Gary Lineker has come under fire from furious social media users after he appeared to endorse a video of an interview discussing the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Owen Jones and Raz Segal featured in the clip in which the pair openly accuse Israel of "genocide" and slam the country's response to the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas.
Within the 13-minute conversation, both Jones and Segal condemn Israel's retaliation, with the latter suggesting the world is witnessing "textbook genocide".
Segal also addressed the comparison of Hamas to the Nazis and appeared to downplay the similarities due to the "very different context".
Discussing the persecution of Jewish people in each instance, Segal suggested World War II was "different" from “Palestinians… (living) for decades under Israeli settler colonial rule”.
Segal did brand the October 7 terror attacks as "horrendous" elsewhere in the interview with Jones.
Gary Lineker has been slammed for his social media repost
GETTY
Lineker promoted the video on his own X profile as he encouraged others to watch.
Alongside the clip, Lineker said: "Worth 13 minutes of anyone’s time."
It didn't take long for a number of X users to slam the endorsement by Lineker, however, especially after he was criticised for remaining silent on the conflict since the initial October 7 attacks.
"Retweeting Owen Jones.....Jesus wept," one person penned on the social media site.
A second hit out: "Lineker strays from being a useful idiot to full on left wing nasty piece of work. Why is the BBC employing him still..?"
While a third blasted: "Gary Lineker avoided offering any comment on the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust & is now recommending people watch a video with an interviewer who has blocked most Jews on twitter & an interviewee who said that Israel needs to stop weaponising the Holocaust."
Another fumed: "Hasn’t said a word about 7th October, but is sharing a 13 minute video from... Owen Jones of all people. An utter disgrace."
And a fifth quipped: "BBC: We’ve really been undermining our own credibility in recent weeks. Gary Lineker: Hold my beer."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Owen Jones was conducting the interview Lineker shared
GETTY
However, there was some defence of Lineker, including from Jones himself who replied to the repost: "Thanks for sharing this Gary."
Lineker's ability to wade into contentious political debates has been established in the BBC's new social media guidelines for its presenters.
The Match of the Day host is no stranger to sharing his thoughts on a number of issues, including recently publishing his opinion on Suella Braverman's sacking as Home Secretary.
While Lineker remains part of the BBC - with a new bumper contract reportedly in the pipeline - one person who rejected the corporation's new guidelines was Carol Vorderman.
