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 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 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 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 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.
