A tearful Ons Jabeur vowed to donate part of her WTA Finals prize money to humanitarian aid for Palestine.The conflict in the middle east between Israel and terrorist group Hamas has placed Palestinians in Gaza in the middle and caused an enormous humanitarian crisis.
Jabeur is a trailblazer in Women’s tennis, with her being the first Arabic and African woman to contest major finals. And, following her victory over Marketa Vondrousova in Cancun, she again showed her willingness to embrace her platform by addressing the crowd directly.
“I am very happy with the win but I haven’t been very happy lately. The situation in the world doesn’t make me happy,” she said.
“It’s very tough seeing children and babies dying every day. It’s heartbreaking. I have decided to donate part of my prize money to help the Palestinians. I can’t be happy with this win.
“It is not a political message, it is humanity,” she added. “I want peace in this world. That’s it.”
Ons Jabeur also took the opportunity to address it further in her post-match press conference, although she again stressed she was on the side of peace and peace alone.
Ons Jabeur says she’s donating a portion of her prize money to Palestine:
“I am very happy with the win but I haven’t been very happy lately. The situation in the world doesn’t make me happy… I feel like… I am sorry. It’s very tough seeing children & babies dying every day.… pic.twitter.com/fVBz9McSjU
“I try to stay off social media as much as I can, but it’s very tough,” Jabeur explained. “You go through videos, photos, they’re horrible, horrible photos every day.
“It doesn’t help me sleep or recover very well and the worst thing is I feel hopeless. I feel like I cannot do anything. I wish I can have a magic hand and just end all this and just peace for everybody.
“But it is frustrating, and maybe donating some money would help a little bit with what they have been going through.
“I know money doesn’t mean anything right now to them. So I wish freedom for everybody and really peace for everyone.”
