Fly the Flag

By Philip Thornton 25/10/2023

As usual, it’s down to football fans worldwide to demonstrate their support first for the besieged victims of Israeli fascism in Palestine. Celtic fans, of course, have been at the forefront of this protest and endured the wrath of the FIFA cowards back in 2016 for daring to fly the Palestinian flag.

This highlighted the typical double standards and hypocrisy of the sport’s administrators who are okay with Ukrainian flags being displayed but not Palestinian and symptomatic of the broader political hypocrisy that condemns oppression and slaughter in one country but watches on or provides tacit support for the same crimes in another. The sickening spectacle of our supposedly ‘democracy’ loving political leaders lining up to support the Israelis only intensifies the hatred of those who can see through this charade. In fact, to many Muslim, the response to this will undoubtedly be more support for the jihadists.

Let us be clear, the cynicism and sophistry of those that declare any opposition to Zionism as a form of anti-semitism is to desecrate the memory of those killed by the Nazis during WW2. These self-justifying definitions of ‘anti-semitism’ only silence legitimate criticism and debate about Israeli crimes against humanity. Zionism IS a form of fascism, based on self-imposed racial concepts of ethnic purity, dubious tribal claims to land and religious dogma. It is a falsehood as nauseating and evil as the Nazi ideology that slaughtered 6 million Jews. To deny this form of fascism as any different to that of the Nazis is to repeat that most evil era of human existence. We should be against fascism in any form, whatever disguise it chooses wears.

The football fan community cannot be silenced so easily as our supposed political, religious, intellectual, cultural and sporting ‘leaders.’ Fans don’t bow to the demands of Zionist lobbyists and apologists. The Palestinian flag has been flown at grounds across the world to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people the types of banning orders and restrictions placed upon The Green Brigade and other fan groups will only backfire on those that seek to control the political narrative being spun by our corrupt and bought off media.