$50,000 to sportswash a genocide

Despite a boycott, council funds Davis Cup

By Giancarlos Cininni

On August 19, Halifax regional council approved $50,000 in funding for the Davis Cup, an annual world cup-esque tennis tournament with a match between Canada and Israel that has been a source of controversy nationwide. After council voted to help sportwash Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, members of the public yelled “shame on you” and “free Palestine, you fucking losers” before being promptly escorted out. It was the second moment of civil disobedience that day at city hall.

Earlier that morning, a crowd of approximately 100 demonstrators clad in keffiyehs, holding banners, and waving Palestinian flags, gathered in front of city hall. Their demands were clear: vote against funding the Davis Cup, and cancel the event.

Protestor Kate Mackeigan of Labour 4 Palestine at the morning protest said that giving money to the Davis Cup is supporting Isreal and that “It is absolutely an acceptance of their complicity in these crimes and, again a kind of laundering of the reputation of a state that’s committing these crimes. We don’t accept that,” she said.

“Its horrific. We’re saying not in our name,” fellow protestor and Dalhousie professor Isaac Saney said. “If you can ban Russia and Belarus from events, that’s political,” he said. “Why do you have a double standard when it comes to genocide against people of color?”