On September 9, Tennis Canada announced that the Davis Cup Tie versus Israel would be played in a closed venue format. They claim this measure was “taken to ensure the tie can proceed as safely as possible without disruption.” Tennis Canada further stated, “Ensuring the safety of everyone involved, including athletes, fans, staff, volunteers, and minors, such as ball kids, remains our top priority.” These actions show that Tennis Canada’s cowardice and knowledge that this event is a serious issue.

This claim about “safety concerns” for “everyone involved,” including children, is rooted in anti-Palestinian racism (APR). Tennis Canada’s rhetoric further entrenches the notion that Palestinians (and by affiliation, their supporters) are violent people who seek to cause harm. This language was an active decision that demonstrates Tennis Canada’s commitment to the dehumanization and demonization of Palestinians.

Further, Tennis Canada cannot claim to care about safety, when they choose to protect a genocidal state over the Palestinian people. By not only allowing, but facilitating this tennis match with Israel, Tennis Canada, Halifax, and all organizing bodies involved are co-signing Israel’s actions. These actions include the killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians*, the near complete destruction of education, cultural, health, and sports institutions across Gaza, the forced starvation of an entire population, and a 225% rise in limb amputation cases in Gaza since October 2023.

As Issam Khalidi writes in “The Destruction of Sports Infrastructure in Gaza”: “Since October 2023, athletes and sports infrastructure have been impacted by the genocidal assault that Israel has inflicted on Gaza’s people and its built environment. In addition to the athletes and coaches who have been killed, sports clubs and arenas have been destroyed, and stadiums used for mass arrests and mass graves.”

We condemn Tennis Canada and the International Tennis Federation for caring more about the safety of Israeli athletes than of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, under relentless bombardment. Tennis Canada is not afraid of violence but of civil disruptions that will hold them accountable, disrupt “business as usual”, and cost them pride and money.
“In the end, Tennis Canada has followed Mayor Andy Fillmore in a cowardly flight from the people. Denied the public platform they craved, they now skulk behind closed doors, attempting to celebrate and endorse genocide in secret—shielded from the fury of the community and the judgment of the world.” – Halifax Committee Against Imperialist War and Genocide

We urge Tennis Canada to make a different choice while there is still time. Complicity is a choice, and Tennis Canada must refuse complicity in genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation, and apartheid by:

1. Cancelling the Davis Cup Tie match versus Israel
2. Call on the ITF to suspend Israel
3. Return the $50,000 awarded by Halifax City Council for this event

No sports-washing genocide, war crimes and apartheid.
Call for the immediate cancellation of this event

For latest updates on this campaign, follow No Love for Genocide on Instagram.

Tennis Canada should have the political foresight, maturity, and the moral capacity to refuse what is business as usual. The Davis Cup does not occur or exist outside the context of Israel’s egregious actions. If the City of Halifax, the Province of Nova Scotia, the Scotiabank Centre, the International Tennis Federation and Tennis Canada, proceed with this match, all will be complicit. This event is nothingmorethan an effort to launder the reputation of a state committing genocide and guilty of illegal military occupation and apartheid.

No sports-washing genocide, war crimes and apartheid.
Call for the immediate cancellation of this event

For latest updates on this campaign, follow No Love for Genocide on Instagram.

Co-sponsors:
Labour for Palestine Halifax/Kjipuktuk
Palestine Solidarity Halifax
Nova Scotia Student Strike
Independent Jewish Voices Halifax
Canadian BDS Coalition and International BDS Allies

The Kick Out Apartheid campaign, aligned with the broader BDS movement, calls on fans, athletes, and communities to reject complicity and build grassroots pressure to end apartheid. Canada cannot continue to present itself as a defender of human rights while providing legitimacy to an apartheid regime on the international stage. Tennis Canada must be held accountable, and sponsors must be confronted for their silence. As in other global anti-apartheid struggles, people of conscience must seize this moment to disrupt business-as-usual. That means organizing protests, raising awareness in Halifax and beyond, and demanding that apartheid has no place in sport—or anywhere.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/canada-israel-davis-cup-world-group1-tie-halifax-1.7535769