Celtic fans urged to launch Israel protest

[JFK-1 1,693]

Celtic officials will have feared Hapoel Be'er Sheva Champions League tie for off-field reasons

 

The Champions League draw would have been an emotional rollercoaster for Celtic last week.

 

The nerves would have been jangling with the likes of Dinamo Zagreb and fancied Ludogarets Radgrad kicking about. So when Hapoel Be’er Shiva came out of the hat the first feeling would have been relief. It could have been worse.

 

Then there would have been excitement. Brendan Rodgers is starting to assemble what appears to be good side that has every chance of getting to the groups after two years with their noses pressed up against the glass watching the cool kids downing shots and dancing with the wee darlings.

 

But there will be some people behind the scenes at Parkhead who will have taken one look at the draw and felt nothing but a sense of dread.

 

It is nothing to do with Hapoel being a decent team – which they undoubtedly are – but other, outside factors that will be causing sleepless nights.

 

Celtic officials know – and fear – this clash has the potential to land the club in all kinds of hot water. Let’s not dance around it.

 

Celtic facing a team from Israel has trouble written all over it. Not in the sense there will be boxing in the streets. There won’t be any kind of that nonsense.

 

But there is a real danger some Hoops fans could land their club in serious soapy if they decide to get political on Wednesday night.

 

A sizeable chunk of the Celtic support have got strong pro-Palestinian views. But Wednesday is not the time nor the place. All they will do is land their club in trouble with UEFA . Major bother.

 

The footballing governing body don’t just take a dim view on political statements at games, they try to snuff it out altogether.

 

Now, you could argue they are the ones in the wrong.

 

But, as it stands, they are the ones who make the rules and they are the ones who will absolutely clobber Celtic if punters decide even to pull out just one Palestinian flag. UEFA are already watching Celtic like hawks.

 

The Parkhead club have been done eight times in five years for naughtiness from supporters, whether it was flairs, smoke bombs or banners.

 

The fines have gone up and up and the next occasion they upset the beaks it won’t be a 10-grand cheque making its way to Nyon.

 

UEFA will be shutting stands. That’s what they do. If clubs don’t get the message then they start closing down sections of grounds. If they are really p***** off then the entire stadium could be dubbed up. Just imagine if Celtic do get through and draw Real Madrid but the match is played in front of a Parkhead ghost town while 60,000 punters are locked out.

 

If there are big pro-Palestinian displays on Wednesday, what kind of environment will be awaiting those Celtic fans who will be heading to Israel for the second leg?

 

There will be some who will see Wednesday night as a free speech issue. They won’t be silenced and they won’t bow down to UEFA or the Celtic board.They will only damage their club.

 

If they are so keen to protest then they should leave their bank details at the gate so Peter Lawwell can send them the bill when the inevitable brown letter from UEFA comes through the Parkhead letter box.

 

But Celtic supporters need to park the politics and concentrate on creating the kind of atmosphere that will have Be’er Sheva shaking in the tunnel – and sending their side to the Champions League.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-officials-feared-hapoel-beer-8623246

 

Personally I think they are indeed stupid enough to fuck this up big time. I hope they do and it then raises questions from home and abroad about why a Scottish club is so fucked up about a middle eastern issue riddled with terrorism. An article from the Jerusalem Post which is an Israeli newspaper has this to say about it.

 

Fans of Scotland's Celtic soccer team are planning to stage a protest against Israel when their team faces off with Hapoel Beersheba next week in the Champions League.

 

The Israeli champions will play against the Scottish powerhouse at Celtic Park next Wednesday, August 17, with Beersheba hosting the return leg the following Tuesday.

 

Celtic fans are waiting to greet the Israeli team and its fans with Palestinian flags. A Facebook page set up in honor of the occasion has already attracted 837 “interested” Facebook users. The page, entitled “Fly the flag for Palestine, for Celtic, for Justice,” was set up by a group that goes by the name Celtic Fans for Palestine.

 

The group says an Israeli soccer team should not be allowed to participate in the soccer competition “due to the system of apartheid laws and practices including religious- and ethnic-based colonization, military occupation and segregation of what remains of Palestinian land and over 90 laws which discriminate against indigenous Palestinians who make up 20 percent of the population of current-day Israel.”

 

Leaders of the initiative plan to distribute free Palestinian flags at the entrance to Celtic Way.

 

“When someone is representing Israeli state institutions it is sadly never merely a game; football, UEFA and Celtic FC are being used to whitewash Israel’s true nature and give this rogue state an air of normality and acceptance it should not and cannot enjoy until it’s impunity ends and it is answerable to international law and faces sanctions for the countless UN resolutions it had breached,” the Facebook page states.

 

Hapoel Beersheba’s spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

 

The Celtic group affiliates itself with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, which it hails as “inspiring and unstoppable.”

 

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) fined Celtic two years ago when fans waved Palestinian flags at a game against Iceland’s KR Reykjavik. UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Committee took action based on Article 16 (2) (e), which states that political, ideological and religious messages are unsuitable for sports events.

 

http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Celtic-fans-to-greet-Israeli-team-with-Palestine-flags-463795

 

This shit is an embarrassment to the nation but for selfish reasons I hope they do this and make a complete arse of themselves. Though waving Palestinian flags while playing an Icelandic team is hard to fathom and hard to top.

[Scott7 6,167]

.... well, "cleaners" and "clean the area" didn't make for a good sentence, so I used a synonym. A place full of unwashed is bound to need some cleaning every now and then?

 

Disinfect, perhaps?

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I get the impression Celtic have always had a bit of antisemitism about them...

 

I don't think there's any great Celtic v Rangers divide in the Glasgow Jewish Community, although you might expect with the Jewish Community mainly in the south side of the city, they would tend towards Rangers rather than Celtic. In fact going back to the 50's and 60's most were Third Lanark supporters (and some Queens Park) as they were the nearest team to the Gorbals where the Jewish Community were first based.

 

That said I am fairly sure that Celtic had and may still have sizeable support in the Jewish Community. In Sep 1962 the Glasgow Jewish businessman Max Benjamin, a well known Celtic fan, arranged the Celtic v Real Madrid friendly for the aptly named "Blue and White Trophy" (I hesitate to post a link to a Celtic web site) . The "Blue and White" charity was a fund that supported the Jewish National Fund a Jewish charity.

 

Quite apart from the embarrassment to Glasgow and Scotland and the terrible comments about Nir Biton, I am sure that any Jewish fans of Celtic will be appalled at their Club being used in this way. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see a counter demonstration and some Israeli flags in the stands.

 

Of course we have also been victims of this in the past http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6658003.stm

Edited August 15, 2016 by BrahimHemdani
Max Benjamin organised the Cedltic v Real Madrid game in 1962 not Alex Frutin

[JFK-1 1,693]

Despite this being the age of the internet when almost anything at all is easy to research I really am more than confident the vast majority of the grunts inhabiting parkhead willing to wave these flags know next to nothing about it.

 

You could probably hand the bulk of them any flag at all and tell them it was a palestinian flag. These are the type of grunts you could ask what was the duration of the 6 day war and they would want to phone a friend.

Edited August 15, 2016 by JFK-1

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Despite this being the age of the internet when almost anything at all is easy to research I really am more than confident the vast majority of the grunts inhabiting parkhead willing to wave these flags know next to nothing about it.

 

You could probably hand the bulk of them any flag at all and tell them it was a palestinian flag. These are the type of grunts you could ask what was the duration of the 6 day war and they would want to phone a friend.

 

I think there's a fair measure of truth in what you say but it applies both ways. In 2014 Rangers some fans carried Israeli flags to Derby for the friendly and I posted at the time that "The lad who I pictured with the Israeli flags on the train to Derby said he was Jewish but when I asked him and his mates about it they said that it was (a) because THEY have been getting away with IT for years (which is no reason at all in my book) and (b) because they supported Israel's right to defend itself (which has nothing whatsoever to do with football in my book)."

 

There's no place for politics in football and UEFA will rightly come down heavily on any such displays.