Novak Djokovic’s Dad Reckons He’s Being Treated As Badly As Jesus Christ
"They are trying to crucify and belittle Novak and throw him to his knees."
Novak Djokovic’s father has compared his son’s experiences with Australian border forces to Jesus being crucified on the cross.
Djokovic has made headlines this week after receiving an exemption to enter the country for the Australian Open, only to have it revoked shortly after his arrival. Following the cancellation of his visa, Djokovic has been transported to the Park Hotel in Melbourne — where refugees have been kept in detention in awful conditions for the last nine years.
As expected, Djokovic’s legal fight has been fast-tracked in the hope that the decision may be overturned in time for him to compete in the tournament later this month, while the rest of those in the Park Hotel detention simply have to keep waiting.
But despite having it much better than everyone else who is currently locked up at the Park Hotel, Djokovic’s father was still quick to compare his plight to that of Jesus Christ. “Jesus was crucified on the cross…but he is still alive among us,” Srdjan Djokovic said. “They are trying to crucify and belittle Novak and throw him to his knees.
“You, famous Prime Minister of the faraway naturally beautiful country, are behaving according to your own principles, which have nothing to do with us and our principles,” he added. “We are humans, and you, sir, are not.
“The leader of that faraway land, Scott Morrison…dared to attack Novak and expel him before he had reached their country. They had wanted to throw him to his knees, and not just him, but our beautiful Serbia.”
Djokovic’s father went so far as to label the decision — which is entirely the result of Novak’s own decisions — as an attack on the whole nation of Serbia.
“We Serbs are a proud European people. Throughout history, we have never attacked anyone, we only defended ourselves,” he said. “That is what Novak, our pride, our Serb, the pride of the entire free world, is now doing by his behaviour towards hosts and [tournament] organisers across the world, showing what kind of people he comes from.
“We Serbs are a proud people, who are proud of our [the] light at the end of the tunnel, and that is our Novak. That political oligarchy will not extinguish it.”
Novak’s brother has also commented on the situation, claiming the tennis star has been treated like a “criminal”. “He was taken to a migrant hotel to a dirty room without any belongings, which he was told would be returned to him upon his return to Europe,’ Djordje Djokovic said. “He was treated like a criminal while he is a healthy and decent man and a sportsman who has not endangered anyone’s life and has not committed any federal or legal offence.”
Interestingly, nobody from the Djokovic camp seems to give half a shit about the fact that countless other refugees have received the same — and worse — treatment from the Australian Government as part of our inhumane border policies. Will we see a pivot to Novak Djokovic, the refugee activist, after the Australian Open? Only time will tell.
Djokovic is currently under police guard at the Park Hotel while his lawyers fight for his right to remain in Australia to play in the tournament later this month. If rejected, Djokovic faces deportation.