Celtic face yet another UEFA rap as fans fly Palestine flags

[craig 5,199]

- Re the Union Jack.... Why would they bring that into the argument - Rangers are nothing to do with this. Why not ask the same question (bar indyref2) about the flying of the Tricolor over Parkhead ?? Them flying the Tricolor is no different to us flying the UJ. So why use the UJ as a reference ? Because it dilutes the negative story that is Celtic's alone and basically attempts to throw us in the same basket as them.

 

- Re their suggestion that "This act of solidarity has earned Celtic respect and acclaim throughout the world" - I doubt they are accurate in that regard - but they do love to self-aggrandize. The reality is that their fans are a complete embarrassment to any sane-minded, mentally balanced supporter. I'm sure that during remembrance day acknowledgements that they believe that "This act of solidarity has earned Celtic respect and acclaim throughout the world" too. Idiots.

 

- dB is right, UEFA being corrupt or not, Celtic were playing in their competition and therefore must abide by their rules - the rules are set out quite categorically. Of Celtic don't wish to abide by UEFA's rules then they have 2 options open to them - either try to have the rules changed by lobbying.... or..... boycott the competition. 3rd option which would be the actual route taken is that the club AND the support know that they have a desire and need for the finances from UEFA competition and, ultimately, their fans will speak out of both sides of their mouths.

 

Celtic's fans are an embarrassment - and instead of calling a spade a spade we have useful idiots like Cosgrove trying to defend every last action they take. If Cosgrove was so keen on freedom of speech then he wont have an issue with Rangers fans singing Billy Boys then will he ? Freedom of speech after all, right ?

[StuGers 477]

Does my memory serve me wrong or did Rangers not get a crowd ban for two consecutive occurances of sectarian singing?

[JFK-1 1,693]

- Re the Union Jack.... Why would they bring that into the argument -

 

The British flag IN Britain is contentious? Am I missing something here?

 

In addition it's common knowledge that ANY money going in there goes to hamas to do as they see fit with and it's surely not hard for even an idiot to guess what they see as fit.

 

This article from just a couple of weeks ago illustrates that.

 

The Australian government said it will suspend funds to Christian mega charity World Vision's Gaza and West Bank operations after it was revealed that aid money was stolen by Hamas for "military" purposes.

 

According to a report in The Australian on Friday, the country's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said funds would be halted while the government looks into the “deeply troubling” allegations.

 

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that “aid to the Palestinian Territories is intended for vital humanitarian and development assistance to the Palestinian community.”

 

“Any diversion of the generous support of the Australian and international community for military or terrorist purposes by Hamas is to be deplored and can only harm the Palestinian people,” it said in a statement.

 

A two-month Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) investigation, announced on Thursday, showed that Hamas redirected tens of millions of dollars – 60 percent – of the organization’s budget to its “military” wing.

 

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Australia-suspends-World-Vision-aid-after-Hamas-stole-Gaza-charity-money-463318

 

That's we call funding terrorism and if the truth be told I suspect these grunts would have no issue with that. And notice their babbling also includes 'occupied' territories. I would hazard a guess they're entirely unaware that's been an outdated concept since 2005 when Israel disengaged from the Gaza strip.

 

There is something seriously abnormal about this club and it's support of terrorism both home and abroad because though we understand their Catholic heritage that's not a Catholic trait anywhere else which I will illustrate with a comment made on Preston forums just today in a thread discussing the Garner transfer and this is just one of many expressing the same sentiments.

 

How difficult is it getting an Ibrox ticket for the Celtic game as a guest fan?

 

I suppose I now have a legitimate excuse to attend one. I'm a Catholic yet I hate Celtic and what they stand for. Berwick Rangers and your lot are the 2 teams I have a soft spot for.

[StuGers 477]

One thing I can't fathom in this whole shambles:

 

They say that Israel have no place in that area, even though they settled their ages ago. So how is it acceptable for them to come to Scotland and hang on to the old Oirosh thing? Are they not self proclaimed invaders in this country? I don't particularly think that, anyone I would say is welcome here but I can't understand their logic.

[JFK-1 1,693]

One thing I can't fathom in this whole shambles:

 

They say that Israel have no place in that area, even though they settled their ages ago. So how is it acceptable for them to come to Scotland and hang on to the old Oirosh thing? Are they not self proclaimed invaders in this country? I don't particularly think that, anyone I would say is welcome here but I can't understand their logic.

 

The Jews were always there, the only difference is that after 1948 they now had sovereignty over this tiny patch of land which is less than one tenth of 1% of Arab territory and they didn't simply take it over. They were given it by UN mandate.

 

If you want to seek logic in the insanity the logic is that they simply despise Jews and can't abide them having a square inch of ground of their own because that in turn exposes their koran which they claim to be infallible as erroneus. The koran stated that the Jews were cursed for denying the prophethood of Muhammad and would NEVER have a state of their own all through time.

 

Even BEFORE Israel existed they were hating the the Jews nazi like. This is a picture of the mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini during WW2 in 1941 meeting with a man who needs no introduction to discuss their mutual Jew hate.

 

 

And regarding the sellick mentality which as I have poreviously mentioned marks them out as abnormal since their antics don't come from any Catholic view here IS a Catholic view from a Catholic source.

 

Recent work by historians and apologists has revealed that an influential, international religious leader was also an ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler. His name was not Pope Pius XII but Hajj Amin al-Husseini. This Grand Mufti of Jerusalem recruited whole divisions of fanatics to fight and kill in the name of extremism.

 

Scholars have long studied how actively engaged al-Husseini was in the implementation of the Holocaust. There is no question that he supported the aims of the Nazis in perpetrating genocide and believed perversely that all Arabs should join that cause.

 

He declared on German radio on March 1, 1944: "Arabs, rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you"

 

http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/hitlers-mufti

 

THAT'S the mentality these animals are supporting because hamas are no different. Hamas have it in their charter that ALL Jews everywhere in the world must be exterminated and these freaks send them money while hating the Jews for declining to be exterminated.

[StuGers 477]

The history of it all just emphasises the ludicrously of the actions of the last few weeks.

[Uilleam 5,932]

So, where will the £000s donated by rasellik support actually go?

 

 

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21705357-allowing-humanitarian-aid-risks-having-it-diverted-hamas-alms-enemy

 

Israel and Gaza

Alms for the enemy

 

Allowing humanitarian aid risks having it diverted to Hamas

Aug 20th 2016 | JERUSALEM

 

THE indictments this month in an Israeli court of two Palestinians employed by international aid agencies have become a valuable weapon in the Israeli government’s public-relations war against Hamas, the militant Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since 2007. In the first, a local director for World Vision, one of the world’s largest Christian aid organisations, stands accused of diverting millions of dollars to the armed wing of Hamas; the money, Israel alleges, was used to buy weapons, build fortifications and pay fighters. In the second, an engineer working for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) was charged with building facilities for Hamas.

 

Israeli intelligence officials claim that these cases are only the first in a series that will show how Hamas has co-opted international aid organisations to bankroll its military activities. Hamas denies the claims, and World Vision and UNDP maintain that their activities in Gaza have been closely audited. The evidence, collected by Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency, will now have to stand up in a civilian court. But the indictments were enough for Israel’s foreign ministry to launch a major media offensive and for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to claim in a video posted on Facebook that “Israel cares more about Palestinians than their own leaders do,” since “Hamas stole critical support for Palestinian children so that they could kill our children.”

 

Setting aside Mr Netanyahu’s hyperbole, the revelations underscore not only the continuing efforts of Hamas to build up military capability but also the difficulty faced by aid agencies in getting help to those in desperate need of it in Gaza. All humanitarian organisations working in war-zones face pressure to juggle the often conflicting demands of helping people without being seen to favour one side or another (while also meeting strict rules on good governance and corruption when they may be forced to treat with armed groups to get their aid through).

 

Yet even by these standards Gaza is an especially difficult environment for humanitarian groups. Although Israel is not physically present in the strip (it dismantled its settlements and withdrew its forces in the summer of 2005), it controls nearly all access, bar the Rafah crossing, which is intermittently opened by the Egyptian government. Yet Israel forbids international organisations from interacting with Hamas, which it (like several other governments) defines as a terrorist organisation. “Even the best-organised operations have no choice but to operate in a grey zone in Gaza,” says Michael Sfard, an Israeli human-rights lawyer who advises humanitarian organisations working in the Palestinian territories. “Israel considers every civil servant who is paid by Hamas a terror operative, so even a medical-relief organisation that supplies incubators to a hospital in Gaza can be potentially accused of aiding terror.”

 

Both Israel and Egypt justify the restrictions imposed on travel and imports to Gaza by citing Hamas’s violent activities. Although Israel has kept Gaza under tight control since the Hamas takeover in 2007, the latest prosecutions highlight the difficulty of continuing to do so without prompting a humanitarian disaster. And even Israel’s own stance towards Hamas has informally softened with time. Israel co-ordinates the strip’s civilian affairs through officials appointed and paid by the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank. Meanwhile Hamas has its own parallel civil service, with which Israel will not officially deal. Yet only last month Israel allowed the Qatari government to transfer $31m to make up for a shortfall in Gaza’s finances and pay Hamas officials.

 

Israeli security officials say that allowing day-workers to enter Israel and building a seaport for Gaza would not only improve Palestinian welfare, but also reduce the chances of yet another outbreak of violence. Mr Netanyahu has said in recent closed briefings that he would consider such ideas. Yet given his intense public campaign against Hamas, such pragmatism would be a hard sell at home.

[ian1964 10,723]

Hoops support score an own goal with support for Palestine

 

Posted on August 22, 2016 by rob devine

 

Been yet again a very interesting few days in the life of Scottish football which has not been dominated by discussion by events on the field but off it.

 

Yes the wacky world of the game north of the border continues to make headlines over hot potato political issues (even that description will no doubt be perceived with suspicion and hidden agendas by some who find offence in everything) as opposed to the standard of the actual game.

 

Over the years our national sport has been used as a vehicle for all manner of political and religious ideologies so it was no surprise to a seasoned observer such as myself to see the furore over what the sub -editors of many a newspaper will be no doubt christening as ‘Flaggate’.

 

The reaction to the sight of hundreds of Celtic supporters proudly waving the flag of Palestine at last weeks Champions League play off tie against the Israeli champions Hapoel Beer Sheva has been predictable with those who hold the Parkhead club close to their heart largely embracing such an act whilst those who already hold nothing but contempt for them united in their disgust at the sheer audacity of the act.

 

Personally I see faults in the actions of those Celtic supporters who chose to use a sporting occasion to highlight their solidarity with the Palestinian people.

 

As we have just seen with the Rio Olympics sport is a fantastic thing as it helps bring people of all nationalities, colours and creeds together – it should be a place where political differences should be placed aside.

 

Of course this view is probably naive, unfortunately we do not live in a world where the behemoths of politics and sport do not mix but yet perhaps those of us who strive for such things should be louder in our protestations toward those who wish to hijack events like football matches to spout their own views on the injustices of the world?

 

The decision of those Celtic fans to show their support for the downtrodden folk of Palestine was flawed in the extreme, in doing so they will most likely have hit the club financially with yet another fine from UEFA on the cards and perhaps the even worrying sanction of partial closure of part of the stadium for a future European match which would be as welcome as the club unveiling the recruitment of Nacho Novo and El Hadj Djiouff.

 

It is misguided and foolish for many of these people to hold the view that Celtic FC are the bastions of all that is right and fair, the myth that the Scottish champions stand up for the oppressed and poor should be eradicated from the minds of many of these deluded souls.

 

This is a football club after all who shamefully do not see the humanity in offering many of their employees the minimum wage, a club who have an alcoholic company emblazoned on their home top highlighting a disgraceful lack of understanding of the realities of alcoholism which has blighted countless lives on their very doorstep in the deprived east end of Glasgow, a club whose previous chairman was a former UK Minister of Defence and one of the loudest voices of those urging in the illegal bombing of Iraq and a club who continue to charge ridiculous exorbitant ticket prices to see very average football.

 

For over 100 years a nonsense has been allowed to gain credibility surrounding the very foundations of the Celtic which despite what many of their biggest cheerleaders will not address is that whilst Brother Walfrid was keen to help the poor Irish roman catholics who emigrated to Scotland he was also keen on ensuring that they should not mix with the native Scottish protestants which along with the persistence of faith schools has only allowed the evils of bigotry and sectarianism to flourish.

 

Many Celtic supporters wish to ignore this in their keenness to highlight their self titled maxim as ‘the greatest fans in the world’ when the fact is that their club is a business like most others where the pursuit of higher dividends for their shareholders is deemed as desirable as trophies in the trophy room.

 

Unfortunately in the west of Scotland we live in a society where even the most balanced constructive criticism of either half of the Old Firm is viewed with suspicion and conspiratorial prejudice so I myself would be foolish to expect many a Celtic supporter to label me nothing more than the proverbial Rangers fan with a typewriter whose opinion must be taken with a tinge of salt.

 

Well despite this I firmly hold onto the belief that football in Scotland has been for too long tarnished by associations with political and religious groups and the introduction of the thorny topic of the affairs of the Middle East are the last thing that’s required here.

 

Of course I wholeheartedly congratulate those Celtic fans that have raised in excess of £34,000 for worthwhile Palestinian charities such as the Medical Aid Palestine (MAP) and to the Lajee Centre, a Palestinian creative cultural children’s centre in Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem.

 

 

 

Since 1948 the people of Palestine have been treated appallingly by the state of Israel who consistently have ignored the UN breaking sanction after sanction.

 

Yet perhaps it would be wise for those same Celtic supporters to take a good long hard look in the mirror and wisen up to the fact that it should not have taken the foolishness of them to wave flags defiantly in the faces of a fellow football fans (fans who had traveled thousands of miles to support their team and must have been intimidated and baffled by what appeared to have not been a Champions League match but a political rally performed by many who no doubt could not even point Palestine on the map) to express their solidarity with those people.

 

The large donations to those aforementioned charities could have occurred without the unwanted necessity of turning Celtic Park, already correctly renowned worldwide with its spine tingling atmosphere on such nights, into a stage where politics and football were mixed.

 

A real shame indeed but then again no surprise in the weird and very often brain dead world of Scottish football.

 

https://robbiedevinewordpressnet.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/hoops-support-score-an-own-goal-with-support-for-palestine/

[colinstein 294]

Israel is a regional super power and a nuclear one at that. Since 1948 they have invaded and annexed parts of surrounding countries. The west bank, golan heights in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.

Spare me the guff that paints anyone who speaks against this as anti semitic...it's pathetic !

the former PM of Israel Menachin Began was part of a terrorist group that bombed British soldiers and their families in the King David Hotel, and strung up 2 british army sergeants in an orchard ( like the IRA execution of 2 soldiers who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time).

[Uilleam 5,932]

Israel is a regional super power and a nuclear one at that. Since 1948 they have invaded and annexed parts of surrounding countries. The west bank, golan heights in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.

Spare me the guff that paints anyone who speaks against this as anti semitic...it's pathetic !

the former PM of Israel Menachin Began was part of a terrorist group that bombed British soldiers and their families in the King David Hotel, and strung up 2 british army sergeants in an orchard ( like the IRA execution of 2 soldiers who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time).

 

Maybe you should have a closer look at the history of Israel, post 1947, and establish just how many wars of aggression that state actually started.

 

Of course Israeli governments may be criticised, but if you had neighbours like they have.......