Mainz 05 Football Club Terminates Anwar El Ghazi's Contract Over Pro-Palestinian Social Media Posts

On November 3, 2023, the German football club Mainz 05 terminated the contract of Dutch football player Anwar El Ghazi over pro-Palestinian social media posts. On October 17th, El Ghazi was suspended by the club because of his since-deleted posts on Instagram, which contained amongst others the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The club called his posts intolerable: “Mainz 05 respects the fact that there are different perspectives on the decades-long, complex conflict in the Middle East. However, we as a club distance ourselves from the contents of the posts, which do not align with the values of the club.”

On October 30th, the club announced that it lifted El Ghazi’s suspension after he allegedly distanced himself from his posts and expressed remorse for his action to the board of the club. Two days later, however, El Ghazi posted on his Instagram that the statement was published without his permission: “I do not regret or have any remorse for my position. I do not distance myself from what I said and I stand, today and always until my last breath, for humanity and the oppressed. [...] I am against war and violence. I am against the killing of all innocent civilians. I am against all forms of discrimination. I am against Islamophobia. I am against anti-Semitism. I am against genocide. I am against apartheid. I am against occupation. I am against oppression. [...] I and we as a world cannot conscionably remain silent.” He finished the post by calling for an end to the killing in Gaza. The club terminated El Ghazi’s contract on November 3rd, two days after his post.

Prior to the termination, El Ghazi was accused by German prosecutors for “disturbing public peace by condoning criminal acts in conjunction with incitement to hatred”. He wrote in a post a day after the termination: “The loss of my livelihood is nothing when compared to the hell being unleashed on the innocent and vulnerable in Gaza.“ El Ghazi has now filed a lawsuit against his former club for unfair dismissal. His lawyer stated "In this new post, I do not see any expression that is not covered by freedom of speech".