Wimbledon 2026: Zeynep Sonmez sports watermelon shock absorber for Palestine
GCC News
Tennis player Zeynep Sonmez has said she was told by Wimbledon organisers that wearing a Palestine pin was prohibited, leading her to display solidarity with Palestinians through her racket.
The Turkish No 1 told Anadolu Agency on Thursday that she “used to wear a pin”, but that “tournaments no longer allow me to wear it”.
She added that her team had a “discussion with the organisers because the Ukrainian flag is allowed but the Palestinian is not”.
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“They ultimately told us they definitely would not allow it,” she said.
The 24-year-old ended up fastening a watermelon-shaped vibration dampener to her racket: “[T]hey can’t object to that.”
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The watermelon has been used as a symbol for Palestinian resistance since the 1967 war, when Israeli authorities banned public displays of Palestinian flags in occupied Palestinian lands.
In response, Palestinians started bringing slices of watermelon – which shares the colours of the national flag – to protests and painted and displayed signs of the fruit.
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