Lineker deletes post calling to ban Israel from football
GARY LINEKER has removed a social media post calling for Israel to be banned from international football, having apparently misunderstood the message he shared.
The Match of the Day presenter retweeted a pro-palestinian campaign calling for Israel to be barred from tournaments and games over “its grave violations of international law”.
Lineker has removed his retweet following a backlash from MPS angered by the BBC star’s “ill-informed” and “inappropriate” use of social media.
It is understood that the former England international did not understand what he was sharing, according to sources, and believed he was sharing a news article about Israel being banned, rather than a demand for a ban.
His deletion of the message is unusual, as the presenter refused to remove a controversial post from March 2023 in which he compared the Government’s messaging on its migrant policy to rhetoric from “1930s Germany”.
Lineker’s most recent controversy was provoked when he shared a post put out by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which included a statement from the Palestinian Football Association that called on Fifa and the International Olympic Committee to sanction Israel.
Lineker’s action was condemned by Andrew Percy, a prominent Jewish Tory MP, who branded the presenter “an ill-informed, ignorant commentator on the Middle East”.
He added: “The BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement is a racist, anti-semitic campaign and nobody who receives taxpayers’ money working in the BBC should be endorsing a campaign that is widely understood to promote Jew hate.”
Stephen Crabb, the parliamentary chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel, said the call for a sports boycott was a “deeply inappropriate tweet for any BBC figure to endorse”.
It is understood that Lineker assured the BBC that he did not mean to endorse the boycott. The presenter believed he was sharing a news story about such a boycott, rather than a call for it to be brought about, and deleted his retweet when he realised his error.