Robbie Keane during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Leeds United at the London Stadium, London, England on 21 May 2023. Photo: IMAGO/Pro Sports Images via Reuters Connect

Claudine Keane, wife of former Irish soccer player and previous Maccabi Tel Aviv manager Robbie Keane, opened up on Wednesday in a series of posts on X about feeling unsafe living in Ireland with her family and the harassment her husband has received for formerly leading an Israeli soccer team.

Robbie, Ireland’s record goalscorer, resigned as manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv in June after leading the club for only a year. He helped the team win the Israeli club title as well as the qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League. “The club agreed to Robbie Keane’s request not to activate the extension of his contract,” Maccabi Tel Aviv said at the time.

Robbie was criticized by anti-Israel activists in Ireland for staying on with the Israeli team following the start of Israel’s war with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip – a war that was launched in response to the Hamas-led deadly terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Robbie recently faced intense backlash again for his ties to Israel when he was invited earlier this week to present caps to soccer players at an international training camp for Ireland’s national team. Critics in Ireland claimed Robbie is “a disgrace to the country and happy to support an apartheid state,” accused him of taking “blood money to work for genociders” in Israel and described him as a “Zionist rat.”

The Keane family has been living in Dublin since Robbie left Maccabi Tel Aviv. In a number of lengthy posts on X, Claudine said that since her family has moved to Ireland, “I feel extremely uncomfortable and sometimes intimidated by some messages again from a small group that are hurtful, threatening and dangerous.”

“They not only put genuinely our safety and wellbeing as a family at risk they are using a sportsperson as a political pawn and in doing so inciting hated by making absolutely outrageous accusations,” she added. “I always felt safe in Ireland until now. I always wanted to move home being my kids up here and enjoy the Ireland that both me and my husband love. They are taking every bit of enjoyment and safety away from me and my family.”

The abuse targeting Robbie comes after Maccabi Tel Aviv fans faced violent antisemitic attacks in Amsterdam last week, in what appeared to be a coordinated attack following a match between the Israeli team and their Dutch rivals Ajax. Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv who were visiting Amsterdam to watch the game were run over by cars, beaten, chased with knives and sticks and tormented by anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups of men, some of whom forced their victims to say “Free Palestine” in order to be spared from abuse.

Also last week, the Irish Parliament passed a non-binding motion that accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Robbie faced intense condemnation from pro-Palestinian activists for not resigning as manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv when the war broke out. However, Claudine insisted on X: “We love our country, we are not politician’s we have never done any wrong.” She also revealed that Robbie resigned as manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv for the safety of his family.

She said her husband “resigned from a job he loved and did well to protect us his family in Ireland & because none of us signed up to this situation that happened months into his role, it was a nightmare!” She also called for the hatred to end against her husband said, “Please stop this absolute witch hunt … We all want peace!!”

“It seems to be trendy in media in Ireland to absolutely try to assassinate my husbands character very maliciously,” she added, saying that the “absolute bias, malice and defamation over the years it’s nothing short of a disgrace.”