Gary Lineker has violated BBC guidance on individual use of social media, according to UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), who have submitted a complaint to the BBC.

Gary Lineker’s Tweet on 22 December 2022 extols a Hamas terrorist, Ahmed Daraghmeh, who was killed in the course of violently attacking Jews visiting a Jewish holy place, the Tomb of Joseph, in Nablus. The visit was coordinated between Israeli and Palestinian authorities in accordance with the Oslo II Accord.

Lineker’s Tweet accused the Israeli forces of taking his life “treacherously” when they were actually defending a legitimate visit of a Jewish group to pray at the Tomb of Joseph against an armed attack by Ahmed Daraghmeh and other Hamas terrorists.

Hamas has confirmed that Ahmed Daraghmeh was one of its fighters.

Lineker has not apologised for or corrected the misleading information in his Tweet, even though it has been drawn to his attention by a number of replies and other Tweets.

UKLFI has pointed out to the BBC that Lineker violated  BBC Guidance on Individual Use of Social Media, paragraphs 2.1, 2.2 and 3(e). These require individuals working for the BBC to behave professionally, to follow the BBC’s values, not to bring the BBC into disrepute and, “if you know you’ve got something wrong, to correct it quickly and openly”.

Jonathan Turner commented: “Gary Lineker has 8.6 million followers on Twitter. He has a serious responsibility to correct the false impression he has given.”