Photo: CBC Sports
TLDR: Today is the second day of the Davis Cup tie between Canada and Israel — but the matches are happening behind closed doors. Tennis Canada says the decision was based on “intelligence,” but what intelligence?
👉 Listen to our special State of Play episode on Wednesday for the full story.
Hi there,
Sharon Nadeem here. I’m a producer and head of partnerships at the GRC, and I’ve been following a story for the past few weeks that I’d like to tell you about. As you probably already know by now, I help make the podcast State of Play, which focuses on the intersection of sports, politics, and human rights. So this was right up my alley.
Even if you don’t follow tennis, you may have heard about the controversy around the Davis Cup matches in Halifax between the men’s teams from Canada and Israel. Tennis Canada, the regulatory body in the country, announced this week that matches will be played behind closed doors, citing “intelligence from local and national agencies” about potential security risks.
I contacted the Halifax Regional Police and the Nova Scotia RCMP to ask about what security issues had been identified. Both agencies confirmed that they had not provided risk assessments to Tennis Canada. The RCMP denied being involved in the event in any way. The source of the intelligence remains unclear. It raises questions as to why Tennis Canada made this decision, considering the loss of revenue from both ticket sales and tourism for the city of Halifax. Despite repeated requests, we have not received a response from Tennis Canada.
“This event offers Israel the opportunity to sportswash its genocide in Gaza — to use sports to launder its reputation and distract from its human rights atrocities.”
—El Jones
The closed-door decision comes after mounting pressure to cancel the event. Two open letters — one signed by more than 400 academics and athletes, including four-time Olympian Moh Ahmed and Palestinian soccer player Charlotte Phillips — urged Sport Canada and Tennis Canada not to go ahead with the tournament.
The letters state that Canada should not host a team whose players include current and former members of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), who represent a country that the International Court of Justice has found to be committing plausible genocide in Gaza. As El Jones, an assistant professor at Mount St. Vincent University and a signatory of one of the letters, put it:
“This event offers Israel the opportunity to sportswash its genocide in Gaza — to use sports to launder its reputation and distract from its human rights atrocities.”
She added that Canada has long understood sport as political — from its decision to boycott apartheid South Africa and withdraw from the Davis Cup in 1978 to Canadians booing the U.S. anthem last winter during NHL games.
“Sports are not separate from the project of the nation. You cannot fly a country’s flag and claim sports are apolitical. Israel should not be given access to the stage of play as they dance on the graveyards of Palestinians,”
—El Jones
Despite pushback, the matches are taking place with protests planned for outside the event this weekend.
I will dive deep into this story for a State of Play bonus episode next week. You’ll hear conversations with El Jones, as well as Charlotte Phillips, who plays for the Palestinian national soccer team, and sports scholar Nathan Kalman-Lamb. I examine how sports and politics are intertwined when international tournaments become a stage for political legitimacy. That’s coming on Wednesday, September 17th. To get it as soon as it’s available, be sure to subscribe wherever you stream your podcasts.
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If you liked our previous bonus episodes and are excited to hear about the episode next week, please consider donating to us. If you do, the next time, I could be on the ground in Halifax. I’m only half-joking.
Sharon Nadeem,
Producer and Head of Partnerships
