Gaza activists have targeted billboards, bus shelters, and tube stations near Wimbledon with artwork condemning the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) Championships’ sponsorship with Barclays Bank.
The competition, that kicked off yesterday and is set to run through to July 14 has been criticised by a number of campaign groups for its choice of partner for the tournament due to the bank’s alleged ties to defence companies involved in the Gaza conflict.
According to reports from Independent, over 300 ads around the area have been covered with posters by the campaign group Brandalism that mock Barclays’ Wimbledon promotional materials.
In one poster, by Darren Cullen, a tennis player lies on the court in a pool of blood next to a crater. The slogan reads: “From Gaza to global warming, we’re making a killing.” Another artwork by Anarcha Art, shows the hands of a tennis player and a banker with the caption “Partners in climate crime and genocide.”
A group of about 100 pro-Palestinian protesters from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign also gathered outside outside the main entrance to the south-west London tennis club on the first day of the tournament with a giant tennis ball with the words “Barclays sponsors Wimbledon and genocide” written on it and strawberries “tainted with Palestinian blood” to demonstrate against the banks sponsorship of the event.
Protesters chanted “stop bombing schools, and stop bombing hospitals” while holding signs with slogans like “Stop The Genocide”.
“Wimbledon’s cherished strawberries and cream image has been thoroughly sullied by its decision to partner with Barclays, the most toxic bank in Europe, while the bank continues to pour millions into the arms trade and fossil fuel companies driving climate chaos,” said Kit Speedwell, a Brandalism activist.
“Wimbledon must stop providing cover for Barclays’ grotesque lack of morals and immediately end the sponsorship deal.”
“The official partner of Wimbledon is Barclays Bank, and Barclays is financing, to the tune of billions of pounds, companies supplying weapons and military technology that Israel is using in its genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza,” said Lewis Backon a spokesman for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
A spokesperson for the bank responded to the backlash saying that they are proud of the partnership. “Like many other banks, we provide financial services to companies supplying defence products to the UK, Nato and its allies. We are also financing an energy sector in transition, including providing $1tn of sustainable and transition finance by 2030 to build a cleaner and more secure energy system”.
The partnership with Barclays was first announced in November last year with the bank taking the reins are the official banking partner from HSBC. The announcement came with a lot of backlash with a number of big names calling for the deal to be blocked.
“Barclays is financing and profiting from climate chaos, and accepting a sponsorship deal from them is an endorsement of these actions,” an open letter signed by Emma Thompson and Richard Curtis among a slew of other big names said. The letter also declared that the partnership was not “consistent” with the Grand Slam event’s environmental policies.
In response to the letter, chief executive of the AELTC Sally Bolton said that it welcomed the partnership. “A significant part of their involvement with us is making a significant donation to the foundation, through which they’ll be able to help people in need all over the UK, so we’re really proud of that and working closely with Barclays on developing that relationship”.
“Our commitment to being environment-positive is a serious commitment and we really believe that we have, along with other sporting bodies, a significant role to play in that and we don’t shy away from that”.
