ANKARA (AA)
Former Turkish football champions RAMS Basaksehir on Monday launched a disciplinary probe against their Israeli midfielder Eden Karzev over his social media post about the ongoing Gaza war.
Istanbul’s Basaksehir, who won the Turkish Super Lig title in 2020, said on X that Karzev, 23, will face a disciplinary proceeding after he shared a pro-Israel post on Instagram to mark 100 days since the start of the war on Gaza.
The club also demanded a written defense for “violating disciplinary regulations of the club” as Karzev’s post “goes against sensitivities of Türkiye.”
Karzev joined Basaksehir in 2023 to play 17 matches.
Another Israeli footballer Sagiv Jehezkel, 28, who plays for Turkish club Bitexen Antalyaspor, came under fire on social media for sharing a message of solidarity with Israel after scoring a goal on Sunday’s match against Trabzonspor.
Jehezkel was first excluded from Antalyaspor’s squad, and then arrested by the Turkish police early Monday. He was later released by a court.
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7, which Tel Aviv claims killed 1,200 people in Israel.
Over 21,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 60,000 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
According to the UN, 85% of the population of Gaza is already internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.
