Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Wasim Haq, a member of England's Football Association council said in a post on Saturday, that Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu, causing outrage. On Tuesday, he was suspended "pending the outcome of an investigation into his conduct."
Read more:
"Netanyahu has sacrificed his own people to maintain power whilst Palestinians are trying to maintain their sanity. Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu." Haq wrote in a post, now deleted. He was also suspended from the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).
The FA called his post "unacceptable and highly offensive." Even before the incident the FA and the Premier League were criticized for their neutrality after the October 7 Hamas atrocities. The London Jewish community slammed the decision not to light up Wembley Stadium in the colors of the Israeli flag last month, during the match between the national team and Australia. A moment of silence was observed in memory of "all the victims of the conflict."
By way of apologizing Haq explained his post was in relation to comparing two figures he saw as causing irreparable harm to victimized communities on both sides.
Haq's post coincided with a mass demonstration in London in support of Palestinians. Some 300,000 people marched by the U.S. Embassy raising a public debate because it took place on Armistices Day marking the end of WWI, and marking the memorial weekend for fallen British soldiers.