Why I Won’t Watch

I had tickets to see the third round Australian Open clash between World Number 12, Shahar Peer, and Flavia Penetta on Hisense Arena but I did’t go. It wasn’t because Peer has a weak kick serve or that her counterpunch style of play is boring, it was because Shahar Peer is an Israeli tennis player.

Peer has no qualms about the Israeli Government’s treatment of the Palestinian people and moreover is a proud former enlistee of the Israeli military. While she happily represents such a regime, I can’t happily support her.

On her military service Peer’s website states, “Shahar and her family strongly believe in the importance of contributing and giving back to the country. Shahar realized the importance of carrying out this service and felt it was her duty as an Israeli citizen.”

Peer’s strong belief in Zionism (that the area of land formerly known as Palestine should be the Jewish state of Israel) is the norm for Jews in Israel. It is likely fuelled by her upbringing, her religion and reinforced by the fact that her Grandmother spent much of her childhood in concentration camps. Her Grandmother’s family all died in the Holocaust except her Grandmother and her Grandmother’s sister.

Despite the appalling persecution of the Jewish people during the Holocaust and numerous other instances throughout history, Zionist Jews have no right to create a Jewish state in Palestine and then proceed to treat Palestinians like second class citizens.

Parallels have been drawn with apartheid South Africa and some black South Africans say that the situation for the Palestinians is even worse. Since Israel was established on Palestinian land in 1948, war after war has been fought between the Palestinian Arabs (originally a majority of the population) and the Jewish Israelis. In the initial 1948 war, 700 000 Arabs were displaced from their homes and became refugees. Over the next 63 years the Israeli government sought to expand the borders of Israel, from 52% of the Palestinian region to 88% today.

The most recent war occurred in 2009 when the Israeli government launched a vicious assault on part of the remaining Palestinian territory, the Gaza strip. The assault killed approximately 1400 Palestinians and injured approximately 5000. From the injured, 1600 were children. In contrast, 13 Israelis were killed during the same time frame. Palestinians’ movements are constantly restricted by a series of armed checkpoints. These Israeli checkpoints also control the Palestinian borders and often block aid supplies to Palestine.

Although Peer actively promoted the Israeli military by posing for a photo in uniform in front of a tank smiling and saluting, writing an article for an Israeli local paper and verbally repeating her support for her decision, she says she is for peace. In the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, actively promoting service in the Israeli military goes no way to advancing peace. Her actions have helped legitimise the Zionist crusade to establish a Jewish state no matter what the cost to Palestinian lives or homes.

There are other Israelis who also want peace but instead of promoting the military, they are refusing to complete their military duty. They are called “refuseniks” and range from groups of high school students who have signed letters vowing not to complete their compulsory military service through to ex-IDF soldiers who refuse to complete future missions in the occupied territories of Palestine. There are also groups of Jewish people inside Israel and around the world who campaign in other ways to stop the Israeli government’s attacks on Palestine.

After the Gaza War in January 2009, protests against Israel increased throughout the world. This caused problems for Peer who was denied a visa for the Dubai Championships in 2009 and was met by protestors at the ASB Classic in Auckland in 2009 and 2010. After support from Andy Roddick who boycotted Dubai in solidarity with Peer as well as Venus Williams who spoke out for Peer’s cause and the Women’s Tennis Association who fined the Dubai tournament a record $300000, Peer was allowed to compete in Dubai the following year. She vows to return again in 2011. However, instead of enduring the same controversy at Auckland again in January 2011, she decided to play the Brisbane International instead.

Peer was by no means the first or only high-profile Israeli sports star to confront Palestine solidarity protests. The Israeli (men’s) Davis Cup team was forced to play in an empty stadium as protests caused security concerns in Sweden in 2009. In the same year the Israeli basketball team had coins and lighters pelted at them from the crowd as they ran on to the court in Turkey. They went back into the locker room and refused to come out again and subsequently had to forfeit the Eurocup match. During the Beijing Olympics an Iranian swimmer, Mohammad Alirezaei, refused to race the 100m breastroke against an Israeli. And in the previous Olympics at Athens, Iranian Judo world champion, Arash Miresmaeili, refused to face an Israeli in the first round.

In another instance, a small group of Palestinian militants looked to violence in their protest, abducting and killing 11 Israeli team members at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Protesting a sports person or a sports event, even in a peaceful way, is often deeply unpopular, especially in a country like Australia where nationalism and sporting pride is rife. Former anti-Apartheid activist John Minto points out that protesting sport “is not a popularity contest” and if it was, in a contest between protestors and the athletes, the public would almost always support the athletes.

This is largely because mainstream opinion offers that sport and politics should be kept separate. The Secretary General of the Israeli Olympic Committee Efraim Zinger agrees, "Our position is that there needs to be a complete separation between sports and politics. In fact, we need sports as a bridge between people particularly during times of tension." Talks were held last week to begin building stronger ties between Israel and Palestine in the lead up to the London Olympics. At the meeting held in Switzerland, Israel guaranteed to lift travel restrictions to allow Palestinian athletes more access to sports facilities.

Up until now, Palestinian athletes have had enormous difficulties in being able to train and compete. Reports tell us that elite soccer players are forced to train on concrete pitches as there is only one real soccer field in the West Bank area of Palestine which is almost impossible to access due to the Israeli checkpoints. In Gaza, one of the few soccer pitches was bombed by Israel in 2006. The Israeli army admitted deliberately aiming at the field. As a result of these setbacks, it is not unusual for Palestinian teams to compete without training together. Team administration have been detained and interrogated at the Israeli border while on tour and three men’s national soccer league players were killed when their homes were bombed during the Gaza War in 2009.

It is hypocritical for Israel to talk about separation of politics from sport and criticise acts against their players at the same time that Palestinian athletes are being affected by Israel’s oppression and Shahar Peer is used to help promote the Israeli Defense Force. Sports and politics aren't separate because athletes don't compete in a bubble. What happens in their communities effects their livelihoods and their ability to train and play.

Recently a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign was launched in solidarity with the Palestinians urging governments around the world to cut economic, social, cultural and sporting ties with Israel. It is in the context of this campaign that Australians should re-think any involvement they have with Israel such as supporting Peer at the tennis. Boycotting and protesting against Peer’s matches is as much about sending support to the refuseniks and the Palestinian resistance as it is about making a statement about Peer’s role in legitimising Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

A similar boycott campaign was carried out against apartheid South Africa and the sports boycotts were regularly the most high profile and controversial solidarity actions in that campaign. The actions gave inspiration to the South Africans fighting for equality and added to the pressure on South Africa's rulers. It is hoped the same might happen in Israel and Palestine.