Pep Guardiola's daughter Maria shares post on Gaza 'genocide'

The daughter of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on Saturday shared a viral social media post warning that world is going to “watch a genocide on telly” regarding Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza.

Maria Guardiola, who works as a model and content creator, was one of millions to share the powerful statement by her fellow content creator known as “Eva”, who usually posts about fashion under her Instagram profile “whatevawears”.

The statement, which was shared widely across both Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, asks how many people must die before “someone urges restraint”?

It comes as Israel has carried out indiscriminate air strikes killing at least 2,200 people in Gaza, the vast majority of whom are civilians. The ferocious strikes were prompted by an attack by Palestinian group Hamas one week ago that killed 1,300 Israelis.

The Israeli government has given around 1.1 million Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip just 24 hours to flee to the south of the  territory before an expected ground invasion that will likely see even more civilian casualties in the completely besieged enclave.

Maria Guardiola:

“So is this really what we're going to do now? Just sit back and watch a genocide happen on the telly? Then decades from now, when it's in the history books, all look round at each other and ask, 'how did that happen?'” pic.twitter.com/MZ41x42LOH

— City Chief (@City_Chief) October 14, 2023

“So is this really what we’re going to do now?” Eva’s post reads. “Just sit back and watch a genocide happen on the telly? Then decades from now, when it’s in the history books, all look round at each other and ask, ‘how did that happen?’”

“What does the death count need to be before someone finally speaks against this madness and urges restraint, not more arms? 10,000? 100,000? A million? More? When have enough Palestinians died?” the influencer continues.

“This is quite simple,” she goes on. “We are watching an occupied, oppressed people face annihilation by a nuclear state with the full backing of the western world. This is not and has never been an ‘equal fight’.”

The fact that Maria Guardiola re-posted the statement was highlighted by pro-Palestine activists, with one, incorrectly attributing the authorship of the statement to Guardiola, writing, “This statement by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s daughter, Maria Guardiola has put a lot of politicians, celebrities, journalists and others with a platform to shame.”

Her father is widely considered to be one of the greatest football managers in history, most recently winning the English Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in one season with the UAE-owned Manchester City. 

The former Barcelona manager has himself in the recent past taken political stands, with him being fined £200,000 by UEFA in 2018 for wearing a pro-Catalan independence ribbon in the wake of Spain's crackdown against a democratic independence referendum in Catalonia.