Despite criticism, Celtics supporters declare their “unequivocal support” for Palestine.

Despite criticism from the club’s board, the Green Brigade ultras group urges supporters to “raise the Palestinian flag” during Champions League matches.

Celtic Football Club fans in Scotland have pledged to continue their show of solidarity with the Palestinian people and “show the world that the club stands with the oppressed, not the oppressor” in the wake of Israel’s ongoing attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, despite criticism from the club’s board.

During Celtic’s Scottish Premiership match versus Kilmarnock last week, the Green Brigade, an ultras group of hardline Celtic fans, raised banners reading “Free Palestine” and “Victory to the Resistance!!”

Before kickoff, fans in the North Curve section of Celtic Park unfurled giant Palestinian flags, which they continued to wave throughout their team’s 3-1 victory.

Two days later, the club’s board issued a strongly worded statement in which it stated, “Celtic is a football club, not a political organization,” and distanced itself from the fan group’s display of solidarity.

“The club has always made clear that political messages and banners are not welcome at Celtic Park, or any match involving Celtic.”

Nir Bitton, an Israeli international and former Celtic midfielder, slammed the fans on social media, calling them “brainwashed.”

“You should be ashamed!!!” Yes, liberate Gaza from Hamas, not Israel!” he wrote on Instagram.

“Supporting terror organisation who’s proudly celebrating the slaughtering of families is absolutely crazy.”

The fan group, however, was unfazed and called on all Celtic fans to wave the Palestinian flag during the club’s UEFA Champions League encounter against Atletico Madrid on October 25.

“We must apply what we learned from apartheid South Africa to dismantle apartheid Israel – if we remain neutral in situations of injustice, we have chosen the side of the oppressor,” the Green Brigade stated this week in a statement.

“We send our sincere solidarity and prayers to our friends across all of Palestine at this traumatic time when yet again much of the international community turns its back in cowardice while war crimes are inflicted on a largely defenceless, imprisoned population,” the statement went on to say.

Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip since Saturday, after fatal strikes within the nation by the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

According to officials in the besieged area, Israeli air strikes have killed over 1,500 Palestinians and injured over 6,600.

According to Israeli statistics, more than 1,300 people were murdered and 3,000 were injured in Hamas’s multipronged attack on towns in southern Israel.

‘True values of the club’

The Green Brigade’s show of solidarity is “incredibly important to the Palestinian people, who are being bombarded and targeted”, according to Abdullah Al-Arian, associate professor of history at Georgetown University in Qatar.

“By choosing to be on the side of justice for an oppressed population, these fans are representing the true values of the club and are more in-tune with the history of the club than the current board happens to be,” Al-Arian told Al Jazeera.

Al-Arian said it is “becoming increasingly hard” to show support for the Palestinians in Western countries because some governments in Europe have banned protests against the Israeli attacks in Gaza and have threatened to ban the display of the Palestinian flag.

Al-Arian, author of the book Football in the Middle East: State, Society, and the Beautiful Game, underlined the importance of using football stadiums to raise awareness for such causes because they are “the last democratic spaces where people come together and express themselves in a way that cannot be censored, drowned out or criminalised the way that we see in the general public discourse.

“Especially as we see the posture of the media and government as being one silencing and intimidation of people who are simply standing up for human rights of the people of Palestine.

“Football matches are viewed by millions around the world where people get to witness these acts of solidarity and they help create a common bond for people who want to stand for justice for the people in Palestine.”

According to the fan group, the board’s statement “is sadly in step with much of the political and media class”, and it questioned why similar political messaging was welcome at Celtic Park to show solidarity with Ukraine but is being condemned now.

“The question on any reasonable mind should be why? Why are Ukrainian lives more sacred than Palestinian lives?” it said.

Long association with Palestine

Celtic fans have a history of supporting Palestinians and have raised funds for independent organisations working in the occupied territories.

In 2019, the Aida Celtic football academy was opened at the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank with help of funds raised by the club’s fanbase.

The club has received widespread support in all Palestinian territories in recent years, and Al-Arian said the club’s backing of the Palestinian cause offered support to people “who are on the front line in a brutal assault on their lives”.

“It tells Palestinians that people all over the world stand with them despite their respective governments taking immoral stances and turning a blind eye to the collective punishment and atrocities,” he said.

Celtic’s fierce local rival Rangers have, in turn, supported Israel whenever both teams have met in the Old Firm – local derby – fixture over the years.

The blue-and-white-kitted Glasgow club held a minute’s silence for the people killed in Israel ahead of their Premiership match last weekend.

According to Al-Arian, the contrasting stances show that football is “never really separated from politics”.

He said Celtic’s community of fans grew out of the working class segment of society and have adopted a number of causes as part of their identity.

“They use these causes to fuel their support for the club and to honour values that become deeply ingrained in the club and its fans.”

The Green Brigade said it remains “unequivocal in support for the Palestinian people”.

“We call on the Celtic support – the true custodians of Celtic Football Club – to stand on the right side of history.”