Celtic fans STUC for a protest?

There are few things as irksome as being told what to do – especially when it is potentially damaging – by people who have no interest in your welfare.

Yet in an unprecedented intervention in the affairs of Celtic, the Scottish Trades Union Congress has taken it upon itself to urge Celtic supporters to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinians at a European match, a probable breach of UEFA rules. And they'll supply the flags.

Now you might ask yourself some questions:

• Why are Celtic fans being honoured with this task when, for example, there was no such call for the hordes of R-word fans to do so against Maccabi Haifa in 2006?

• What exactly have Hapoel Tel-Aviv done to deserve to be taunted by Celtic fans only two months after the surely uncomfortable experience of having to play the German Nazis' favourite club, SV Hamburg, in Germany?

• Given that Hapoel are arguably the most socially progressive football club in Israel, doesn't directing proxy protests at them, purely because of their nation of origin, simply amount to racism?

• Where has the STUC's interest in football been when Irish Celtic fans have been subjected to the most abject racism, which has on several occasions precipitated the sectarian murders of Celtic fans?

Actually, there is a good answer to the latter point. Seven days before the Scottish unions' umbrella organisation announced that it was using its funds – contributed through union membership fees – to buy flags, they produced a report on sectarianism, an issue often thought to have been largely disregarded by the Scottish trades union movement.

The study makes interesting reading. It highlights overwhelming instances of Catholics (and a smaller number of Protestants) being disadvantaged in the workplace; it points to the damaging effects of sectarianism in football, noting certain songs by our lesser rivals; and it concedes that at national and workplace levels, Scottish unions have done little or nothing about it.

For the record, I am as staunchly anti-Zionist as are the most orthodox Jews. I sympathise with the Palestinian cause and the international cowards' conspiracy that disregards their human rights and I also sympathise with those Israelis who are targeted by rocket attacks while they sleep in their beds.

But there are appropriate occasions for protests and methods of displaying solidarity. Staging a puppet show at the behest of outsiders who have little regard for our club, and at the expense of those who have wronged no one is not one of those occasions.

We have our own problems to concern us regarding performances in a group that had one old antagonist and in which we found a new one. Neither was Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

PS Fans attending the match should watch out for idiots intent on encroaching on the field of play, which would surely see our club punished severely.





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