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The National
4 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Ons Jabeur on Wimbledon, inequality in tennis and Gaza: 'People are forgetting about them'
At this point in her career, Ons Jabeur is done staying silent. Whether it's the atrocities that continue to take place in Gaza, or sexist attitudes towards women's sport, the 30-year-old Tunisian wants to use her voice and platform to speak out against injustice. 'My heart always goes out to Gaza because their situation is getting worse and worse and I feel like people are forgetting about them,' Jabeur told The National at the All England Club, ahead of the start of her Wimbledon campaign. 'I hope that changes and I hope really the world would wake up and just try to open the borders, get them food. Just do something. I feel like nobody's doing anything. 'I feel like the civilians are always paying the price for the crazy choices that politicians are making. And I wish peace everywhere.' During her pre-event press conference, Jabeur was asked about a planned protest – by Campaign Against Arms Trade, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and War on Want – against Wimbledon's tournament sponsor Barclays. Barclays has faced criticism for its alleged relationships with defence firms that produce equipment used by the Israeli Defence Force. The bank has said it does not invest its own money in companies that supply weapons used by Israel in Gaza, and it only trades shares in such companies on behalf of its clients. The protest is scheduled to take place just outside the All England Club on Monday, the first day of the Championships. Jabeur was unaware of the protest, but said: 'I hope it will be a peaceful one. 'My heart goes out to the children and women and men that are dying every day there. They're not only being killed, but also being starved, which is very inhuman,' she added. 'We are in 2025 and the world is not changing. I feel like they're not doing anything about it. It is very sad. I hope everything stops and every war … It's a pretty scary world right now. I'm really scared all the time. I'm just watching the media and I feel like it's getting heated from everywhere.' As one of just two Arabs in the Wimbledon singles main draw – alongside Egypt's Mayar Sherif – Jabeur has become a de facto spokesperson on the war in Gaza, frequently fielding questions from the media. In a climate where any support for Palestine can be erroneously equated to anti-Semitism, speaking her mind and sharing her views can be difficult. But she believes bottling it all up inside is no easier. 'It's true, it's a burden, but it would be 10 times worse if I keep it inside,' said Jabeur, who is a goodwill ambassador for the World Food Programme. 'At a certain time, when things got worse in Gaza, I couldn't speak; some people advised me not to speak and I couldn't even do that. 'That's how the whole interview in Cancun happened because I was holding it inside for a long time,' she explained, referring to her tearful plea for peace during an on-court interview at the WTA Finals in Cancun in November 2023. 'It was making me very, very sad and it drains your energy, it's like you open up [your phone] and then you just see dead children all over and that's really sad. 'And the worst part is that you feel helpless, you feel like you're not doing enough and you need to help more.' In an attempt to do more for women's tennis, Jabeur recently called out French Open organisers for not scheduling any women's matches in the prime time night session slot at the tournament for the past two years. After sharing her views during her press conference in Paris and demanding 'better scheduling' decisions from Roland Garros, Jabeur received many messages on social media of people disagreeing with her and showing her photos of empty stadiums from women's matches. That prompted the Tunisian to pen a long and thoughtful open letter, posted on her X and Instagram accounts, in which she detailed the double standards faced in women's sport, and the unfair advantage given to her male counterparts because their matches are broadcast more frequently, and to a wider audience because of favourable scheduling. 'I couldn't keep my silence any more,' she told The National on Saturday. 'I've seen a lot of bad comments and especially after I spoke about the French Open and night sessions and some people were tweeting about empty seats and I'm like, 'You guys don't understand anything. You don't know what's really happening'. It's like a lot of ignorant people. 'And for me, I'm like, I really cannot keep it inside any more. It's frustrating to me as a woman, to any woman athlete around the world and I want to be part of the people that would speak up. I would not want to stay silent.' Jabeur is set to kick off her Wimbledon campaign against Viktoriya Tomova on Monday, hoping to recapture the form that helped her reach two back-to-back finals at the All England Club in 2022 and 2023. A former world No 2, Jabeur has dropped to 59 in the rankings following a year riddled with injuries. Wimbledon has been the site of some of her biggest and most historic achievements, but it's also where she suffered her most heart-rending defeats, in the 2022 final against Elena Rybakina and the 2023 decider against Marketa Vondrousova. 'It's a good and bad memory here. So I'm trying to really enjoy as much as I can,' she says. 'Try to find that freedom when I'm playing and the joy when I'm playing. It's been a tough year, I would say. But yeah, it is what it is. I'm trying to repeat some positive words to myself that … I don't want to carry the disappointment that happened before and then hopefully I can move on with it.' Jabeur has spent the last few days practising with some of the best players on tour, including world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No 9 Paula Badosa, and No 12 Diana Shnaider. The three-time Grand Slam finalist admits she has 'no expectations' entering these Championships. She is a modest 15-14 win-loss for the season, and her build-up to Wimbledon included a quarter-final run as a lucky loser in Berlin, and an opening round defeat in Eastbourne. Asked to describe her biggest challenge at the moment, Jabeur said: 'It's always, I think, mentally. Because if you're mentally ready and want to do everything, I think it's easier to overcome any physical struggle or anything. But yeah, being on and off didn't help much. 'The ability of believing in myself that I can come back like before, it's been a bit low and that really affected me. 'So yeah, it's just about a lot of believing in myself more than ever because coming back at a certain level, it's never easy. So I hope I can overcome that. 'Sometimes two, three matches will give you the confidence and the ability to know that you can do it. Right now, I need to trust more my body. I need to hopefully get better on the court and find my movements.'
The Guardian
13-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
How arms dealing has compromised Britain's foreign policy
The testimony of the former Foreign Office policy adviser Mark Smith confirms exactly what the Campaign Against Arms Trade has been arguing for decades – the UK's arms-export control system is rotten to its core (I saw illegality and complicity with war crimes. That's why I quit the UK Foreign Office, 9 February). When we successfully took the government to court to stop arming Saudi Arabia, the key legal and moral questions were essentially the same. How could the UK government continue supplying arms in the face of overwhelming evidence of the most horrific crimes being committed against civilians? What Smith's evidence shows is that the only way for the Foreign Office to keep doing this is to bully civil servants and diplomats into changing their reports, warning them not to leave any written evidence, or even asking them to 'delete correspondence'. There has been a systematic effort to manipulate and suppress the truth. Sadly, what we see is not a 'broken' export-licensing system but one working exactly as intended – as Smith says, it serves 'to create a facade of legitimacy, while allowing the most egregious crimes against humanity to take place'. Thousands of campaigners across the UK have been vindicated, but it's too late for tens of thousands of Palestinian and Yemeni people, who have been murdered with weapons and components exported from the UK. This has to be a wake-up call and lead to systemic change in our arms-export licensing Sam Perlo-FreemanResearch coordinator, Campaign Against Arms Trade Mark Smith's brave and principled stand shows how compromised and weak British foreign policy has become. In a post-Brexit Trump world, our only 'principles' appear to be to perform as a slavish support act to whatever the US government deems to be in its interest. Our erstwhile EU partners must despair, while a 'transactional' US president fantasises about golf courses on Gaza's ruins and graves. The callow attempts of politicians and civil servants to circumvent the clear prescriptions of international law and morality deserve general condemnation. We need to call out this complicity with BennettLondon As a concerned citizen who worked in the Foreign Office many years ago, I wish to congratulate Mark Smith for his honesty and courage in resigning on moral issues. I have worked abroad for most of my adult life, including in Lebanon, and am greatly concerned by, and identify with, the Palestinian cause. He rightly calls the war against Palestinians genocide, and clearly shows the complicity of the British government. I second his call for other civil servants in the Foreign Office to press the government to end this indefensible JonesBristol Mark Smith has learned that the UK government doesn't care about Palestinians, or the war crimes committed against them. What the government does care about is money. The UK makes a nice profit from selling arms to Israel. Additionally, by going along with the genocide in Gaza, it can maintain good relations with its top trading partner, the US. The government doesn't care about fairness, justice or honesty. Mr Smith's problem is that he has a HarlingEl Dorado Hills, California, US Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
