The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called for the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to sanction the United Arab Emirates at its board meeting this weekend for its failure to allow Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer to participate in this year’s Barclays Dubai Championship.
“We find the United Arab Emirates’ decision to deny a visa to Ms. Peer because of her nationality, offensive, discriminatory, and unacceptable,” the Conference of Presidents said in a statement. In addition, they stated, “The excuse that the UAE was concerned about Ms. Peer’s security is spurious. Any country that cannot assure the security of all players in a tournament should not be allowed to host it.”
The Jewish leaders also commended the Tennis Channel for cancelling its broadcast of the event. The Conference of Presidents also calls upon Sony Ericson, sponsors of the tour, and Barclays, the sponsor of the Dubai championship tournament, to disassociate themselves from the UAE’s actions and to drop their future sponsorship until appropriate corrective measures are taken.