CELTIC were facing disciplinary action after fans went ahead with threats of unfurling Palestinian flags against an Israeli team in the Champions League.
Despite warnings to avoid political gestures and the certainty that the club will be fined, some Celtic supporters raised Palestinian flags at the Scottish champions’ match against the champions of Israel, Hapoel Be’er Shiva.
A Facebook page called "Fly the flag for Palestine, for Celtic, for Justice" was set up to co-ordinate the protests with fans being offered Palestinian flags to fly at the match.
The organisers say they will be exercising their “democratic rights to display our opposition to Israeli Apartheid, settler - colonialism and countless massacres of the Palestinian people".
Celtic FC has already been fined by governing body UEFA over political "demonstrations" and on social media, many fans have opposed the latest protest.
The influential Celtic Underground blog stated: ”UEFA rules are the UEFA rules.
"The rules may be a nonsense but if you want to play in their competitions you have to abide by their rules."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel