Gary Lineker defends retweeting video of IDF soldiers arresting Palestinian youths
Former England footballer shares 'sickening' video by anti-Israel journalist creating a backlash online
Jack Mendel is the former Online Editor at the Jewish News.
Gary Lineker has defended retweeting of a video of Israeli soldiers detaining Palestinian youths.
The sports broadcaster and former England footballer shared a video from journalist Ben White, which shows members of the Israeli army arresting “defenceless Palestinian children”.
Lineker shared the video with the word “sickening” to his 6.8million followers, and it was retweeted nearly 9,000 times. This led to a stream of critical responses on social media from pro-Israel activists and groups.
Former IDF head of social Peter Lerner tweeted: “Sorry, Gary, you’ve completely missed the point. When kids throw stones they are a public menace. They need to be stopped.Yes, the video is unpleasant but it conveniently shares only a glimpse of what happened, the aftermath of their actions. You should be wiser than this. #Fail”.
Tweeting Jewish News, Lineker wrote: “Putting youngsters into a cage is an abuse of human rights. Would have done exactly the same had they been Israeli youngsters.”
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