BEIRUT: Karim Benzema, the French footballer who currently plays for Saudi club Al-Ittihad, is facing a backlash from officials in his home country after he expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza and said they were being subjected to unjust bombing.
In a message posted on social media site X on Sunday, the current FIFA Ballon D’or holder wrote: “All our prayers for the inhabitants of Gaza who are once again victims of these unjust bombings which spare no women or children.”
The post has garnered more than 558,000 likes, 180,000 retweets and 60,000 comments.
However, French senator Valerie Boyer has demanded that the government strip Benzema of his citizenship, and that his Ballon D’or accolade, awarded annually by news magazine French Football to the men’s player judged to be the best of the year, be withdrawn.
News website Tribuna reported that Boyer’s demand came in the form of a signed petition addressed to the French government, posted on her Instagram page, in which she said: “We cannot accept that a French dual national, internationally known, could dishonor and even betray our country in this way.”
Benzema was born in Lyon to parents of Algerian descent.
The row escalated further when French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, speaking on TV channel CNews, alleged that Benzema was “connected” to the Muslim Brotherhood, which a number of nations, including France, consider to be a terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, Israeli former goalkeeper David “Dudu” Aouate, who played for Spanish clubs Racing Santander, Deportivo and Mallorca, insulted Benzema on X over his comments about Gaza, using curse words in five languages, the Marca newspaper reported.
On Oct. 7, Hamas operatives crossed the border from Gaza into Israel where they killed more than a thousand Israelis, including soldiers and civilians.
Vowing to wipe out Hamas, Israel responded by bombing Gaza, killing more than 3,000 civilians. On Tuesday, Israeli forces were accused of carrying out an attack on a hospital that is thought to have killed more than 500 people.
