Outrage when Pep Guardiola spoke about Gaza’s children
JVL Introduction
When Manchester City’s football manager Pep Guardiola spoke about Gaza’s children he didn’t once mention Israel.
No matter.
Saying things like: “I think we left them alone and abandoned them,” was already too much.
As were words such as: “They are telling us, ‘Where are you? Come and help us.’ And so far, we have not done so.”
As Kobi Niv reports in Haaretz, Israel’s sports media erupted in insult and rage.
Any criticism, any compassion, is increasingly treated as a step too far…
Not just in Israel. Manchester Jews were also suitably outraged. Apparently the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region “fear such comments [about the neglect of children] fuel antisemitic acts”!
See the PA Media relase published by the Guardian and appended below the main article.
RK
This article was originally published by Haaretz on Sun 8 Feb 2026. Read the original here.
Pep Guardiola Delivered a Humane Speech. For Israelis, It Was anti-Israeli
Spanish football manager Pep Guardiola spoke about Gaza’s children without mentioning Israel. In Israel, his words were treated as an attack
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Bravo Pep!
As with his revolutionary ideas about football – the game is not the same as when he arrived on these shores – he has caused uproar from the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester. “He should stick to football” – the oldest jibe in the world from people with no arguments.
I am one of those who should have grown out of a football craze, but I played competitively for 25 years, from nine to thirty-four years of age and the bug bit deep. People say, “How can you be passionate about Palestine and still a fan of football, the billionaire’s plaything?”
Even more, after watching Man City portraying themselves as loveable failures for 40 years, how do you justify the money the Abu Dhabi gang have poured into the club and the success it has brought? (For the uninfected “football” is not a PLC; it is a code that involves your dad and your uncles and the odd aunt, your mates at school, that one game you remember in the sixties when it all clicked …)
And now we have a man of principle and compassion at City – and careful expression, though the Zionists can’t hear it, addicted, as they are, to drones and bombs and shells and a trophy-winning self-righteousness that can tolerate no opposition.
As soon as he donned the keffiyah, Pep was doomed. The Zionists knew what that meant: how dare a prominent figure like Guardiola identify with those they thought they had bombed off the face of the earth?
Let’s hope he doesn’t fold and issue a “heartfelt apology”. As others have discovered, an apology will not protect him from the campaign that will undoubtedly be unleashed against him. So he might as well keep his integrity and dignity.
The Jewish Representative Council, which is probably not very representative, is letting itself down with its wild bias. As this JVL-published article explains, the numbers of indigenous Palestinian children murdered by Israeli forces is disproportionate to just about anything and it is in fact a well-proven racial genocide.
Statement from Manchester Jewish Action for Palestine
Manchester Jewish Action for Palestine (MJAP) welcomes Pep Guardiola’s recent comments decrying Israel’s pursuit of a genocide in Gaza and calling on us all not to turn a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinian children. Guardiola’s heartfelt statement that “to completely kill thousands of innocent people, it hurts me” captures our collective pain as we’ve watched the horrors perpetrated by Israel over the last two and a half years. Guardiola’s brave comments build on expressions of solidarity with Palestinians from many other prominent football figures, including Jurgen Klopp, Mo Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo and Eric Cantona.
MJAP disagrees profoundly with the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester (JRCGM) in their criticism of Guardiola. They say that he “is a football manager” and “should focus on football” rather than “straying into international affairs”. It is not Guardiola who is bringing international affairs into football. The Premiership were quick to organise official displays of solidarity with Ukraine in grounds across the country, and FIFA suspended Russia from international football competitions within days of the invasion of Ukraine. Yet football supporters are not allowed to take any expression of solidarity with Palestine into games (not just flags, but even badges), and after two and a half years of genocide, FIFA has still not suspended Israel from international football competitions. Guardiola is simply expressing a different view on international affairs to those of the Premiership, the FA and FIFA. In doing so, he is giving voice to millions of football supporters, around the world, in the UK and in Manchester.
The JRCGM does not speak for all the Jewish people of Greater Manchester. Many of us are horrified by the genocide that has been pursued in our name by Israel, and have joined countless marches and rallies to oppose it.
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How many different ways is the Israeli and Representative’s Council response to Pepe Guardiola’s sorrow for the fate of all those Gazan children treated with such remorseless cruelty so completely objectionable?
One way: by making out that somehow Guardiola’s words of compassion towards the children of Gaza is a threat to the entire Jewish community.
Another way: by claiming that Guardiola’s position as a renowned football manager forbids him from speaking about a subject which is not football.
And a third way: by claiming that Israel is above criticism, that whatever Israel chooses to do becomes absolutely unarguable as soon as the decision is made to do it.
All of which begs another question: how many different ways are there of expressing pure disgust?
Pep has said how he feels as a caring compassionate human being like most people are and also feel. the same. Pep wasn’t having a go at any Jewish People or Israeli People. He was saying how he felt as a Human Being. If those people in Manchester and Elsewhere take offence about Peps or anyone else’s concern for innocent Men Women and Children who have been Brutally killed by an Israeli Government who have no Respect for Palestinian Lives Then instead of criticizing Pep or anyone else who feels the same as Pep.. Then they Should be telling the Israeli Government to stop those killings. Instead of criticizing people for speaking out about how they feel about the suffering of the Palestinian People in Gaza . This is not about calling the Jewish people. And is certainly not about the Hatred of Jewish People. Who themselves are some of the most caring Compassionate Human Beings on this earth that you could meet. No the real reasons for this is Political. And about a Government who are and have been carrying out War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity of innocent Civilians. .That same Government keep saying that people who are criticizing the State of Israel are making the Jewish people fearful for their Safety. That is not true The ones who are causing that fear are the Israeli Government and their Western Government allies who refuse to Condemn their actions. And because it’s Political and always has been The truth is the real agenda is about a land grab where there is oil and development opportunities in countries were that oil and other commodities can’ be found With Gaza being one of them with oil and gas that was discovered in 1999 and under international law was confirmed as belonging to the Palestinian People
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The so-called Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region, want us to believe the falsehood that Guardiola’s support for Gaza’s children fuels anti Semitic acts.
The major enabler and driver of anti-Semitism across the UK is the murderous behaviour of the settler-colonial Zionist regime in Israel.
Humanity is applauding Guardiola.
The whole world is not blind.
Humanity is condemning Israel – the pariah state.
Respect to Guardiola !
Problem I have that I totally lost interest in football and the media s obssession with over aid blokes /girls playing on lawns with plastic ball and slippers and thinking they are great . I playd foot ball as young chap .there were great players and I mean Great. what manchester city Manager says about Gazs children without mentioning the Horror of Israil zionist gov genocide is beyond me.
At last a football coach who is a mensch