Wimbledon allows Turkish player to use pro-Palestinian symbol

In a rare measure in 2022, Wimbledon eased its political restriction, allowing players to don Ukrainian symbols.

By JNS

The hosts of Wimbledon decided to permit tennis players to use a symbol affiliated with supporting the Palestinian cause, British media reported on Friday.

The Grand Slam tennis tournament has a policy that supposedly forbids political messaging, which prevents Turkish player Zeynep Sönmez from wearing a pin of the Palestinian flag.

However, the world’s women’s No. 51 has been using a watermelon shock absorber on her racket as a replacement.

The watermelon, whose colors and shape match the Palestinian flag when sliced open, has been used for decades as a pro-Palestinian political emblem after Israel banned the flag in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War.

Speaking to the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency news agency on Thursday, the 24-year-old said, “I used to wear a pin. Tournaments no longer allow me to wear it. We had a discussion with the organizers because the Ukrainian flag is allowed but the Palestinian one is not.”

She continued, “They ultimately told us they definitely would not allow it. So, I can’t wear the pin. I can use the vibration dampener, and they can’t object to that. That’s why I put the watermelon symbol on my racket.”

Director of Wimbledon Jamie Baker explained the decision to reporters on Friday, claiming, “We don’t allow political messaging from players on court, certainly [messages] that cause this type of disruption, so that has been consistent across the rules for a long time,” per outlet TalkSport.

“In terms of the watermelon, we don’t think that’s meeting the threshold for causing any type of disruption,” he added.

The U.K.-based nonprofit Campaign Against Antisemitism criticized the decision, saying that the vibration dampener symbolizes replacing Israel with a Palestinian state, according to The Telegraph.

In a rare measure in 2022, Wimbledon eased its political restriction, allowing players to don Ukrainian symbols.

“The Ukrainian situation was obviously quite unique, [with] everything that happened here around our government guidance and international response, and we did respond to that and provided support to Ukrainian players for quite a while,” Baker was quoted as saying.

Sönmez registered an early exit from the tournament, getting knocked out of both the singles and doubles matches on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, TalkSport reported.