Hamas supporters have celebrated Gary Lineker’s call for Israel to be banned from international football.
The Match of the Day presenter has sparked anger among MPs and Jewish leaders after he shared a social media post by a pro-Palestinian account which called for Israel to be prohibited from entering sporting tournaments abroad.
Gary Lineker cheered by Hamas propaganda after anti-Israel message
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The Quads News Network’s article had the headline: “Renowned English broadcaster calls for Israel to be banned from international [football]’.
The 63-year-old was not aware of what he was sharing, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The former footballer, who reposted the statement which suggested Israel be banned “until it ends its grave violations of international law”, did not understand that the post was calling for Israel to be barred. He instead believed that the banning had already happened.
Conservative MPs have since demanded the BBC sanction its highest-paid presenter and said that they were waiting for “international diplomat and foreign policy expert, Gary Lineker” to condemn Hamas.
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Gary Lineker later deleted the repost, which he said he shared due to a misunderstanding
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Tory MP Damian Green, who sits on the Commons culture, media and sport committee, said: “Gary Lineker continues with ever more controversial views, in this case directly affecting football. I want to see the BBC enforce its own guidelines on this.”
Michael Fabricant, another Conservative MP, added: “Gary Lineker is out of control. Surely the BBC must take action now that he is, in effect, giving comfort to the terror organisation Hamas.’
Former Labour MP Lord Austin said: “Gary Lineker is… undermining confidence in the impartiality on which the BBC’s public funding depends and is making the corporation’s board and senior managers look utterly foolish.”
It is the latest impartiality row to swamp the BBC over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
Critics have called on the broadcaster to sanction the star
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The tweet Lineker reposted on Saturday was from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel.
The post also featured a statement from the Palestinian Football Association which called on Fifa and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to join all regional and global sporting bodies in sanctioning Israel.
A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Gary Lineker has a lot to say about a lot of things, but antisemitism does not appear to be one of them. At a time of record levels of racism against Jews, not a peep.
“But he has found the time to amplify a call to suspend the world’s only Jewish state from international sports. His priorities are clear. The fact that a Hamas-run network has commended him for his post shows the sort of audience to which he is, presumably unwittingly, catering.”
