ALBAWABA - Norwegian footballer and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland recently faced backlash after a resurfaced video captured him personally contacting a former Israeli hostage from the events on October 7, 2023.
The resurfaced video was an Insatgram story posted by the former Israeli captive himself, Omer Shem Tov. It went viral on X (formerly Twitter), grabbing the attention of pro-Palestine activists who voiced their "disappointment" with Haaland's actions.
Erling Haaland faces backlash after calling former Israeli hostage
An X user wrote, "very disappointing & im truly hurt that this has happened and he has done this but it looks like haalands friend (?) called up this israeli and said “hey haaland can you say hi to friend hes a humongous fan” no defending the greater context of this situation though, zios dni."
However, a fan took to the footballer's defense and wrote, "How crazy that an Israeli is spreading this smear campaign and it has worked so well that Haaland is getting unimaginable abuse from a 27 second clip where he just says hi. The call is clearly a set up from the other guy to this dude for Haaland to say hi to a fan."
The clip first gained traction on X after the pro-Israel account "Kosher" reposted it. They wrote, "Beautiful from Haaland. Respect for him has gone way up in my books."
