What do we know about the arrest in Turkey of an Israeli footballer who displayed a message of support for the Jewish state? – Liberation

The war between Hamas and IsraeldossierSagiv Jehezkel is one of only two Israeli players to play in the Turkish championship. Prosecuted for “public incitement to hatred and hostility”, he must return to Israel this Monday, January 15.

The joy of supporters of the Antalya football club after the goal scored in the match against Trabzon on Sunday January 14 was quickly dampened. At issue: a message brandished by the scorer of this team from southern Turkey, Israeli striker Sagiv Jehezkel. During his celebration, the player raised his wrist, revealing a bandage on which was written “100 days, 7.10”, in reference to the attack perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, a date which also marks the start of the war in Gaza.

At the end of the match, which was played early in the afternoon in the Antalya stadium, Sagiv Jehezkel was arrested and excluded by his club. Very quickly, the management of Antalyaspor reacted by condemning the attitude of their player and announcing his exclusion. “Sagiv Jehezkel, who acted against the national values ​​of our country by sharing the writing on his wrist after scoring a goal in the 68th minute of the match we played against Trabzonspor, was excluded from the team by decision of the board of directors,” explains a press release broadcast late Sunday afternoon. In the process, the club’s spokesperson told Turkish media that Antalyaspor’s lawyers are working on the termination of the 28-year-old Israeli international’s contract, which should take place “as soon as possible”, as stated by notably reported Anadolu news agency. The president of the club wrote on social networks that he believes that Sagiv Jehezkel “made propaganda by sharing the writing on his wrist”, and this “without the knowledge” of the rest of the team, adding that he will “never authorize contrary behavior to the sensitivities of Turkey. Antalyaspor, which initially shared a photo of the celebration on social media, deleted it as soon as the controversy began. Furthermore, even the Turkish Football Federation went there with his statementexplaining that this gesture “undermines human dignity and the conscience of Turkish society”, and that the decision to exclude the player was “appropriate”.

The player finally released after an interrogation with the prosecutor

On the instructions of the Antalya Prosecutor General, the sports branch and the anti-terrorism branch of the Antalya provincial police arrested the footballer who, later in the evening, was placed in detention in order to be heard. As part of the judicial investigation it opened, the prosecution accuses Sagiv Jehezkel of having committed the offense of “public incitement to hatred and hostility”, said the Minister of Justice, Yilmaz Tunç. After his “statement was taken at the police station during the night” from Sunday to Monday, Sagiv Jehezkel was sent mid-morning “to the Antalya courthouse by the teams of the Security Directorate of the Department of Antalya police to be questioned before the anti-terrorism prosecution”, unfolds le media local Akdeniz Manset, who published the images of his arrival at the courthouse. He had previously “been subjected to a health examination”, specifies Anadolu. Following the interrogation carried out by the prosecutor’s office, the final stage of the proceedings involving the player, where he “testified for approximately forty-five minutes through a translator”, Sagiv Jehezkel was finally released into custody. freedom. His trial date has not yet been announced.

The incriminated footballer was able to leave Turkey late Monday afternoon, according to a tweet by Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. While the Antalyaspor teams are still considering the termination of his contract, the club spokesperson announced around noon that the player was due to return to Israel by private plane in the evening. Thus confirming the information given, a few moments earlier, by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A press release explains that the ministry’s teams worked “with all the competent authorities in Turkey to obtain the rapid release” of the footballer. “Turkey has become a dark dictatorship that goes against humanitarian values ​​and the values ​​of sport,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said. “Anyone who arrests a football player for an act of identification with 136 people kidnapped, in the hands of a murderous terrorist organization for more than a hundred days, represents a culture of murder and hatred,” he explained, referring to the official Israeli estimate of the number of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip. Katz concluded by calling on “the international community and international sports organizations to take action against Turkey and its political use of violence and threats against athletes.” “Meanwhile, Turkish leader Erdogan shamefully harbors members of Hamas in his own country,” even said the American organization Stop Anti-Semitism. The Israeli authorities had called on their nationals to leave Turkey from the start of the conflict, due to the very strong pro-Palestinian sentiment in the country.

“I want the war to end”

According to Turkish media NTVSpor, who said he consulted Sagiv Jehezkel’s statement at the police station, he defended himself before the police of any provocation or lack of respect. “I am not a supporter of war,” said the Israeli international, continuing: “I am one of the people who think that this hundred-day period should end now. I want the war to end.” “I have not disrespected anyone since I arrived in Turkey. The point I wanted to draw attention to was the end of the war,” he said. But the Turkish government does not see it that way. The Minister of Justice denounced a “hideous gesture” which he said he interpreted as an expression of support for “Israel’s massacre in Gaza”, while his government will continue “to stand alongside the oppressed Palestinians”. As for Omer Çelik, spokesperson for the AKP, the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he went so far as to describe Jehezkel as a “slave of hatred”. The Turkish executive has repeatedly described Israel as a “terrorist state”, and denounced the actions of the IDF in Gaza as constituting “a crime against humanity” or “a genocide”. But not all of Turkish society approves of the sanctions adopted against Sagiv Jehezkel. The center-left daily Cumhuriyet, for example, headlined an arrest “because of his joy”.

In parallel with the Sagiv Jehezkel case, the only other Israeli player in the Turkish championship also finds himself in trouble with his club. Eden Karzev, also a member of the Israeli national team at the age of 23, shared a post on Instagram on Sunday in which the number 100 appears, followed by the message “Bring them home NOW”. The original post, posted online again on the occasion of the hundred days of the war between Israel and Hamas, comes from from the account of the Australian Zionist Federation. A screenshot of Eden Karzev’s story was notably relayed by a group of supporters of his Istanbul club, Basaksehir, known for its proximity to the Turkish presidency. “We do not want Zionist supporters who ignore the values ​​and sensitivities of our country,” writes the ultra group. The Basaksehir club communicated, for its part, on the opening of a disciplinary investigationwhile the player was ordered to provide “a written defense”, after having “violated the club’s disciplinary instructions by publishing a message on his personal social media account that contradicts the sensitivities of our country”.

Update: January 15 at 5:05 p.m., added tweet announcing that Sagiv Jehezkel has left Turkey.