BBC presenter Gary Lineker has been condemned after sharing an anti-Israel Instagram video which featured an emoji of a rat – a familiar antisemitic slur. The Mail has the story.
The Match Of The Day presenter and former England football captain posted a reel originating with the pro-Palestine group Palestine Lobby.
The cartoon image of a rat was seen on screen throughout, above the video in which Canadian-Palestinian lawyer Diana Buddu attacks Israel’s war in Gaza.
Lineker has been vocal in his own criticisms of Israel’s actions.
But campaigners say sharing this particular video with the rat image goes too far and have also criticised the BBC for whom Lineker will remain until after next year’s World Cup while stepping down as Match Of The Day host this month.
Disgusted users on X shared his post to on the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
It was immediately flagged as a post which “may violate X’s rules against Hateful Conduct”.
Images of rats and other vermin were regularly used as tropes by Nazi Germany to depict Jewish people, as many of Lineker’s critics today have pointed out.
The charity Campaign Against Antisemitism posted on X: “Nothing to see here. Just Gary Lineker’s Instagram account sharing an anti-Israel video misrepresenting Zionism, complete with a rat emoji.”
A CAA spokesperson has now told MailOnline: “Gary Lineker really has the worst luck when it comes to campaigning for his causes without aligning himself with extremists and antisemites.
“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? Perhaps Mr Lineker is not as naïve as he would like us to believe.
“As the BBC’s highest-paid presenter and owner of a major media enterprise, maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing.
“We will be submitting a complaint to the BBC over this latest post.
“However, we all know that, no matter how appalling Mr Lineker’s output, the BBC will perform all sorts of mental gymnastics to look the other way.
“When it comes to Jews, it seems that our national broadcaster believes that the usual standards simply don’t apply.”
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.
“The BBC should ask him to leave now rather than allowing him to dictate his own terms.”
Worth reading in full.
Of course, at the Daily Sceptic we don’t approve of cancel culture, no matter whom it’s directed at, irritating right-on presenters like Gary Lineker included. Still, I think we can all agree that the world would be a happier place if Jews weren’t implicitly likened to vermin in posts shared by highly-paid BBC presenters, who should probably refrain from posting Nazi-esque tropes from anti-Israel hate groups on social media.
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