Tennis Channel Cancels Dubai Event to Protest Exclusion of Israeli Player
Now here’s a truly (sadly) unusual story; a media company with guts and integrity: With Shahar Peer Barred, Tennis Channel Won’t Show Dubai Event.
The Tennis Channel will not televise the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships this week to protest the United Arab Emirates’ refusal to grant an entry visa to the Israeli player Shahar Peer. Peer was scheduled to play Anna Chakvetadze in the first round.
“This is an easy decision to come by, based on what is right and wrong,” Ken Solomon, the chairman and chief executive of the network, said Monday from Utah.
“Sports are about merit, absent of background, class, race, creed, color or religion. They are simply about talent. This is a classic case, not about what country did what to another country. If the state of Israel were barring a citizen of an Arab nation, we would have made the same decision.”
Frank says: