Israel Tennis Team Fined $13K for Yom Kippur Boycott

Holy Day: Israel?s tennis team won its fight to avoid playing on Yom Kippur. But it will have to pay a $13,000 fine anyway. Image by getty images

By JTA August 12, 2013

The Israel Tennis Association has been fined more than $13,000 for refusing to play a Davis Cup match on Yom Kippur.

The Israeli national tennis team had been scheduled to play against the Belgium national tennis team in Antwerp on Sept. 14, which is Yom Kippur, in the world group playoffs, the highest level of Davis Cup play.

The Belgian Tennis Association turned down Israel’s request to postpone the game, but the International Tennis Federation, which sponsors the Davis Cup, intervened and changed the date of the match to Sept. 15, but ordered the Israeli national team to pay the Belgian team for the inconvenience of adding a day to the tournament, Yediot Acharonot reported.

“The Israel Tennis Association is a non-profit organization, which designates all of its funds to promote tennis in Israel and develop Israeli tennis players. As a result, the high fine is a detrimental blow for the budget of the professional program for the Israeli tennis teams and to Israeli tennis in general,” Israel Tennis Association Chairman Asi Touchmair said in a statement on the association’s website.

“As an institution that represents the State of Israel and its values, we in the Israeli Tennis Association stand proud, before all those who refuse to recognize the importance of the Jewish tradition, on behalf of Israel and Jews world over,” the statement said.

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