Messi in the midst of Israeli criticism on social media

Posted Monday, August 25, 2014 by Marca.com

Hundreds of Israelis have launched an aggressive campaign on the social media with the idea of involving Leo Messi in the Palestine-Israel conflict and forcing him to condemn the death of an Israeli child who was hit on Friday by a mortar bomb.

This campaign has come under criticism from distinguished Israeli journalists such as Gideon Levy, who feel that the campaign is biased and partisan, given that Israeli society has not reacted in a similar way to the deaths of almost 600 children in Gaza, many of whom were also wearing Barcelona football shirts.

One of the messages on Facebook, copied to Messi and to Barcelona, says "Hey Leo Messi, take a look at that boy, wearing the national jersey of the best player in the world". Daniel Tregaron, aged four, died on Friday wearing an Argentina shirt.

The campaign also attacks Barcelona for the "Qatar Airways" advertisement on their shirts, as Qatar is where exiled leader of the Islam political movement Hamas, Jaled Mishal, lives. Another message, on Twitter, says "Daniel was killed by a terror organisation your team's #1 sponsors is sponsoring".

Two weeks ago, Messi expressed, on Facebook, his "great sadness" at the deaths of children in the conflict, with a photo showing an injured Palestinian child.

He said that speaking as a father and as goodwill ambassador of UNICEF, "I feel deeply saddened by these pictures we are seeing of the conflict" between Israel and Palestine.