Israeli footballer returns home after Turkish arrest over hostage message | Soccer

August 2024 · 3 minute read
Soccer

Israeli footballer returns home after Turkish arrest over hostage message

Turkish authorities released the Israeli football player Sagiv Jehezkel from police custody before he returned to his home country on Monday.

“Sagiv Jehezkel, the Israeli footballer of Antalyaspor, left our country at 5:15 p.m. [1415 GMT],” the Turkish interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, stated on social media platform X.

Jehezkel had been detained in Antalya after wearing a bandage on his left wrist during a match with the words “100 days”, the date of the Hamas militant attack that precipitated Israel’s war in Gaza, and a Star of David.

Israel’s defence minister accused Turkey on Monday of serving as a “de facto executive arm of Hamas” after Jehezkel’s police detention. In a post on X, Yoav Gallant reminded Turkey of Israel’s swift assistance to it after last year’s earthquake and called Jehezkel’s treatment “a manifestation of hypocrisy and ingratitude”.

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Since the start of the conflict, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a traditional supporter of the Palestinian cause, has repeatedly described Israel as a “terrorist state”, insisting Hamas is a “group of liberators”.

On Sunday Turkey’s justice minister announced an investigation into Jehezkel over the bandage incident for suspected “incitement to hate”, after his club, Antalyaspor, sacked him over the matter.

“I did not act to incite or provoke anyone. I am not a pro-war person,” broadcaster NTV reported Jehezkel as saying. “There are Israeli soldiers held hostage in Gaza. I am someone who believes that this 100-day period should end now. I want the war to end. That’s why I showed the message here,” he was cited as saying through a translator during questioning.

After scoring a goal for his team against Trabzonspor, Jehezkel revealed a message which read “100 days. 07/10” on the bandage. The message was a reference to the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the number of days that more than 130 Israeli hostages have been held in Gaza.

Antalyaspor’s board has decided to exclude Jehezkel from its squad for “acting against the national values of our country” by displaying the message, a club statement said. Its spokesman Murat Ozgen said the club was awaiting court proceedings before terminating his contract.

“I watched with sadness and surprise that Sagiv Jehezkel acted against the sensitivities of Antalya, Antalyaspor and our country,” club chairman Sinan Boztepe said on X.

Separately, the Istanbul club Basaksehir said they would bring disciplinary action against the Israeli midfielder Eden Kartsev for harming “sensitive values” in Turkey. Kartsev was also briefly detained on Monday about a social media post, state media reported.

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