Turkey Detains Israeli Soccer Player For Remembering Hamas Massacre

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

ANKARA/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Turkey has detained Israeli soccer player Sagiv Jehezkel for displaying a message about the Hamas massacre of some 1,200 people and kidnappings of 240 others 100 days ago in Israel.

Jehezkel scored a goal for his team and then displayed a message reading “100 days. 07/10” on a bandage on his wrist, clearly referring to the October 7 atrocities by Hamas, viewed as an Islamist terrorist organization by Israel.

The atrocities, the worst on record in the 75-year history of the state of Israel, sparked the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Turkish Minister of Justice Sagiv Jehezkel said the soccer player was held as the incident amounted to “incitement to hatred” after his club, Antalyaspor, sacked him over the matter.

“Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has initiated a judicial investigation against Israeli football player Sagiv Jehezkel for ‘inciting people to hatred and hostility.’ [This is] due to his ugly gesture supporting Israel’s massacre in Gaza after scoring a goal in the Antalyaspor-Trabzonspor Super Lig match,” Tunc wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

It was not immediately clear when and if a trial will begin.

BROADER TENSIONS

However, the arrest comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğa compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler while discussing Israel’s war in Gaza.

‘‘Is what Netanyahu is doing any less than Hitler? It is not,’’ Erdogan said in televised remarks in Ankara, Turkey, at a science awards ceremony. The Turkish leader has frequently criticized Israel for its conduct in Gaza.

“They were talking ill of Hitler. What difference do you have from Hitler? They will make us miss Hitler,” Erdogan added.

Netanyahu fired back, condemning Erdogan’s treatment of Turkey’s significant Kurdish minority, saying the Turkish leader “is the last person who can preach morality to us” and condemning his support for Hamas.

The Israeli military, Netanyahu said, “is fighting to eliminate the most abhorrent and brutal terrorist organization in the world.”

The Hamas-run health ministry claims about 24,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, but those figures have been complex to verify independently. Israel says it targets Hamas but accuses the group of using civilians as human shields.

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