FC Barcelona is said to have ordered one of their young players to erase a pro-Palestine Instagram post, according to Palestine Online.
According to the news website, Moroccan international winger Abde Ezzalzouli, 20, released film of Israeli atrocities on Palestinians in Al-Aqsa Mosque last week, but the club urged him to take it down.
In Catalonia, Ezzalzouli is a rising star. Despite the fact that he represents Morocco, the Royal Spanish Football Federation was so keen to get him to dedicate his career to Spain that they placed pressure on him not to represent his homeland.
The news that Ezzalzouli was compelled to remove a pro-Palestine social media post has prompted outrage and accusations of double standards in the sporting world.
“The hypocrisy shown by the Ukraine war is simply astonishing,” a startled football fan said on Twitter. With their widespread shows of sympathy with Ukraine, European football clubs, notably FC Barcelona, disobeyed their own admonition not to mix politics and sport, which has been the standard official response every time a player has attempted to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine.
“That’s it for me with Barcelona,” another Twitter user, who appears to be a fan of the team, stated. “UNICEF support is only a sham.” One of FC Barcelona’s sponsors is the United Nations.
FC Barcelona is yet to respond to the situation. However, the club has already demonstrated its willingness to oppose Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
FC Barcelona declined to play an Israeli club in occupied Jerusalem in July of last year. However, during a club tour to Israel and the occupied West Bank in 2013, Barcelona players Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique were pictured alongside Israel’s far-right Prime Minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu.
