(Published in The People’s Voice, p.7 1-15 Oct)

Newsflash 12 Sept: the province of NS just withdrew its $100,000 funding for Tennis Canada’s Davis Cup

It’s not often those of us on the left in this country who oppose Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians win a significant victory

But that is what happened on Tuesday in Halifax NS. 

Tennis Canada (TC) had sponsored the qualifiers’ tournament for the Davis Cup:  Team Canada vs Team Israel.  What was meant to be a great celebration and love-in for Israel crumbled as the Halifax-Dartmouth activist community pressure and campaign “No Love for Genocide” pressured Tennis Canada to back down.  

Item: On Tuesday the tennis officials barred the public — all spectators and fans– from watching the games in person.  No media would be allowed in either! That is unheard-of—at least in this town.    

Item: Tennis Canada promises to fully refund all 2000 ticket-holders.  Apparently, less than half of the 5,500 tickets on sale had been sold.  Ticket prices were in the range of $200 US apiece. 

Item: Tennis Canada claimed it was on the advice of security that TC cancelled the games scheduled for the premier downtown Halifax sports venue, the Scotiabank Centre.  Instead, the two matches will be played at an undisclosed, secret location.   The local media outlets have agreed to embargo details of where they will be held.  And, so far, all the local journalists who know have, obliging their employers, kept mum.  

This all began in earnest a few weeks ago, when an ad hoc citizens’ action committee, composed of many left wing groups and activists including my organization Independent Jewish Voices, first argued that Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) should not roll out the red carpet for the Davis Cup as Team Israel would play Team Canada.  By a vote of 10 to 6, Halifax Regional Municipal (HRM) council voted to support the event and fork over $50,000 to Tennis Canada to help boost tourism.  

However, progressive people, churches, trade unions, and NGOs everywhere are refusing to “normalize Israel.”  They refuse to ignore Israel’s genocide in Gaza.  We called it “sportswashing.” If readers think back to the South Africa in the late 1970s and ‘80s, they will recall that boycotting Paarl wine, petitioning universities to bar(white) South African scholars, and turning  South African sports teams away from competition was the norm.  It was taboo to “normalize South Africa.” It was banned from sporting, cultural, educational and even political events. 

It reminds me of a story…

In1987, it was still three years before South Africa’s Nelson Mandela would be released from 27 years’ imprisonment.  The last 18 years he had spent doing “hard labour” –breaking stones in a quarry  — on Robben Island.  I was an active member of an anti-Apartheid coalition in Leamington Spa, a small town in the English midlands, where I and my family used to live.  Our anti-Apartheid group decided to picket the annual grand opening of the famous Shakespeare Theatre Festival, in Stratford-upon-Avon only about 8 miles from our town.  To celebrate the bard’s 423^rd  birthday, the Festival was set to raise flags of dozens of nations in the plaza.  In a short convoy, we demonstrators drove to Stratford to picket and disrupt South African officials when they tried to raise their flag. 

I had my then-six year old son Max along with me. No babysitter, I guess.  Surely he  wouldn’t be a problem if I bought him an  ice cream cone with a “Flake” chocolate bar stuck in it..  Well, he objected and loudly—demanding to go to McDonalds or home.  Suddenly I heard a loud voice from the platform where the “worthies” sat.  It was my old boss Mary LeMessurier, Alberta’s former minister of Culture – now the the province’s agent general in London. A few years earlier, when I lived in Edmonton, I used to write her speeches and edit the department’s glossy magazine, Heritage.

In those years, Alberta rented elegant offices in London to promote the province’s tourism and business.  From the platform, LeMessurier swooped down and insisted on comforting a testy Max.  She asked me what we were doing there.  I told her – she said that sounded like me!  Then she invited me to what became a long and liquid lunch at a fancy place in London the next week.   She was blissfully unperturbed about the fight against Apartheid, and activists’ commitment to ridding South Africa of its racist, white rulers. 

Still, back in 1987, South Africa had been banned from virtually all sporting events.  Indeed, in the last 100 years South Africa joined more than 13 countries excluded from competing in international sporting events, including the Olympics.   

Davis Cup: a Boondoggle

The recent Davis Cup appearance in Halifax was a boondoggle endorsed by Halifax council that voted to give TC $50,000.  The province ponied up $100,000, and of course the feds—will be picking up the tab for locations, transportation, refunding tickets purchased by those now excluded from watching the games live and security.  The Halifax police announced that TC had spurned using the Halifax police for security.  Instead TC and/or the feds seem to be relying on (and paying for) federal agents such as CSIS and the RCMP — or even private security.  Many of us have noted suspicious silver grey SUVs tooling around town carrying men in dark suits with coiled white earpieces.    

Halifax’s mayor Andy Fillmore (a former three-term Liberal MP) and his buddies decided to host this sporting event to make the most of the waning tourist season—hotels, bars, restaurants, stores, heritage sites and  more could benefit from an influx of tennis-loving fans.  Fillmore insisted the Davis Cup could bring more than $2.5 to Halifax’s downtown this weekend.   But that is not all, Fillmore and his friends have been beating the drum for Halifax to pay up to $120 million for an 8,600-seat downtown soccer stadium.  There is a huge fight brewing among some local residents who want to preserve the Halifax Common, and the powerful who favour a “home” for the HFX Wanderers FC, a private revenue-generating sports club favoured by developers, the construction industry owners and mostly male fans. Fillmore must have believed hosting the Davis Cup would shore up his case for a stadium.  

No spectators or media allowed at the Davis Cup

Despite the fact that Davis Cup is no longer a public event, and the new location of the tournament played remains hidden from fans and foes alike – the situation has not dampened Mayor Fillmore’s desire to manage the climb-down.  

Two weeks ago, Fillmore shut down a community meeting after 20 minutes when local residents started to ask why he supported Israel’s genocide, and demand the Davis Cup be cancelled. More than 75 residents saw the mayor refuse to discuss it and, when pressed, literally “cut and run” from the crowd at Cole Harbour Place.  As local activist El Jones has said, if running away were a sport, Fillmore would win hands down.

Below: left– as Mayor Fillmore shut town the town hall; two photos of anti-genocide protesters a the town hall

Undaunted by the disaster he helped create, Mayor Fillmore still urged tennis fans to come to Halifax, though they will have to watch on TV monitors rather than in person,

“We want to make sure everyone who booked a hotel room, who booked a flight, or restaurant reservations — we want to invite them to still cheer on Team Canada from their hotel room or wherever they might be.” 

For the final word, we go to the Atlantic Jewish Council (AJC) whose “parent” organization, the Centre for Israel Jewish Affairs (CIJA) sent out a press release which says in part “extremists are threatening our Canadian way of life” – those extremists are anti-genocide activists who do not want sportwashing of Israeli apartheid. 

CIJA is hiding Team Israel under a bushel

CIJA excoriates us for not being “patriotic” enough to support Team Canada. Whom does CIJA take great pains NOT to mention? Why “Team Israel”!  – CIJA never mentions Team Israel most of whose  players are and have been in the IDF, and likely did service in Gaza or the West Bank.   As El Jones reports, in a 2021 interview with Team Israel player Daniel Cukierman, he seems to understand that sport does mix with politics.  

“When asked how being from Israel influenced his tennis career, he said: “I think Israel is a special place for someone to grow up an athlete because we have the Army. The three-year Army requirement for Israeli citizens is something that’s really important in our professional careers…being Israeli means serving in the Army and we take pride in that.” Cukierman appears to have stayed publicly silent on the IDF’s actions since October 2023.”

Now CIJA is hiding Team Israel “under a bushel” in Halifax – because there is no good press when it comes to Israel’s participation in much of anything except slaughter. The next three paragraphs are hilarious:

Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, shared a social media post Tuesday thanking Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore and Tennis Canada CEO Gavin Ziv for their “steadfast commitment to ensuring that the Davis Cup matches between Israel and Canada proceed as scheduled.

“However, it is deeply troubling that extreme protestors have created an unsafe and hostile environment that threatens the safety of fans, players, and staff attending these matches.” 

“International sports should transcend political agendas – an arena where we celebrate excellence, unity, and the shared spirit of humanity. It must remain free of hate, violence, and incitement. As a prominent liberal democracy, Canada bears a responsibility to ensure the safety of all people, and to reject attempts by any form of extremism to control the public domain.” See this.

Israel has deliberately killed more than 800 Palestinian athletes in the last two years—400 were adult footballers, the rest were children. Israel has destroyed at least 288 sports facilities in Gaza. One month ago, Gaza-born footballer Suleiman al-Obaid, 41 and father of five, nicknamed “Palestinian Pele” was killed by an Israeli missile when he was waiting for food aid.  – Come on Israel, is that sportsmanlike?

At a Halifax press conference on Wednesday, activist and university professor El Jones, said that the situation Israel is in vis-à-vis the Davis Cup is totally appropriate.  Playing tennis with no audience, no fans, no media present, shows Israel is isolated and spurned by most decent people.  Team Israel will play to none but themselves – citizens and supporters of the “country that wouldn’t grow up” and the major terrorist state in the world today.  

Photo at the top: One of hundreds of flyers postered in Halifax promoting a march planned for Friday and Saturday. (credit: Giuliana Grillo de Lambarri/CBC)