Gary Lineker has said that he is happy he no longer has to ‘tread on eggshells’ for his views on Israel after leaving the BBC.
The football pundit, who left the BBC after several disputes over his social media usage, used an interview with anti-Brexit magazine The New World to address the incident that led to his departure from the broadcaster earlier in the year. He faced backlash after reposting a picture with the words: "Zionism explained in two minutes" above an emoji of a rat.
Mainstream Jewish community groups were outraged at the implication that Zionists were rats, echoing Nazi-era slurs about European Jews.
Lineker maintained that he did not know the antisemitic connotations of the image and when he was alerted to it, he promptly deleted it and apologised.
Speaking about this in the interview, he said: “I missed it [the rat picture]. To be honest, I wouldn’t have understood the connotations anyway until it was pointed out to me. I genuinely didn’t see it. I’m not an idiot. I may not have known it was an antisemitic trope, but I would have wondered why someone had put a rat there. Why would you ever conflate a rodent with a human? I wouldn’t do that on purpose. It would be the biggest act of self-harm ever. But, yeah, it was a tough couple of days.”
The football pundit also opened up about his feelings on the Israel-Hamas conflict and spoke about how he no longer has to "tread on eggshells" now that he isn't at the BBC.
“I think you have to look at something without a vested interest. I’ve got no skin in the game. I’m not Muslim, I’m not Palestinian, I’m not Israeli, I’m not Jewish. I come from a place of complete impartiality. And then it becomes about truth.
“People talked about me being antisemitic. I’m not anti-any group of people. Any race, any colour. But I am anti the killing of children.”
He also commented on his relationship with the BBC more generally, saying,“I want to be careful about not looking like I’m bitter," he said. "I love the BBC. I was there for 30 years. They gave me a massive opportunity. I feel it was like a really good marriage and then you gradually go your separate ways and eventually you have to call it a day.
“Life is a bit more comfortable not having to tread on eggshells all the time but I’m not any happier, no. I’m generally a glass-half-full kind of person. I feel optimistic and hopeful even though it’s difficult with events in the world.”
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