Mainz FC, a German football club, has ended its contract with Anwar El Ghazi due to his social media posts concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a statement released on Friday, Mainz announced the termination of El Ghazi’s contract, citing “remarks and social media posts made by the player” as the reason, without providing additional details.
After his termination, Anwar El Ghazi posted a statement on a social media platform.
— Anwar El Ghazi (@elghazi1995) November 3, 2023
Anwar said, “Stand for what is right, even if it means standing alone.”
He added, “The loss of my livelihood is nothing when compared to the hell being unleashed on the innocent and vulnerable in Gaza.”
The club had suspended El Ghazi in the past due to a post about the Middle East conflict that has since been deleted, but he was permitted to resume practice earlier this week.
On October 27, in a social media post, he offered a clarification, stating, “I want to emphasize that if there have been any misinterpretations of my earlier statements on social media, I want to make it unequivocal that my stance is in favor of peace and the well-being of all people.”
Mainz announced on Monday that they have ended his suspension and are affording him a second opportunity. They emphasized his stance against all forms of terrorism, including that associated with Hamas, and underscored that he did not raise any doubts about Israel’s right to exist.
Yet, in a subsequent social media post made on Wednesday, El Ghazi suggested that the club had released its statement without obtaining his consent.
He said, “I do not regret or have any remorse for my position,” the player wrote. “I do not distance myself from what I said and I stand, today and always until my last breath, for humanity and the oppressed.”
In another statement, he expressed condemnation for “the deaths of innocent civilians in both Palestine and Israel.”
He added in a post, “There can never be any justification for the killing of over 3,500 children in Gaza in the last three weeks, I and we as a world cannot conscionably (sic) remain silent. We must call for an end to the killing in Gaza now.”
Before El Ghazi was terminated on Friday, he faced accusations from German prosecutors of “disrupting public order by endorsing criminal activities alongside promoting hatred” in his social media posts.
