Calls for BBC to sack Gary Lineker after ‘Nazi propaganda' post about Israel
The BBC is facing fresh calls to sack Gary Lineker after the presenter shared a pro-Palestine video on social media featuring a rat emoji that has historically been used as an anti-Semitic slur.
In footage which appears to have been deleted from his Instagram story, the outgoing Match of the Day presenter shared a post by the group Palestine Lobby.
A cartoon image of a rat accompanied a video in which Canadian-Palestinian lawyer Diana Buddu attacked Israel's war in Gaza. Campaigners expressed immediate fury at Lineker's apparent endorsement of the emoji as rats were regularly used as tropes by Nazi Germany to depict Jewish people.
The charity Campaign Against Anti-Semitism immediately took issue with Lineker's post. 'Nothing to see here,' the organisation posted on X. 'Just Gary Lineker's Instagram account sharing an anti-Israel video misrepresenting Zionism, complete with a rat emoji.'
With Lineker leaving his Match of the Day hosting duties at the end of the Premier League season this month – he will continue to present FA Cup and international football until next summer – the BBC was urged to axe the former England captain and not let him go on his own terms.
A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: 'The BBC has allowed the situation with Gary Lineker to continue for far too long. He has caused great offence with this video – particularly with his egregious use of a rat emoji to illustrate Zionists. BBC should ask him to leave now rather than allowing him to dictate his own terms.'
Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, added: 'Gary Lineker has been sharing increasingly extreme content as his fixation has grown, and it was apparent that it was only a matter of time before he crossed the line.
'Sharing content that uses a rat to demonise the very idea of a Jewish nation state draws directly from Nazi propaganda. It is unfathomable that this is apparently 'hateful conduct' on X, but acceptable conduct for the BBC.
'Lineker made ill-judged comparisons with Germany in the 1930s to further his political point of view, but now he is sharing ideas about Jews popularised in 1930's Germany. When will enough disrepute be enough for the BBC? It's time for Lineker to go.'
Other critics on X, sharing screengrabs of Lineker's Instagram post, reported the post to moderators on the grounds it 'may violate X's rules against hateful conduct'.
The CAA later added: 'Not only does this video deliberately misrepresent Zionism – the belief that Jews have the same right to self-determination as everyone else – but it adds a rat emoji in doing so. Why is it that Gary Lineker keeps sharing content on social media that seems to cater to Jew-haters?'
Barrister Simon Myerson KC, who chairs the Leeds Jewish Representative Council, questions whether Lineker would 'have the guts to explain this to Emily Damari', one of the hostages captured by Hamas in their terror attacks targeting Israel on October 7 2023.
The post comes weeks after Lineker, the former England captain, defended his right to express his opinions on issues such as Gaza in an interview with the BBC's Amol Rajan.
'I know where I stand on this,' he said. 'I'm sorry. It's more important than the BBC. What's going on there is the mass murder of thousands of children is probably something that we should have a little opinion on.'
When Rajan pressed him on BBC staff remaining impartial, he then added: 'Why? It needs to be factual... It wasn't impartial about Ukraine and Russia... Why does it have to be impartial about... I understand if it's partial about our government and things in this country and everything like that, but something that's going on that far away. Why does it?'
Lineker has regularly commented on the Israel-Palestine conflict and called for global governing bodies to ban Israel from sport worldwide last year in a post he later deleted.
His comments in 2023, in which he said on social media that language used by the then-Conservative government 'is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s' triggered a BBC suspension and a mass walkout on BBC Sport staff, before new rules regarding social media use were published by the broadcaster.
Lineker's spokesman has been contacted for comment. The BBC has also been asked for a response.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Iran launches more than 100 drones at Israel in retaliation for striking nuclear sites: IDF
Iran has launched more than 100 drones toward Israel in retaliation for the Jewish state's latest effort to destroy Tehran's nuclear program through a wave of preemptive airstrikes. 'In recent hours, Iran has launched more than 100 drones toward Israeli territory,' IDF spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin confirmed Friday. 'We are working to intercept the threats.' The Israeli military has already started to shoot down some of the drones outside of Israeli territory, an IDF spokesman told CNN. 'The IDF has begun intercepting UAVs fired from Iran, outside of Israeli territory,' the official said. 3 Iranian-made Shahed-136 'Kamikaze' drone flies over the sky of Kermanshah, Iran on March 7, 2024. Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images The retaliation attack by Tehran comes after Israel's Operation 'Rising Lion' targeted several sites across the Iranian capital to dismantle the country's nuclear infrastructure, ballistic missile factories, and military facilities Thursday night. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the mission was carried out to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and ensure the 'survival' of Israel after 'decades' of Iranian leadership, 'brazenly' calling for his country's destruction. 'We can't leave these threats for the next generation,' Netanyahu said during an address shared on YouTube. 'Because if we don't act now, there will not be another generation. If we don't act now, we simply won't be here. We have internalized the lessons of history. When an enemy says he intends to destroy you — believe him,' he continued. 3 This picture shows the empty al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, on June 13, 2025, after Islam's Friday prayers have been officially canceled. AFP via Getty Images 3 A girl runs to a bomb shelter in an apartment building in Hadera, Israel, Friday, June 13, 2025. AP 'When the enemy develops the capabilities to destroy you — stop him.' Netanyahu vowed to continue strikes 'for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.' The IDF said that approximately 200 Israeli fighter jets participated in the operation, targeting around 100 sites. Iranian officials vowed to deliver a quick retaliation in response to the attacks as the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel 'should await a harsh response.' with Post wires
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Iran calls Israeli strikes a violation of the UN Charter
Tehran (dpa) — Iran condemned Israel's latest large-scale airstrikes on its territory, calling the attack a violation of the United Nations Charter. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the Islamic Republic would invoke its right to self-defence - and shortly after that, the Israeli military said Iran had launched more than 100 drones at the Jewish state. The statement also accused the United States of complicity, claiming that the Israeli operation could not have been carried out without US coordination and approval. Washington has denied any involvement in the strikes. The comments came after Israel launched airstrikes targeting military and nuclear-related facilities inside Iran.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Analysis-After years of waiting, Israel's Netanyahu finally makes his move on Iran
By Crispian Balmer JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Iran once ridiculed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the boy who cried wolf for his constant public warnings about Tehran's nuclear programme, and his repeated threats to shut it down, one way or another. "You can only fool some of the people so many times," Iran's then-foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said in 2018 after Netanyahu had once again accused Iran of planning to build nuclear weapons. On Friday, after two decades of continually raising the alarm and urging other world leaders to act, Netanyahu finally decided to go it alone, authorising an Israeli air assault aimed, Israel says, at preventing Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. In an address to the nation, Netanyahu, as he has so often before, evoked the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust in World War Two to explain his decision. "Nearly a century ago, facing the Nazis, a generation of leaders failed to act in time," Netanyahu said, adding that a policy of appeasing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had led to the deaths of 6 million Jews, "a third of my people". "After that war, the Jewish people and the Jewish state vowed never again. Well, never again is now today. Israel has shown that we have learned the lessons of history." Iran says its nuclear energy programme is only for peaceful purposes, although the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday declared the country in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years. Netanyahu, a former member of an elite special forces unit responsible for some of Israel's most daring hostage rescues, has dominated its politics for decades, becoming the longest-serving prime minister when he won an unprecedented sixth term in 2022. Throughout his years in office, he rarely missed an opportunity to lecture foreign leaders about the dangers posed by Iran, displaying cartoons of an atomic bomb at the United Nations, while always hinting he was ready to strike. In past premierships, military analysts said his room for manoeuvre with Iran was limited by fears an attack would trigger instant retaliation from Tehran's regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, that would be hard to contain. But the past two years have upended the Middle East, with Israel hammering Hamas after it launched a massive surprise attack of its own against Israel in October 2023, and then dismantling much of Hezbollah in just a few days in 2024. BLINDSIDED BY TRUMP Israel has also sparred openly with Tehran since 2024, firing rocket salvos deep into Iran last year that gave Netanyahu confidence in the power of his military reach. Israeli military sources said the strikes disabled four of Iran's Russian-made air-defence systems, including one positioned near Natanz, a key Iranian nuclear site that was targeted, according to Iranian television. "Iran is more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities. We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal — to thwart and eliminate the existential threat," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in November. But much to the consternation of Netanyahu, newly installed U.S. President Donald Trump blindsided him during a visit to the White House in April, when he announced the United States and Iran were poised to begin direct nuclear talks. Netanyahu has locked horns with successive U.S. presidents over Iran, most noticeably Barack Obama, who approved a deal with Tehran in 2015 imposing significant restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump pulled out of the accord in 2018, and Netanyahu had hoped that he would continue to take an uncompromising stance against Iran when he returned to office this year. In announcing talks, the White House set a two-month deadline for Iran to sign a deal. Even though a fresh round of meetings was set for this weekend, the unofficial deadline expired on Thursday and Netanyahu pounced. One Israeli official told state broadcaster Kan that Israel had coordinated with Washington ahead of the attacks and suggested recent newspaper reports of a rift between Trump and Netanyahu over Iran had been a ruse to lull the Tehran leadership into a false sense of security. IMAGE TARNISHED Trump - who said after the strikes began that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb but that he wants talks to proceed - has previously hailed the right-wing Netanyahu as a great friend. Other leaders have struggled with him. In 2015, then-President Nicolas Sarkozy of France was overheard talking about Netanyahu with Obama. "I can't stand him any more, he's a liar," he said. The man once known as "King Bibi" to his supporters has faced a difficult few years and at 75, time is running out for him to secure his legacy. His hawkish image was badly tarnished by the 2023 Hamas attack, with polls showing most Israelis blaming him for the security failures that allowed the deadliest assault since the founding of the nation more than 75 years ago. He has subsequently been indicted by the International Criminal Court over possible war crimes tied to Israel's 20-month invasion of Gaza, which has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble. He rejects the charges against him. Polls show most Israelis believe the war in Gaza has gone on for too long, with Netanyahu dragging out the conflict to stay in power and stave off elections that pollsters say he will lose. Even as the multi-front war has progressed, he has had to take the stand in his own, long-running corruption trial, where he denies any wrongdoing, which has further dented his reputation at home. However, he hopes a successful military campaign against Israel's arch foe will secure his place in the history books he so loves to read. "Generations from now, history will record that our generation stood its ground, acted in time and secured our common future. May God bless Israel. May God bless the forces of civilisation, everywhere," he said in Friday's speech. (Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell and James Mackenzie; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
