A spokesperson for Gary Lineker has said that football pundit “did not notice” that a social media post he had shared criticising Zionism contained an image of a rat, after his action led to widespread Jewish communal criticism, including calls for the BBC to sack him.
Responding to the Jewish News, a spokesperson for the former England star said: “Whilst viewing and reposting a video, Gary did not notice a rodent emoticon added by the author of the post. Although if he had, he would not have made any connection. The repost has been removed.”
The comment confirms that Mr Lineker both viewed and shared the video, titled “Zionism explained in less than two minutes”. It was initially posted by a group called “Palestine Lobby” and contains an excerpt of comments by Diana Buttu, a former spokesperson for the PLO.
“They take the land, claim that its theirs and then they make concessions on land that doesn’t actually belong to them”, Ms Buttu states in the clip, going on to say that “the Zionist movement and Zionism on the ground is the idea of creating not only a Jewish state but at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population. What Zionism is, is the idea of privileging and giving exclusive rights to one group of people at the expense of another group of people…there isn’t a single Zionist who’s able to say that they actually believe that Palestinians have the exact same rights as Israelis who are living in that country.”
Earlier today, the Board of Deputies of British Jews called for the BBC to remove Mr Lineker, stating that “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 Antisemitism, described how “Sharing content that uses a rat to demonise the very idea of a Jewish nation state draws directly from Nazi propaganda… 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.”
Last November the BBC confirmed that Mr Lineker would be leaving the BBC’s flagship football show, Match of the Day, at the end of the Premier League season, but confirmed that he would be hosting the Corporation’s coverage of the 2026 World Cup.
In early 2024 Lineker shared, before subsequently deleting, a call for Israel to be banned from international sport. More recently, he criticised the BBC’s decision to remove a documentary on Gaza found to feature the son of a senior Hamas official, stating that the Corporation had “capitulated to lobbying that they get a lot”
Danny Cohen, former Director of BBC Television and Controller of BBC One, said: “Gary Lineker appears to have shared content about the Jewish State which echoes 1930’s Nazi propaganda. This is utterly grim. The BBC’s Director General Tim Davie has a simple question to answer: does he tolerate the BBC’s flagship presenters sharing content that has historically been used as an anti-Semitic slur?”
Despite presenting Match of the Day, Mr Lineker is employed by the BBC as a freelancer. However, under the BBC’s guidance on personal use of social media, freelancers are “required to respect civility in public discourse and must not bring the BBC into disrepute.”
The BBC has been approached for comment as to whether it considered Mr Lineker’s use of social media in this instance to have brought the Corporation into disrepute.
