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Sharp criticism and demands for his expulsion from the BBC target former English football star and current sports presenter Gary Lineker because he re-published a tweet calling for a ban on Israel’s participation in international football matches.
The British newspaper “The Times” indicated that Lineker was subjected to a wave of criticism from leaders of the anti-Semitism campaign and representatives in Parliament because he re-published a tweet calling for a ban on Israel's participation in international football matches.
The tweet he reposted came from the Palestinian Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel, which included a statement issued by the Palestinian Football Association calling on FIFA and the International Olympic Games Committee to join the international sports bodies that imposed sanctions on Israel.
The statement called for “taking an urgent stance against Israel's serious human rights violations and holding it legally accountable for its actions.” The statement called on both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee to “suspend Israel’s membership and ban it from international matches and tournaments until it ends its serious violations of international law, especially the rule of racial discrimination and the crime of genocide it is committing in Gaza,” similar to the ban imposed on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.
The Daily Telegraph quoted Conservative Jewish MP Andrew Percy as saying that “Lineker is an ignorant commentator with no knowledge of the Middle East” and that “BDS (the boycott of Israel movement) is a racist and anti-Semitic campaign and no one who receives taxpayer money and works in The BBC has endorsed its campaign, which is seen as anti-Jewish.
Gary Lineker quietly removed the tweet calling for Israel to be removed from international sport after Hamas affiliated Quds News Network promoted it on their feed.
The UK taxpayer should not be paying this man’s salary. @BBC pic.twitter.com/UoXtl0BDGP
— Charlotte Salomon (@SalomonSoup) January 15, 2024
Stephen Grabb, head of the Friends of Israel group in the Conservative Party in the British Parliament, said: “This tweet is inappropriate for a BBC figure to endorse, especially from someone as well-known as Lineker.” He added that the BDS movement suffers from anti-Semitism. From top to bottom, the differences in our society deepen.”
A spokesman for the Anti-Semitism Organization said: “Lineker has a lot of things to talk about, but anti-Semitism is not among them… At a time when racism against Jews has reached record levels, he has not issued a single signal, but he found time to amplify the call to ban the only Jewish state.” “From international sport, his priorities are clear.”
The Palestinian Football Association calls on @iocmedia, @FIFAcom and all regional and int’l sports bodies to take an urgent stance on Israel’s grave violations of human rights and subject it to legal accountability measures. https://t.co/WLgKm4SIKY pic.twitter.com/jpg4JA2rNT
— PACBI – BDS movement (@PACBI) January 13, 2024
Samir Shah, the new director of the BBC, said last month that Lineker appeared to have “breached” the standards of social media platforms when he signed a letter criticizing the government's immigration policy with Rwanda.
On March 23, 2023, the 1986 World Cup top scorer stopped presenting “The Match of the Day” program until the dispute over his use of social media platforms was resolved after he compared the statements of then-Interior Minister Suella Braverman regarding immigration to the language of the Nazis in Germany.
The sports program ended up being presented without commentators, as they refused to participate in solidarity with Lineker. In September, the BBC reached an agreement allowing the former England international to express positions on policies and issues without using the platforms to support political campaigns.
