Gary Lineker’s cancellation began long before Gaza gotcha moment

Given that he was one of the only prominent media figures to be consistently vocal about the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza, this week’s departure of longtime football star and sports presenter Gary Lineker from the BBC felt inevitable from the outset.

Amongst a media and political elite in which support for Palestine is practically nonexistent and any criticism of Israel is tantamount to antisemitism, it's clear that Linkeker’s card has been marked for some time.

He had already been briefly suspended last year for calling the government’s asylum policy “immeasurably cruel” and had come under fire for regularly speaking up against Israeli genocide on his social media platforms.

When the BBC axed its documentary on children living in Gaza, Lineker was also among 500 public figures who called on the public broadcaster to reinstate it, describing the film as an “essential piece of journalism” despite the smear campaigns because it included the son of an alleged Hamas official.

The official reason given for Lineker’s stepping down was that he shared a post about Zionism that included the emoji of a rat, deemed an antisemitic trope by many. But it’s clear what this is really about.

Support Gaza, lose everything

Gary Lineker committed the ultimate industry faux pas — to side with the oppressed rather than the oppressive ruling classes — and if we look at the trajectory of others who have expressed public support for Palestine, or even dared to question Israel, then we can see that public media and political careers never survive anything short of loyal commitment to the Zionist cause.

Take Sangita Myska, who mysteriously disappeared from her post at LBC Radio after clashing with an Israeli government official; or model Bella Hadid, who lost advertising contracts over her support for the Palestinian cause; YouTuber Ms. Rachel, all but cancelled in some circles for daring to say Palestinian children deserve to live; or UK politician Jeremy Corbyn, smeared by the tabloid press and his own party as an antisemite for his decades-long advocacy for Palestine.

As the genocide in Gaza nears its second year, it feels as though we are reaching an impasse between us, the people, and the corporations, media and public figures that are supposed to represent us.

Since October 2023, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Central London and cities across the country to call for an end to our government’s participation in war crimes and to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. For months, we have witnessed rallies outside critical embassies and media centres, direct action taking place at the sites of businesses complicit in genocide, and companies funding the atrocities in Gaza being boycotted en masse.

All the while, what has the establishment done? Protect the status quo. We have seen protestors vilified as extremists by politicians like Suella Braverman, courts have charged individual citizens with criminal or terror offences as though defacing buildings or raising flags is worse than mass slaughter, and still the facade that Israel is defending itself as the only democracy in the Middle East persists in soundbites and political statements.

Subscribe Now and Listen to our Podcasts On

But it’s not just corporations and governments clinging to the status quo support of Israel. Recently, it was revealed that Arsenal Football Club is facing legal action after last year firing an employee who had worked there for over two decades for posting support for Palestine on their social media account. In the words of long-serving equipment manager Mark Bonnick, “All I did was express grief, anger, and sorrow over the atrocities unfolding in Gaza. For that, Arsenal fired me,”.

It’s no coincidence that both the Arsenal and Gary Lineker examples revolve around football. As a grassroots community with global reach, and stadiums where thousands regularly gather, football has always been political.

From Hillsborough to Marcus Rashford, the Kick It Out campaign to the Qatar World Cup, football has long both reflected and shaped the issues dominating society at any given time.

It’s no wonder, then, that when it comes to Gaza, the fans and club leadership appear to be on entirely different fields. Whilst bans are in place on Palestine flags at stadiums up and down the country, the same places that conveniently forgot to be apolitical when it came to Ukraine, at almost every match, multiple Palestine flags can be spotted amongst the crowds.

Football fans have gone viral for interrupting broadcasts to shout ‘free Palestine’ whilst pundits attempt to silence them. Last year, Clapton Community Football Club, a small club owned and run by fans based in East London, pioneered the inaugural Mohammed Barakat Cup — named after the “legend of Khan Younis”, a Palestinian footballer who was killed on the first day of Ramadan 2024 — as a way of bringing together football fans and their passion for advocating for a free Palestine away from the blanket support for Israel found at the highest levels of the sport.

In football, as in society at large, the illusion that these institutions speak for us has never seemed flimsier — or more farcical.

Palestine is the enduring moral litmus test of our time and the distinguishing factor between a powerful elite protected by a status quo and everyday people who side with the innocent men, women and children of Gaza.

If these examples teach us anything, it’s that if the country’s leading entities silence you, it’s because speaking truth to power shakes the foundations upon which this colonial nation and its bloodstained institutions were built - and that’s a dangerous and powerful thing.

Nadeine Asbali is a freelance writer and secondary school teacher based in London. She is the author of Veiled Threat: On Being Visibly Muslim in Britain

Follow her on X: @nadeinewrites

Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@newarab.com

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.