CAA calls for Gary Lineker to be removed from post after sharing inflammatory video

Campaign Against Antisemitism is calling for the BBC to part ways with Gary Lineker after sharing an anti-Israel video.

The post, which was shared on his Instagram account, contained an anti-Israel video which misrepresented Zionism and featured a rat emoji.

This is not the first time that Mr Lineker has courted controversy. When asked if he thought that it was a problem that the narrator of the BBC’s controversial so-called Gaza documentary was the son of a Hamas official during a recent interview, he answered: “I don’t think so, no.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Gary Lineker really has the worst luck when it comes to campaigning for his causes without aligning himself with extremists and antisemites. Not only does this video deliberately misrepresent Zionism — the belief that Jews have the same right to self-determination as everyone else — but it adds a rat emoji in doing so.

“Perhaps Mr Lineker is not as naive or accident prone as he might like us to believe. As the BBC’s highest-paid presenter and owner of a major media enterprise, maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing. We will be submitting a complaint to the BBC over this latest post. Having looked the other way until now, at this point, it is clear that Mr Lineker’s continued association with the BBC is untenable. He must go.”