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Jewish Soccer Star in England Warns of Rising Antisemitism Among Fans Since Hamas Atrocities
Wycombe Wanderers’ Jewish captain Joe Jacobson in action. Photo: Reuters/Dennis Goodwin
One of the United Kingdom’s few professional Jewish soccer players has spoken out on the antisemitic abuse he has faced from fans as a result of a social media post he shared following the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel.
“For me, I feel a responsibility as one of the few Jewish footballers in the UK to speak out,” Joe Jacobson told the BBC in an extensive interview on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old veteran is the captain of Wycombe Wanderers, who compete in League One — the third tier of English professional soccer. During a 20-year career in the game, Jacobson said he had never seriously been confronted with antisemitism until the Hamas atrocities.
Anger turned on Jacobson in the wake of the massacre in Israel, when he referred in a post on X/Twitter to the scenes of jubilation in Gaza following the bloodshed. “Imagine taking to the streets and celebrating mass murder,” Jacobson wrote.
Jacobson was promptly inundated with antisemitic abuse. “It is hate messages,” he said. “It’s not anything to do with what I’m posting, it’s just comments that people want to throw at you really.”
He emphasized that in the past, whenever he had “spoken about antisemitism there wasn’t much for me to talk about from my own personal experience. However, since what happened in October, it seems to be more and more things going on.”
Threatening messages were also sent to Jacobson’s club, forcing them to provide him with extra security.
“One of them wasn’t necessarily a threat, but more a demand that I apologize and demanded that the club took me away from being the captain,” said Jacobson. “They said if they didn’t, then they might barricade the gates at Adams Park [Wycombe’s home ground]. Then going to a match, there was all these weird things happening, with people wanting to come with me on the journey, and there were phone calls to friends on the journey saying where were we.”
Jacobson said that when he “got out of the car in the car park there were people surrounding me, Wycombe staff saying ‘come on Joe, let’s go into the stadium.’ And that is really different and abnormal to what it usually is. Later on I found out that they had plain clothes security there just in case people were looking to do something … It was something I didn’t realize would have to happen going to a football match.”
Jacobson encouraged fans who witness antisemitic incidents to report them to soccer’s governing authorities in order for the scale of the problem to be properly understood. According to Kick It Out, an anti-discrimination charity focused on soccer, there was an increase of more than 400 percent in antisemitic acts during the first half of the present soccer season, with reported instances over that period rising from 11 in the 2022-23 season to 57 in the current campaign.
The post Jewish Soccer Star in England Warns of Rising Antisemitism Among Fans Since Hamas Atrocities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.