Hamas-Israel conflict: investigation opened against Mainz footballer El Ghazi

The Koblenz public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation against Mainz footballer Anwar El Ghazi for "disturbing public order", after his messages about the Israel-Hamas conflict, the body announced Friday to SID. German justice suspects Dutch international Anwar El Ghazi of “disturbing public order by approving offenses linked to hate speech”, explained the Koblenz public prosecutor's office to the German sports press agency SID, subsidiary from AFP, thus confirming information from the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

In a message on his Instagram account on October 17, Anwar El Ghazi gave his support to the Palestinians, ending his message with the formula “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, a slogan seen by some as a call for destruction. of Israel, by others as a call for equal rights between Palestinians and Israelis. He was suspended by his club Mainz, which said it was ready to reinstate him, ensuring that the player had, during several interviews with club management, “distanced himself from his message published on his Instagram account ( on October 17), which he himself deleted a few minutes later.

But El Ghazi wanted to clarify his position on Wednesday on Instagram. “I have no regrets, or remorse regarding my position. I do not distance myself from what I said or what I support, today and until my last breath, for humanity and the oppressed. Mainz took note of this press release with “surprise and incomprehension”. The club is “studying the facts legally” and “will then evaluate them”.

Without a contract on September 1, El Ghazi was recruited on September 22 by Mainz and played 51 minutes spread over three league matches. Israel launched a war to “annihilate” Hamas in retaliation for the unprecedented bloody attack perpetrated on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement, whose commandos killed at least 1,400 people, mostly Israeli civilians, on the edge of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities who assure that at least 240 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip.

More than 8,500 Palestinians have been killed since the start of incessant bombardments by the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip, according to a report from the Hamas Ministry of Health.