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Note: Due to sensitivities on issues over Israel and the Middle East, any discussions on relevant topics are best left for a more appropriate forum. The below is wrt only The Green Brigade support for Palestinian humanitarian issues, and not to be taken as anything more on anyone connected to this site.
Celtic & the Protest for Palestine (2016)
Palestinians have been a much demoralised, humiliated and insulted ethnic group in their homelands. Under this cloud, many have seen but turned a blind eye, and the media have too often been complicit.
At Celtic, the club has a support who can be best described as left leaning, not necessarily just in a political sense but socially and morally. With the rise of the Green Brigade group, they have been unafraid to show their political colours and have been at first hand the lead in organising food bank collections, help for refugees and voicing of issues of supporter concern. Much to admire
So put the two above together, and you have and you have the beginning of a bigger campaign.
Celtic were drawn again against Israeli opposition, Hapoel Beer Shiva, in the European Cup qualifiers in Aug 2016, and from the word go, the debates raged about protests over the Palestinian situation. Repeatedly warned by both within and outwith the support over staging any protests were mostly stubbornly stonewalled by the Green Brigade.
Concerns internally were of possible stand closures, bans, suspensions and fines, but a bigger problem was the harm it could do to the Celtic support. The concerns were in fairness legitimate. Some previous actions had back-fired on the support (most infamously a banner against poppy displays on Celtic shirts).
Regardless, at the match, both before and during the home game, the fans showed solidarity with the Palestinians with mass flag displays in a non violent and unaggressive manner in the GB corner of the ground.
The protests went viral both on social and mainstream media, across the globe. Some other club sympathisers held banners in support.
Doomsayers were raging both within the support and outside,with some justification. It did allow those outwith the club with agendas to take the chance to club the support down. One supposed fan of the Hapoel side went on Radio 5 Live to voice his discontent in no uncertain terms, and was ignorant and deluded in his rants (and came out with some absolute nonsense trying to make out Glasgow’s split was far worse than the situation in Israel).
In anticipation a hefty fine from the football authorities, the Green Brigade arranged a charity appointment appeal tagged #matchthefine. An incredible appeal on the which the organisers raised far above their projected total, raising around £180k of money and decent charities helping those in need in Palestine.
Disturbingly, there were those trying to undermine their efforts with one opponent from an Israeli agency warning donators that the money could end up with terrorists. Agenda led, and they all sensibly ignored him but it was another peak through the curtains at what the Palestinians have to endure.
In Palestine itself, the response was incredible. Touched by support from Celtic fans, a number of gestures of thanks were made in the form of banners and online messages. It was humbling. It even won over cynics within Celtic.
The fine and charity appeal
It couldn’t be escaped that Uefa would act. Uefa are ham-fisted in their actions in these situations, the greatest concerns were of the extent of the punishments. Celtic fans (mainly pointing to Green Brigade actions) have had a number of fines in recent seasons. The worry is when will we reach the point where the new straw will break the camel’s back.
The problem for Uefa was that in the face of the international support for Celtic fans after this protest, it had put them in a dilemma. Many likely sympathised with the Celtic fans efforts.
The actual fine was a symbolic £10k, a fraction of the charity amount raised. Lot of high fives were made in response.
If that wasn’t enough, Roger Waters of cult band Pink Floyd was so impressed with the Celtic support that he praised the support and used the imagery on the big screens in his concerts!
Say what you want about the Green Brigade in general, but despite the concerns, this one worked out very well and helped out many people genuinely in need.
From August 2016
From match v Hapoel Beer Sheva in Aug 2016
From Aug 2016, thx to Celtic & GB (from Palestine)
Genoa Ultras
(Cartoon by Political heavyweight cartoonist @LatuffCartoons is onside)
Football and flags:
Why Celtic fans back the Palestinian cause
#Occupation
Marc Patrick Conaghan
Monday 22 August 2016 16:12 UTC
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Topics:
Occupation
Tags:
Celtic FC; Palestine; Champions League
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Scottish club’s followers have always shown solidarity towards the dispossessed and oppressed
By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling
Michael they are taking you away
For you stole Trevelyan’s corn
So the young might see the morn.
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay…
By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young man calling
Nothing matters Mary when you’re free,
Against the Famine and the Crown
I rebelled, they ran me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity.
This verse is from a song that Celtic football fans sing called The Fields of Athenry. Written during the 1970s, it tells the story of a family dispossessed of their land and left starving due to the Great Irish Famine of the mid 19th-century.
Due to hunger, the husband is caught stealing food from the person who took his land. He is imprisoned and transported to Australia: his wife is left to fend for herself and their child.
Celtic supporters are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause because their ancestral story is, for the most part, similar. To understand why Celtic fans are vocal about the struggle of the Palestinians, you need to understand where many Celtic fans come from.
Celtic fans backed anti-apartheid movement
The dispossession and hunger during the famine – which left more than one million dead – and the devastation on the land and psyche of the survivors forced a diaspora of Irish people all over the globe. Many settled in Glasgow, Scotland. The massive influx into the city of poor Irish people, fleeing due to dispossession of land, poverty or general necessity, was a huge burden on the residents.
But Victorian Glasgow was not tolerant of these interlopers, who they deemed to be racially, culturally and, by their Catholic faith, religiously inferior.
Celtic Football Club was formed in 1887 by Brother Walfrid, a Catholic cleric, in order to generate revenue to feed the Irish immigrants resident in Glasgow and relieve their poverty. Eventually it became a beacon of hope and source of pride to dispossessed people.
The flying of the Palestinian flag by Celtic fans in the European tie against Hapoel Beersheva last week has made headlines in newspapers and across social media. However, it is not a new phenomenon: Celtic fans fly Palestinian flags every week during games. Supporters have been showing solidarity with the people of Palestine for as long as I can remember: first it was badges, then it was kaffiyehs and now it’s flags.
‘By waving the Palestinian flag, Celtic fans were not choosing a side between Hamas and Fatah, or endorsing any of their political viewpoint’
Celtic fans have also shown solidarity with the oppressed people of South Africa under apartheid, the Basque people seeking independence from Spain and, of course, due to the club’s cultural heritage, the oppression and persecution of nationalists in the north of Ireland. The majority of these areas of conflict have been resolved amicably: the plight of the Palestinians has become increasingly worse.
By waving the Palestinian flag, Celtic fans were not choosing a side between Hamas and Fatah, or endorsing any of their political viewpoints. It was done to show solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Similarly, when the Green Brigade – a group of Celtic supporters – recently unveiled a banner stating “Refugees welcome, a club founded by immigrants,” they were not advocating a side in the Syrian conflict, but showing their backing for the plight of refugees.
Fans will not back down and roll over
Solidarity towards the dispossessed and oppressed is easy for the Celtic fan to understand and relate to and makes us sympathetic towards others suffering the same plight.
What Celtic fans don’t seem to understand is how others don’t get it. UEFA, and much of the media, miss the fact that Celtic fans are not anti-Israel and certainly not anti-Semitic. There is no group of supporters I know of who are less sympathetic to fascists and the extreme far-right.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for Celtic supporters to be targeted by far-right thugs on European trips for our anti-fascist/anti-Nazi views. History has shown that Celtic fans and Palestinians have few friends in the media.
Celtic supporters show their support for the Palestinian cause by waving flags (AFP)
When Celtic were paired with Israeli team Hapoel Beersheva in the Champions League tie, everyone knew there would be Palestinian flags on show. Everyone knew that UEFA would sidestep the real reason the flags were there and that the club would be fined.
If Celtic beat Hapoel Beersheva on Tuesday evening and progress into the Champions League group stages, there will still be Palestinian flags on show among the Celtic fans, regardless of who our opposition is. If UEFA decide to be more punitive, as some have advocated, and close down one of Celtic’s stands in a future game, then I guarantee that there will be even more Palestinian flags at the next match.
At this point Celtic Football Club would be forced to challenge UEFA rather than just pay the punitive fine because Celtic know that although their fans love their team and the ethos that permeates through the club, we will stubbornly, like most Scots, not back down and roll over when we are in the right.
Celtic supporters have pledged to match any fine that UEFA may impose on the club for flying the Palestinian flag, with all donations raised going to Medical Aid Palestine (MAP) and to the Lajee Centre, a Palestinian creative cultural children’s centre in Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem.
Within 24 hours Celtic fans had passed their initial target of £40,000 ($52,700): at time of writing the sum stood at $125,000.
Waving of the flag? It’s not a negative act
The argument that UEFA has made – that there is no place for political expression or politics in football – would be hilarious if it wasn’t so ridiculous. Right now Celtic are in Beersheva, which is 20 miles from Gaza, which the Israeli military has bombed this week. How can you divorce football from the reality of people?
Football and political expression have been interwoven since people started kicking things that roll at each other. Throughout history, often the only place where people could congregate and voice a political opinion without fear of arrest and persecution was at a public stadium.
The flying of the Palestinian flag by Celtic fans is not a negative. It is not there to be waved in the face of the opposition as an attempt to upset and annoy others. It is done to remind the people of Palestine, wherever in the world they may be, that they are not alone and that they are not forgotten.
Marc Patrick Conaghan is a self-employed political consultant who works with political parties and political candidates at various levels in the US and the UK. Most importantly, he is a season ticket holder at Celtic Park @marcconaghan
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.
Celtic Fans Raise Over £130,000 For Palestinian Charities In Response To ‘Petty’ UEFA Action
Celtic Fans Raise Over £130,000 For Palestinian Charities In Response To ‘Petty’ UEFA Action
Celtic play Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the second leg of their Champions League play-off tie this evening. They lead 5-2 from the first leg at Celtic Park.
The club face disciplinary action following the first leg where fans displayed Palestinian flags – what UEFA labelled ‘illicit banners’ – during the game. The fine was expected to be £15,000.
In response to what they called a ‘petty and politically partisan act’, a group of Celtic fans called the Green Brigade aimed to raise an amount matching the UEFA fine which would be donated to Medical Aid Palestine and the Lajee Centre, a cultural centre in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The initial aim of £15,000 has been surpassed and donations are now at over £130,000. Given how expectations have been met and eclipsed so far, that number looks likely to increase even further.
In a statement on Go Fund Me, it was explained that part of the funds will go towards establishing and maintaining a football club – called Aida Celtic – in the camp.
Funds raised will provide a much needed boost to this fantastic project and will allow the Lajee Centre to extend its arts, dance and football programmes. As a token of their appreciation, the Centre have committed to setting up and sustaining the camp’s first ever football club and to name it Aida Celtic.
Aida Celtic will enter the Bethlehem Youth League at the start of 2017 and will host a tournament for teams from all of the West Bank’s refugee camps in Spring next year. Your generosity will also allow the Centre to buy a minibus for use in transporting Aida Celtic to matches and its other groups around Palestine.
Salah Ajarma, the Lajee Centre’s Coordinator told us the importance Aida Celtic will have for residents of the camp: “it will mean so much to our young people to be part of an official team, to have boots and strips and to represent the camp wearing the colours of our friends. Aida Celtic will be a source of pride for all in Aida”.
Put out more flags
(from The Economist Magazine Aug 2016)http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21705869-why-palestinian-banners-are-flown-scottish-stadium-put-out-more-flags
Why Palestinian banners are flown in a Scottish stadium Aug 27th 2016 | GLASGOW |
FANS of Hapoel Be’er Sheva, an Israeli football team that visited Scotland on August 17th to play Glasgow Celtic in a European Champions League qualifier, were greeted at the Parkhead stadium by a sea of Palestinian flags. Europe’s football authority, UEFA, took a dim view. It bans “messages that are of a political, ideological, religious, offensive or provocative nature” and has ruled the Palestinian flag “illicit” before.
The return leg, in Israel on August 23rd, passed without incident. Celtic may still face a sanction. It would not be the first time: two years ago the club was fined €20,000 ($27,000) after its fans flew the Palestinian standard at a match against KR Reykjavik.
Why do Glaswegian football fans take such an interest in Middle Eastern politics? Their club, founded in 1887 by poor Irish Catholic immigrants, rapidly became associated with political causes, from campaigns against economic discrimination suffered by Catholics in Scotland to the fight for Irish home rule.
Most supporters are acutely aware of this history. “What Ireland went through, that’s what Palestinians are going though now,” says a woman in a Parkhead bar clutching precious tickets for a game against local (and Protestant) rivals Rangers. “They want their freedom back, that’s why Celtic fans go with Palestine.”
This link has been fostered since 2006 by fans branding themselves the Green Brigade, who now number about 500. Feeling home games lacked passion (partly a result of campaigns to stamp out Catholic-Protestant sectarianism, a noxious feature of Celtic-Rangers matches), they mimicked Italian “Ultra” fans and adopted political causes. They have sent food to migrants in Calais and organised an anti-discrimination football tournament. The Irish tricolour and Basque ikurrina have both fluttered at Parkhead.
The Green Brigade is now crowd-funding cash to pay Celtic’s expected UEFA fine and make a matching contribution to Palestinian charities. Remarkably, the kitty passed £140,000 ($185,000) in three days. And much as the club vainly pleaded for Palestinian flags to be left at home, it may have noted that the fallout has attracted worldwide attention, and no little support.
“A club like no other”, declare giant drapes cladding the stadium. Quite.
Celtic fans raise £85,000 ‘for Palestine’ after Uefa charge
BBC
23 August 2016
From the section Glasgow & West Scotland
Image copyright SNS
Image caption Palestine flags were on display at the Champions League play-off first leg
Celtic fans have raised more than £85,000 for Palestinian charities after the club was charged by Uefa over a flag display during last week’s game with Israeli side Hapoel Beer Sheva.
Palestinian flags were waved around Celtic Park during the Champions League match on Wednesday night.
Uefa later charged the club over an “illicit banner” display.
Celtic fans have now launched a “#matchthefineforpalestine” campaign to raise funds for two charities.
In a Go Fund me page, Celtic fans state: “At the Champions League match with Hapoel Beer Sheva on 17 August 2016, the Green Brigade and fans throughout Celtic Park flew the flag for Palestine.
‘Act of solidarity’
“This act of solidarity has earned Celtic respect and acclaim throughout the world. It has also attracted a disciplinary charge from Uefa, which deems the Palestinian flag to be an ‘illicit banner’.
“In response to this petty and politically partisan act by European football’s governing body we are determined to make a positive contribution to the game and today launch a campaign to #matchthefineforpalestine.
“We aim to raise £75,000 which will be split equally between Medical Aid Palestine and the Lajee Centre, a Palestinian cultural centre in Aida Refugee Camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem.”
Celtic have been punished by Uefa eight times in five seasons for fan misconduct.
The club’s case will be heard on 22 September.
2023
