship

MORE UPDATES: Deutsche Welle has published reader reactions, with a slight majority sharing the view, that Dejagah should no longer be allowed to play for a German national team.
Readers: Soccer Player Should Focus on the Game, Not Politics

There seems to be a general split between people in the way they interpret his comments to the press.

The blog Football is for the Madman says, that there is no real evidence that Dejagah has an antisemitic mindset and criticises the way the press leaves out important details when reporting about the story. He also points out the ambiguity of his ‘political reasons’ statement

An opinion piece from globeandmail.com doesn’t share this view.

If Mr. Dejagah is conducting a one-man sporting boycott of Israel in order to make a political statement – and he did later cite “political reasons” in one interview – he is a willing dupe of the brutal and anti-Semitic regime in Tehran. (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust-denier who has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”) Alternatively, he is a simple coward who places his concerns over possible future travel inconveniences ahead of loyalty to his teammates and his adopted country, and any ideals of sportsmanship he might claim.

Unsurprisingly the Iranian press started to exploit the case, and the Iranian sports magazine Goal called his decision heroic and masterful. (Times Online).

The international edition of Der Spiegel provides an overview of the commentary by parts of the German press:

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

“Naturally Dieter Graumann is right when he says that ‘it is inconceivable and impossible that a national team player initiates a private boycott of Jews.’ But is that what Ashkan Dejagah has done? He has cited ‘personal reasons’ for asking to be left out of the international match. If the Iranians wanted to, for whatever reason, they could mercilessly exploit the Dejagah case. Dejagah knows this and he has good reason to fear it.”

“Naturally one would have been pleased if Dejagah had made a stand against this inhumane regime that is permanently campaigning against Israel, and had played there. But you can’t demand that he do so when he has family in Tehran.”

“It would be incorrect to immediately assume that he has a fundamental dislike of Jews. … People should keep in mind the reasons behind Dejagah’s decision. And they should seriously think about whether they would like to accept the responsibility for what would have happened if he had played.”

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“Dejagah could have wrangled his way out of the game with a conveniently timed injury … Instead he opened his big mouth and said he couldn’t go for ‘political reasons.’”

“One can imagine how great his fear is that his relatives in Iran might be persectued (if he played). And how great his fear is that he would not be able to travel to Iran with an Israeli stamp in his passport.”

“His close friends know who Ashkan Dejagah fears the most in this matter. Not the regime in Tehran, but his father in Berlin. The family has lived in Berlin for 20 years but it is no secret that Mohammad Dejagah would have preferred to see his son in the Iranian team uniform rather than the German one. (According to media reports, Mohammad Dejagah has told the Iranian state news agency IRNA that he would like to see his son playing on the Tehran’s national team.) Their new country has not become a real home for the family. Dejagah’s case is, above all, a typical Berlin example of failed integration.”

The conservative Die Welt writes:

“No one has to be a hero, you can’t enforce civil courage. You can understand that Dejagah is afraid to play on Friday in the match against Israel … Dejagah could have given many excuses to stay away from the game unobtrusively.”

“He is reported to have said ‘I have more Iranian than German blood in my veins.’ One doesn’t have to accept that. A national player represents his nation — he is neither an international nor a dual citizenship player.”

“The young man has revealed an important dilemma in the immigration society. There are many immigrants … who maintain a completely functional relationship to their new home. … They often demand full civil rights but then, after they get them, they still feel foreign. And they often feel a deep loyalty to their old home and to the blood in their veins.”

In more naive times this double orientation was lauded as enriching society: two identities … were better than one. Dejagah has now emphatically shown that unclear loyalties can be a danger to a free society.”