Gary Lineker ‘can’t be silent’ as he ‘regularly cries’ over scenes in Gaza-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

Gary Lineker has spoken out (Picture: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)

Despite his impartiality row with the BBC last year, Gary Lineker has said he ‘can’t be silent’ about Israel’s attacks on Gaza, citing some of the scenes of destruction as ‘the worst thing I’ve seen in my life’.

The Match of the Day presenter, 63, was temporarily taken off air by his BBC employers over an impartiality row a year ago when he tweeted about the Conservative’s controversial Rwanda migrant policy, comparing language used by the government to launch it with 1930s Germany.

While many public figures have chosen to remain silent – and as Eurovision 2024 builds a ‘ring of steel’ around protesters with Israel having qualified for tonight’s final – Lineker has spoken out about Israel’s bombardment on Gaza in an interview with Zeteo, the media organisation founded by British-American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan.

Yesterday, the former England footballer said of the current situation in Gaza: ‘It’s the worst thing I’ve seen in my lifetime.

‘I’ve got no skin in this game. I’m not Muslim, I’m not Jewish, I’m not Israeli, I’m not Palestinian.

He was caught up in an impartiality row with the BBC last year (Picture: David Ramos/Getty Images)

‘So I see it, I think, purely from the outside as from a neutral perspective. And I can’t think of anything that I’ve seen worse in my lifetime, the constant images of children losing their lives day in day out.’

He continued: ‘Obviously, we all know October 7 happened but the minute you raise your voice against what they’re now doing you get accused of being a supporter of Hamas and this kind of stuff.

He added: ‘There is a lot of heavy lobbying on people to be quiet so I understand why most people refrain, but I’m getting on a bit now, I’m fairly secure and I can’t be silent about what’s happening there.

‘I think it’s just it’s so so utterly awful and it already looks like it’s happening, going into Rafa, where they’ve sent everybody down there.

‘It’s not antisemitic to say that what Israel is doing is wrong. I just can’t see how everybody doesn’t see it that now, whatever the cause, whatever started it, we all know that, the history of this area, of the world goes way before October 7.

‘But it’s, it’s truly dreadful, what’s happening and I cry on a regular basis when I see certain images on social media.’

Lineker’s X post last year about the Rwanda policy triggered the BBC to implement new social media impartiality guidelines for flagship presenters – even sports and entertainment ones – to ‘respect the BBC’s impartiality, because of their profile on the BBC’.

In January, the pundit said he received death threats after he retweeted and later deleted a post on social media that called for Israel to be banned from international sporting events.

The post on X, which he reportedly misread, appealed to the International Olympic Committee, Fifa and all regional and international sports governing bodies to take ‘an urgent stance’.

Following the backlash after the tweet, including from a former BBC star who said Lineker’s fingers should be ‘chopped off’, the pundit confirmed he had ‘received threats’ and said: ‘It’s not about me. I am not the victim here.’

‘Everybody I talk to, every single person I know, is going, “What? What is happening?”. But the minute you open your mouth – well, not my mouth, but the minute I tweet a little bit – it’s so toxic.

‘If you lean to one side or the other, the levels of attack are extraordinary. How could it be controversial to want peace? I just don’t understand it,’ he told The Guardian.

The Eurovision Song Contest protests and Lineker’s recent interview come as the death toll on Palestinian soil exceeds 35,000 people since Israel launched military operations in response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which killed more than 1,000 in Israel.

Civilians in Gaza celebrated at the beginning of this week as news of a potential ceasefire broke, but not long after and Israel advanced on Rafah – a key crossing to Egypt for Palestinians fleeing war, and for aid to reach those who can’t.

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