Thread by @JewsSayNo

1/ 🚨 Next week, Canada’s tennis team is set to face Israel — even as Israel continues carrying out it’s 21+ month live-streamed genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Why is @TennisCanada refusing to cancel the @DavisCup match? A THREAD 👇

2/ This isn’t just “sports as usual.” A growing chorus of Canadian athletes, academics & officials are demanding the match be cancelled. But Tennis Canada’s refusal reveals something deeper: its institutional ties to Zionism & pro-Israel power.

3/ @TennisCanada's official response made clear that protecting its deep ties with 🇮🇱, donors & financial partners comes 1st: Tennis Canada’s biggest backers funnel millions into illegal settlements, far-right settler groups, military infrastructure & sportswashing projects.

Tennis Canada is a beneficiary of the Green Fischer Family Trust, responsible for the single-largest donation in its history -a $2 million cash injection in 2022, followed by a $3 million one in 2023.

The Green Fischer Trust is one of many Canadian philanthropic organisations that funnel tax-subsidized donations directly to Israel, including settlement projects, military support, and hasbara groups.

The Zionist organizations Green Fischer has donated to include the Jerusalem Foundation (linked to illegal settlements), Ne’eman Foundation (linked to both settlements and far right settler groups within Israel), and anti-Palestinian hate group HonestReporting Canada.

They also are large donors to the UJA, ORT, Magen David Adom, and Canada-Israel Children’s Centres / ITEC.

These donations are also linked to programs designed to improve 🇮🇱's reputation & obscure its ongoing oppression of Palestinians through the practice of 'sportswashing'.

The Israel Tennis & Education Centers (ITEC), for example, ran the youth U12 exchange in Toronto that Tennis Canada hosted. The program was organised by then-Tennis Canada CEO Michael Downey & Tennis Canada staff, & run on the ground with Israeli coaching leadership.

Tennis Canada leadership continues to maintain institutional and ideological ties to Israel. The current CEO, long-time Tennis Canada executive Gavin Ziv, represented Canada at the 2022 Maccabiah Games in Israel, a visible tie to Israel’s communal sporting networks.

The Davis Cup fits into a larger ecosystem of donor money and Israeli sportswashing, so it’s not a surprise that Tennis Canada sees maintaining its ties to Zionism as an act of self-preservation.

Sports have always been political, & have a long history of being sites of struggle, sites of oppression, & sites of resistance. The Palestinian people are being massacred in real time, & @TennisCanada has been bought and sold as yet another vehicle to help whitewash 🇮🇱's crimes.

To the media currently acting as stenographers for @TeamCanada’s press statements: report on these financial relationships. To anyone invested in tennis as a sport, be it player or audience member: rejection of this Davis Cup match is the bare minimum.

🇵🇸If Team Canada won’t act, we will. Free Palestine.🇵🇸