An Israeli government minister has slammed “sad” Celtic supporters who fly the Palestinian flag at football matches.
Michael Oren, deputy minister in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, also said collecting cash at matches for charities that help Palestinians is “ill-advised”.
But when asked what he thought about Rangers fans who fly the Israeli flag the politician smiled and said: “I like ‘em”.
The Herald revealed in September that the Palestinian and Israeli flags were on a police list of flags which could be a criminal offence to fly in Scotland.
A “restricted” document issued to officers includes pictures of potentially criminal symbols and a brief description of the laws which may be broken if they are flown “in a provocative manner”.
The Israeli flag is flown by loyalists who “align themselves with Israel due to British support for the state,” according to the document. A minority of Rangers fans have been seen with the flag at matches.
The police document also said republican Celtic supporters fly the Palestinian flag to underline “their own desire for independence from Britain”. Supporters have collected cash for charities which support Palestinians.
Michael Oren said: “I think it’s ill-advised. It’s sad. Let’s leave it at sad.”
When asked what he thought about Rangers fans who fly the Israeli flag he added: “I like ‘em. Makes me happy.”
Celtic did not respond to a request for comment.
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