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Gary Lineker, the BBC‘s highest-paid presenter, has been criticized after appearing to endorse a claim that Israel is committing “textbook genocide” in Gaza.
Lineker, who was briefly suspended in March for breaking BBC social media rules, shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) in which academic Raz Segal outlined what constituted genocide.
Lineker said the video was “worth 13 minutes of anyone’s time” and many of his nearly 9M followers thanked him for sharing the clip, originally posted by The Guardian columnist Owen Jones.
Segal, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, told Jones: “We have both the intent and dynamics of violence on the ground [in Gaza], and because the intent is expressed so explicitly and so directly [by Israel] in such unashamed ways, and it’s continued to be expressed in this way, then I do think that what we’re seeing in front of our eyes is a textbook case of genocide.”
Segal also claimed that Hamas‘ October 7 attack on Israel “was not a crime related to the Holocaust in any way.”
Lineker is well known for expressing his views on social media, but some have contrasted his decision to share the Segal clip with his silence over Hamas’ atrocities. The Match of Day presenter did not comment on X about the Israel-Gaza conflict until November 3, when he backed people marching across the UK in support of a ceasefire.
Stephen Pollard, editor-at-large of The Jewish Chronicle, accused Lineker of showing “universe-bending ignorance”. In an op-ed for the newspaper, he wrote: “Lineker said not a word when 1,200 Jews were murdered by Hamas, when women were raped, babies burned and some 240 hostages taken.”
The BBC declined to comment on Lineker’s tweet. Instead, the broadcaster pointed to its updated social media guidelines, which state that star presenters can express their views but have a “particular responsibility to help to balance commitments to both freedom of expression and impartiality.”
Lineker was suspended in March for tweeting that government asylum policy had echoes of Nazi Germany. He was swiftly reinstated three days later following a weekend of chaos, in which his colleagues effectively went on strike and BBC sports coverage fell off air. Lineker earns more than £1.3M ($1.6M) from the BBC and is reportedly in talks to renew his contract.
BBC News has admitted mistakes in its reporting of Israel’s actions during the conflict. The corporation apologized for reporting last week that Israeli troops targeted medics and Arab speakers during a raid on Gaza’s main hospital, Al-Shifa. It also said it was “wrong to speculate” on who was responsible for the devastating blast at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Arab hospital last month.
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