An Israeli soccer player who denounced Hamas attacks while celebrating a goal is arrested in Turkey

Sagiv JehezkelIsraeli midfielder for Turkish Antalyaspor, was arrested after showing a message on Sunday denouncing Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7 when celebrating the goal with which his team tied on Sunday against Antalyaspor.

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The player He was arrested for “publicly inciting hatred and enmity after the goal due to his ugly support for Israel's massacre in Gaza”as explained by the Minister of Justice of Türkiye, Yılmaz Tunç.

Besides, Antalyaspor announced that it is terminating the contract with the footballer, whom it signed last year, for “displaying a message that contradicts the national values” of Türkiye.

In his statement to the Police, the footballer assured that he did not intend to provoke anyone and assured that he is not in favor of war.

“I was always respectful towards people during my stay in Turkey. “I want the end of the war,” he said during the interrogation, according to the NTV radio station.

After scoring the goal, Jehezkel showed a bandage covering his hand that read “100 days” and the date October 7, the day last year when Hamas murdered around 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250.

Jehezkel had already been temporarily suspended for refusing to participate in an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people before the match with Gaziantep on October 21.

The Turkish Government has been very critical of Israel's retaliatory attacks in Gaza, which have already left 24,000 dead and 7,000 missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, according to the Government of the Strip, under the control of Hamas.

Israel calls Erdogan 'Nazi' after brief arrest

This Monday, the player was released after declaring before the judge that he limited himself to asking for an end to the war in Gaza.

The player's release without being sent to trial means, according to experts consulted by Efe, that no charges were filed against him.

The NTV station, for its part, reported that a private plane arrived in Turkey to take the player back to Israel.

But the reactions in Israel were immediate. Israel's Minister of National Security, the ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir, This Monday he called the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a “Nazi”, after the brief arrest of the Antalyaspor footballer.

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“Erdogan is a full-fledged Nazi,” said Ben Gvir in a statement on the social network, and urged Israelis to boycott, not to travel to the country or buy Turkish products. “We will not let ourselves be trampled,” he added.

The Turkish Football Federation described the player's behavior as “unacceptable”.

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This Monday it was also known that Turkish Basaksehir opened disciplinary proceedings against one of its players, Israeli Eden Kartsev, for having shared on his Instagram account a message calling for the release of those kidnapped by the Palestinian group Hamas for a hundred days.

“A disciplinary investigation has been opened against Eden Kartsev for sharing on a personal social media account a message contrary to the feelings of our country and violating the disciplinary rules of our club,” Basaksehir said in a statement on the X network. formerly Twitter.

“In this regard, a written defense has been required from the player,” the message concludes, without specifying the nature of the message shared by Kartsev.

Eden Kartsev's Instagram account is currently private, but numerous Basaksehir fans have shared a screenshot, attributed to the player, of a message broadcast by the Zionist Federation of Australia to mark 100 days since the Hamas terrorist attack and the kidnapping of numerous Israeli civilians as hostages.

“100 days. 136 Israelis are in captivity of the Hamas terrorist group for 100 days. Bring them back now,” reads the message, accompanied by the number 100 formed with yellow ribbons.

Kartsev, a 23-year-old center from the Maccabi Tel Aviv youth academy, has played for several Israeli clubs and in January 2023 he signed for Basaksehir.

The club considers itself closely linked to the ideology of Erdogan and the AKP, the Islamist party that has governed Turkey since 2002.

Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered to mediate diplomatic efforts to free the hostages, he has also stressed that Hamas, in his opinion, is not “terrorist” but a patriotic group defending its territory.

EFE