The soccer world has been in an uproar recently over Mesay Dego’s appointment as a coach for Maccabi Haifa, the national soccer champion. Some people wondered whether he wasn’t too young and inexperienced, others said he is very talented and extremely suitable.
But this debate missed the main point. Israeli public diplomacy has an asset under its nose that it is utterly wasting.
One of the biggest challenges Israel faces is international public opinion. The world around us no longer looks the same; it has become diverse and multicultural. It’s Beyoncé’s world. Barack Obama’s world. Shonda Rhimes’ world. LeBron James’ world. Yet what the world sees and gets from Israel isn’t diversity, but uniformity.
In discussions about Israeli public diplomacy’s work methods, problems and how to solve them, what is right before our eyes usually goes unmentioned. For some reason, it has become the invisible man.
Yet Israel’s greatest assets are its people. The Israeli mosaic is diverse and complex. And to be more specific, the Ethiopian Israeli community is a missed public diplomacy opportunity.
That’s because most people worldwide aren’t aware of the fact that there are Black Jews and that Israel’s population is diverse. In their view, Israelis – or, more accurately, Jews – come in only one color, and they all look the same. That’s what they are familiar with.
Revealing our diversity could bring down walls and create feelings of identification. Dego’s appointment as a coach in the Premier League, for instance, is an especially strong public diplomacy card at a time when the overseas soccer world has too few appointments of dark-skinned coaches. And it would show the world that Israel is trying to repair itself.
If I were the sports minister, or the public diplomacy minister, I would invite Yaakov Shahar, Maccabi Haifa’s owner, and Mesay Dego to my office and strive to promote cooperation that would show the world a slightly different Israel than the one they know. After all, the world goes mad over soccer, and through it, it’s possible to reach and speak to different audiences.
Moreover, who doesn’t love success stories like Dego’s? He was an underdog, an unexpected appointment, a talented guy who succeeded by his own efforts and hard work despite the many barriers he faced. His parents left Ethiopia on foot and walked through Sudan to realize the millennia-old dream of returning to their homeland. What a story. Even Hollywood would have trouble matching a script like that.
Dego is only one example of a great many talented Ethiopian Israelis whose success stories – stories about breaking through the glass ceiling – could be an exceptional public diplomacy asset in the European Union, the African Union, the United Nations, college campuses worldwide, parliaments and international organizations.
But what is Israel doing instead of leveraging the advantages of the Ethiopian Israeli community – their immigration story, which is unparalleled, and the challenges the community has dealt with in Israel? It’s casting doubt on their talents, making decisions based on prejudice and looking at their skin color as a disadvantage, a barrier, something that constitutes a problem.
Moreover, it is doing this even though skin color is an X factor – not just for the Ethiopian Israelis, but also for Israeli society as a whole. In short, we’re missing the goal from a meter away.
Using Israel's Diversity as a Diplomacy Asset
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01.06.2023
The soccer world has been in an uproar recently over Mesay Dego’s appointment as a coach for Maccabi Haifa, the national soccer champion. Some people wondered whether he wasn’t too young and inexperienced, others said he is very talented and extremely suitable.
But this debate missed the main point. Israeli public diplomacy has an asset under its nose that it is utterly wasting.
One of the biggest challenges Israel faces is international public opinion. The world around us no longer looks the same; it has become diverse and multicultural. It’s Beyoncé’s world. Barack Obama’s world. Shonda Rhimes’ world. LeBron James’ world. Yet what the world sees and gets from Israel isn’t diversity, but uniformity.
In discussions about Israeli public diplomacy’s work methods, problems and how to solve them, what is right before our eyes usually goes........
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