A German team backs out of signing an Israeli player after protests from its fans.

The Fortuna Düsseldorf club, active in the German second division of football, on Tuesday retracted its contract with Israeli player Shon Weissman, following his statements calling for the extermination of Palestinians. The German club stated in a post on X: "We have been closely monitoring Shon Weissman, but we ultimately decided to refrain from signing him." There was much controversy among fans on social media on Monday when news emerged about Weissman's imminent signing with Düsseldorf from Granada in Spain. The newspaper "Bild" reported that the club succumbed to the outrage of its fans over Weissman's statements on social media and decided not to proceed with the deal despite the player arriving in Düsseldorf. Weissman (29 years old) was about to enter the field for his first training session when he was called aside and informed that the idea of signing him was officially canceled. The striker had called in posts on social media for "wiping Gaza off the map" and "dropping 200 tons of bombs on it." He also liked posts featuring images of Gazans and questioned: "Why don't they shoot them in the head?" Weissman, who deleted the posts shortly after publishing them, later stated that he made a mistake and was acting in a moment of emotional impulse. Düsseldorf fans launched an online petition on Monday stating that Weissman's "disrespectful and discriminatory comments... starkly contradict the principles that Fortuna defends and seeks to promote."