Jewish group rebukes Manchester City FC manager over ‘genocide’ remark

The local organized Jewish community called on Manchester City F.C. soccer club manager Pep Guardiola to be “more careful” in how he speaks publicly following comments about a “genocide in Palestine.”

On Feb. 4, the 55-year-old Catalan former midfielder and elite coach told Sky News that it was “clear” that there was a genocide in Gaza, a charge that Jerusalem vehemently denies, calling it an antisemitic blood libel that parrots Hamas terror propaganda.

At a rally in Barcelona on Jan. 29, Guardiola, clad in a keffiyeh scarf, said that “naturally, we are on the side of the weaker—who in this case is Palestine, but not Palestine alone; all causes. This is a statement for Palestine, and it is a statement for humanity.” He did not mention Israel or Hamas in his brief remarks.

Reacting to the soccer manager’s Feb. 4 remarks, the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region said, “We have repeatedly asked for prominent individuals to be mindful about the words they use given how Jewish people have had to endure attacks across the globe.”

Guardiola “should focus on football,” the statement continued, arguing that the club he manages is “being let down by him repeatedly straying into commentary on international affairs.

“Its especially galling given his total failure to use his significant platform to display any solidarity with the Jewish community subjected to a deadly terrorist attack a few miles from [Manchester City’s] Etihad Stadium or the Barcelona community reeling from antisemitic violence close to where he once again engaged in remarks we believe to be provocative,” the group said.

“We implore Mr. Guardiola to be more careful with his future language given the significant risk faced by our community.”

The Manchester synagogue attack took place on Oct. 2 outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, when a terrorist carried out a car-ramming and stabbing on Yom Kippur.

Unidentified individuals smashed several headstones at the Jewish cemetery of Les Corts in Barcelona, Spain, on Jan. 24, in violence that Israel’s foreign ministry tied to the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s “anti-Israel campaign.”

“We condemn the vandalism of the Jewish cemetery in Barcelona. This despicable act is a result of the anti-Israel campaign by the Sánchez government. We stand with Spain’s Jewish community. Antisemitism must never be normalized and must be firmly rejected in all societies,” a spokesperson wrote on the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s X account.