Mainz had decided to suspend El Ghazi on October 17 because he took “a position on the conflict in the Middle East in a way that is unacceptable to the club.”
Announcement
German football club Mainz announced on Monday that it had reprimanded its Dutch international player Anwar El Ghazi for comments he made regarding the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, but opened the way for the winger to return to the first team.
The former player of Ajax, Eindhoven, Lille, Aston Villa, and Everton, England, published several posts on social media following the beginning of the conflict earlier this month, including the phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be liberated.”
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be liberated.”
Some view the slogan as a call to destroy Israel, while others say it calls for equality between Palestinians and Israelis.
Mainz said that in his conversations with the club management, “the winger distanced himself from his post on his Instagram account, which he deleted minutes later,” adding that the Moroccan native “explicitly distanced himself” from the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and “offered his condolences to the victims of the attack.” And to all the victims of the ongoing conflict.”
He added that the 28-year-old player, arriving this summer from PSV Eindhoven on a two-year contract, “does not question Israel’s right to exist.” He considered that “Al-Ghazi’s commitment to upholding the club’s values” means that he will return to training and will be able to be in the team’s lineup for matches “soon.”
On October 7, the military wing of the Hamas movement launched an unprecedented attack in the history of Israel, during which it infiltrated into Israeli areas, and caused the death of more than 1,400 people, most of whom were civilians. They died on the first day of the attack, during which Hamas also took 239 hostages, according to the Israeli authorities. .
Since that date, Israel has responded with devastating bombing of the Gaza Strip, accompanied for days by ground military operations inside the Strip. 8,306 people were killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the latest toll from the Hamas Ministry of Health, most of them civilians.
Additional sources • AFP
2023-10-30 20:02:07
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