An award-winning Jewish filmmaker has urged Arsenal Football Club to reverse its decision to dismiss a long-serving kitman over comments he posted on social media criticising Israel’s conduct of its war on Gaza.
In a letter, Jon Blair, an Oscar, Emmy and BAFTA-winning director, voiced support for Mark Bonnick, who had been employed by the English Premier League club for 24 years at the time he was sacked in 2024.
Middle East Eye has previously reported on Bonnick’s case.
Bonnick, who had worked alongside players including Bukayo Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly in his role as a youth academy kitman, is currently taking Arsenal to an employment tribunal with the case expected to be heard in the coming months.
Blair is best known for directing an Academy Award-winning documentary Anne Frank Remembered, which tells the story of Anne Frank, as well as the earlier BAFTA-winning film Schindler, about Oskar Schindler, which was produced years before Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List.
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In his letter to Arsenal, Blair stressed that his Jewish identity and decades-long support for the London club informed his support for Bonnick.
“The original dismissal passed me by, and I only became aware of it very recently through social media, at which point I was profoundly disturbed by Arsenal’s actions. My own feelings about events in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank have become increasingly concerned and despondent about what are both crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide,” Blair told MEE.
‘It is profoundly disturbing to find a state based on Jewish ideals guilty of the very acts that were perpetrated against Jews by Nazi Germany’
– Jon Blair, award-winning filmmaker
“All of these were originally defined in response to the Holocaust, and it is profoundly disturbing to find a state based on Jewish ideals guilty of the very acts that were perpetrated against Jews by Nazi Germany.
“This is not to deny that Hamas too has committed war crimes, but being a victim of such crimes can never, in turn, justify a response involving ethnic cleansing and genocide, which is a complete corruption of Jewish identity and beliefs.
“This is all that Mr Bonnick was pointing out, and it is quite wrong that he lost his job for these sincerely held beliefs.
“I wrote to the Arsenal board more in hope than expectation that they would take notice, but unless people like me speak out, public space becomes dominated by those who do not reflect a belief system I can support in any way.
“What is clear to me is that Israeli actions, policies and long-term military objectives – designed by [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu to keep himself in power – are based on the ‘othering’ of Palestinians.
“To point this out, along with condemning Israel for its acts of ethnic cleansing and war crimes, risks incurring the wrath of the pro-Israel lobby which is certainly what must have happened to Mr Bonnick.
“But for Arsenal to have caved in to this pressure rather than respect his right to free speech, even on a controversial issue, left me feeling I simply had to speak out.
“As someone of Jewish heritage who has won major professional awards for my films about the Holocaust as well as being a refugee from apartheid-era South Africa I hope my letter to Arsenal can have some moral and political force.”
Bonnick was dismissed after the club concluded that his social media posts could be perceived as “inflammatory or offensive” – a claim rejected by the former kitman – and risked bringing Arsenal into disrepute.
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Blair accepted that the club recognised the posts were not antisemitic but argued that Bonnick’s remarks reflected a “genuine and perfectly legal philosophical belief” critical of Zionism and Israel’s actions in Gaza – views, he noted, shared by a significant portion of global public opinion.
Blair’s letter referenced criticism of Israel’s policies by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-Apartheid campaigner, and cited legal scrutiny from institutions such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
The filmmaker also warned Arsenal that it risked losing at an employment tribunal, drawing parallels with the case of David Miller, a former professor at the University of Bristol.
In 2024, a tribunal ruled Miller had been unfairly dismissed over his anti-Zionist views, which were deemed protected under UK equality law.
Blair argued that Bonnick’s case shares key similarities and could lead to a comparable outcome if pursued legally.
Blair went further, suggesting that it was Arsenal’s actions, rather than Bonnick’s comments, which had damaged the club’s standing.
“It is your dismissal of Mr Bonnick that brings the club into far wider disrepute amongst neutral and fair-minded people,” he wrote, urging the club to reconsider before tribunal proceedings begin.
The case comes amid heightened tensions in the UK and across Europe over expressions related to Israel’s war on Gaza, with increasing scrutiny placed on employees and public figures for their political views.
Arsenal Football Club has been approached for comment.