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An Israeli Soccer Star Stood Up for Hostages in Turkey; Then He Was Attacked
Israeli soccer star Sagiv Jehezkel arrives in Tel Aviv from Turkey. Photo: Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini
It should have been a straightforward story that included facts, relevant reactions, and background.
But these key elements were either omitted or distorted when some media outlets reported on the detention of an Israeli soccer player in Turkey, due to his on-the-pitch gesture of solidarity with Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The reports of CNN and The New York Times painted a picture that legitimized the actions taken against Sagiv Jehezkel, who, until last week, played for Turkish team Antalyaspor.
Here are the core components of the story:
On January 14, after scoring a goal during a Super League match in Antalya, Jehezkel displayed a message written on his bandaged wrist alongside a Jewish Star of David, reading “100 days, 7.10.”
The message alluded to the passage of 100 days since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and some 240 taken hostage. Most mainstream media outlets rightly understood it as a solidarity message with the hostages.
Jehezkel was, however, detained, questioned by Turkish police, and suspended from his club. The Turkish Justice Minister condemned his tribute as “inciting people to hatred and hostility.” His team said he had acted “against the national values.” Jehezkel, who had already returned to Israel, rejected the accusations and according to Turkish media said he had meant to convey a message supporting an end to the war.
Outraged Israeli officials denounced Turkey. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant criticized it as a “de facto executive arm of Hamas.” Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said Turkey was “working against humane values and sports values.”
Turkey’s actions come against the backdrop of its fierce criticism against Israel since October 7. Turkish President Erdogan has called Israel a “terror state” and said that Hamas terrorists are “freedom fighters.”
But this is not how the story was necessarily covered.
CNN has misrepresented Jehezkel’s message, omitted Israel’s criticism, and added flawed context.
1. The network labeled his solidarity gesture a “protest.”
2. CNN completely ignored Israel’s strong criticism against Turkey, while including the reactions of Antalyaspor and the Turkish justice minister.
The omission of the Israeli foreign minister’s comments is all the more questionable because, apparently, the reporters had been following the Foreign Ministry’s statements. They chose to include the following sentence: “On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Jehezkel is returning to his home country.”
3. In an attempt to provide “context” or “balance,” CNN created a false symmetry between a non-violent solidarity tribute and incitement to violence:
This isn’t the first time that a soccer player has become embroiled in controversy over the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Earlier this month, Algerian Youcef Atal, who plays for French club OGC Nice, was handed a suspended sentence and a €45,000 fine ($49,000) following a social media repost about the conflict.
According to Reuters, which cited French newspaper Nice-Matin, Atal republished a 35-second video by a Palestinian preacher who called on God to send “a black day over the Jews.”
4. CNN did include a lengthy background on Israel-Turkey relations. But it called Israel’s actions in Gaza “carnage” and quoted an expert attempting to explain away the Turkish reaction:
Jehezkel’s gesture was misunderstood and misrepresented, Lindenstrauss added, which is “a clear indication that Turkey and the Turkish public have very little understanding of Israel’s interpretation of the events that unfolded on October 7.”
But there was no mention that Erdogan had publicly stated his staunch support for Hamas and its actions.
The New York Times also misrepresented Jehezkel’s message, and felt the need to provide problematic context instead of just reporting the facts.
The newspaper called Jehezkel’s gesture in support of hostages a “pro-Israel” message, creating the impression that Turkey was acting against the player’s political stance.
As mentioned above, other mainstream media — such as The Washington Post and the BBC — reported Jehezkel’s gesture as a plea for the hostages, not a politicized call.
But there’s more.
While The New York Times did provide the necessary background on Turkey’s support for Hamas, it also gave a “balancing” context by equating Jehezkel to other soccer players who had been suspended or fired after sharing violent anti-Israeli calls online.
The paper did not mention why Dutch player El Ghazi had his contract terminated by his German club, Mainz.
Instead, it linked to reports in the Qatari-owned network Al Jazeera that also failed to mention the reason: El Ghazi shared a post early in the conflict with the genocidal call “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”
HonestReporting has sent a complaint detailing these flaws to The New York Times.
The wire services included all the necessary elements in their reportage, so any writer or editor could and should have seen what to include in the story.
Why, then, did the outlets mentioned above remove criticism of Turkey, “balance” it or provide background that doesn’t adequately explain the prevailing Turkish zeitgeist?
Instead, their stories downplay or even legitimize the appalling Turkish actions against an Israeli Jew who merely voiced solidarity with innocent people held by a terror group.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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