German football club Mainz said on Tuesday they had suspended player Anwar El Ghazi after the winger made an “unacceptable” comment on social media about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. “El Ghazi has taken a position on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East that was deemed unacceptable,” the Bundesliga club said in a statement. Dutch international El Ghazi made the comments in a “since deleted” social media post on Sunday evening, Mainz said.
“Before making this decision, the club and the player had an in-depth discussion.”
Mainz said they respected that there were “different perspectives on the decades-long, complex conflict.”
However, the club “distanced itself from the content of the social media post”, which was not “in line with the club’s values”.
In the statement, Mainz did not indicate how long the suspension could last.
Mainz’s next opponents in the competition are Bayern Munich, who have also come under pressure following comments made by one of their players, Noussair Mazraoui, about the war.
In a post on social media, the Moroccan international wished a victory for the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel.
The comment was “unspeakable,” the Central Council of Jews in Germany said in the German daily Augsburger Allgemeine.
“We recognize that he (Mazraoui) subsequently distanced himself from all terrorist organizations. Unfortunately, Mazraoui continues to fail to clearly condemn Hamas’ barbarity,” the report said.
Waves of Hamas fighters broke through the heavily fortified Gaza-Israel border on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people.
Shell-shocked Israel has responded with devastating airstrikes on targets in Gaza, killing around 3,000 Gazans, according to a recent Health Ministry toll.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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