Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Protesters ask Peer to pull out of ASB Classic

Protesters in New Zealand have asked Israeli player Shahar Peer to withdraw from competition as part of an international protest against Israel's invasion of Gaza. Peer has refused to withdraw, and has been provided extra security at the tournament.

"I have nothing to do with this," Peer said. "I'm Shahar Peer. I came here to play tennis. I know I'm from Israel and I'm proud of my country and that playing tennis is what I'm going to do tomorrow."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dont want to use this place to give my opinion on war themed aspects of our filthy world, but what a difficult issue to deal with: us tennis fans and Shahar herself. Overall i can think of two points on this matter:

1. Protesters need to focuss their actions in a more appropriate context. But im shocked too, i cant say id do otherwise.

2. Shahar gave half the perfect answer, but she should know better than say "Im proud of my country"... good for her, but the present situation asks for a proper response (im not suggesting a lie, but a sensitive speech... after all, we are talking about genocide).

Id love to know what do you think, Diane.

Diane said...

I agree that Peer's "I'm proud of my country" (which I'm sure she meant in an overall, patriotic context) was not the thing to say (unless she really is proud of the invasion), under the circumstances. Peer is not used to dealing with this type of incident, and is undoubtedly not prepared to measure her words appropriately.

I don't have any problem with the protesters asking her to withdraw (she also supports their right to do so)--I'm sure they are focusing their actions in many contexts.

And I support Peer's decision to remain in the tournament.

Anonymous said...

Im sure you are right about Peer not being used to that kind of media approach.

I support her decision to stay too.

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