Anti-Semitic messages target Israeli soccer player in U.K.
Published January 14, 2013
(JTA) — British soccer fans reportedly wrote anti-Semitic messages on the Facebook page of a local British club shortly after it hired an Israeli player.
The slurs against Tal Ben Haim came last week, just days after he joined the Queens Park Rangers of the English Premier League, according to a report in The Sun newspaper.
The authors of the anti-Semitic slurs used pejoratives. One comment asked how the team’s Moroccan Muslim midfielder could “live playing alongside a Jew.”
The messages have since been deleted.
A Queens Park Rangers spokesman issued a statement saying:“We are banning all posters who post anti-Semitic comments.”
Ben Haim plays for Israel’s national team. He also has played for several clubs in the English premier league including Chelsea, Manchester City and Portsmouth.
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