Yesterday afternoon, as the Palestinian charity fund grew to gargantuan proportions, I got an email from a guy I’ll describe as a prominent Jewish citizen here in Scotland, correcting me on a few things and insisting I check some details out. When he identified himself, and suggested some reading material, I realised there was no need to.
His own bona fides were flawless.
He is, to put it squarely, the Real Deal.
He suggested to me that I might have fallen victim to an old media trick.
When I highlighted the comments that appeared in the press yesterday, on how our fans had to be careful their cash wasn’t going to Hamas, after quotes made by the Israeli embassy spokesperson Michael Freemen, their Officer for Civil Society Affairs, I had surmised that they’d been offered to the press in response to the growing international attention the charitable gesture was getting. In fact, they hadn’t.
The guy who contacted me assured me that Freeman plays with a straight bat, that he’s not part of the Dirty Tricks Department and would never agree to be. No, this had a much simpler and yet perhaps even darker explanation; Freeman himself had been stitched up by the press.
I had considered that possibility earlier in the day, of course.
In the article I did pose the question about who contacted who, but it seemed like such an obvious answer that I dismissed it as unimportant, and besides, either way, it had been an attempt to smear our fans. I never reckoned with the underhanded nature of our press, or that an experienced diplomat might not realise just who, and what, he was dealing with.
You’d think I’d know better, right?
So as it turns out, he was asked the most loaded question imaginable, by someone who’d done their homework and knew the answer beforehand. Reading the piece, I pondered on how well informed the “journalist” must have been on the evolving story surrounding the World Vision charity affair, but I had assumed the Israeli embassy had provided those salient details. Apparently not. As I know our journalists are not nearly that enterprising, I wondered who was?
Because someone had that information to hand, perhaps even someone who spoke to some of the media and suggested the story in the first place.
Here’s another thought (which is more than just that, of course); perhaps no-one from either The Sun or The Guardian spoke to Freeman at all. Perhaps it was some nameless wonder with credentials, but who was, nevertheless, “freelancing” for whatever reason, and who sent the papers the quotes directly.
And what if that same person or persons had been very busily working on other projects yesterday besides?
Because on the same day this happened a rather naughty memo was circulating, helpfully providing journalists with a “timeline of shame”, detailing the Celtic fans “offences” in front of UEFA, with a very special focus … that of our so-called “support for proscribed organisations.”
The connection isn’t difficult to make, is it?
I mean who’d have thought that on the same day as a story appeared suggesting Celtic fans might inadvertently be “sending money to terrorists” that another would be circulating, trying to find takers, that was trying to “raise awareness” of Celtic fans and their “support for terrorists”?
And some people were joining the dots, such as Sky Sports Scotland, part of the Murdoch media empire, which prefaced its story on the charitable fund with a reminder that our fans had been fined for “pro IRA chanting.”
Not very subtle, is it?
Little more, in fact, than a blatant attempt to smear us as one step shy of sending volunteers to ISIS.
At the same time, you could read any number of social media posts and articles linking to the fund story, and which were highly critical of Hamas, who, of course, weren’t anything whatsoever to do with the charity fundraising effort.
Some of this was point scoring on the part of individuals, such as the composer James MacMillan, who used the issue in an inexplicable effort to attack the SNP.
His article in The Spectator today on how the political radicals in the Celtic support are simply daft wee boys who could have been sorted out and set on the right path had the Catholic Church been a bigger part of their lives (I am not kidding, I swear to God) – for which he blamed, in part, the SNP and the independence movement – was one of the most loathsome and perverse pieces of writing I’ve come across this year.
His article went out of its way to link our fans, the IRA, Hamas and Scotland’s radical independence campaigns by virtue of their innate Godlessness.
Absolutely scandalous.
Yet part of this was clearly a concerted effort directed at our fans; I have no doubt in my mind at all about that.
But it wasn’t being run out of the office of Israel’s Officer for Society Civil Affairs.
No, this had its roots, and its personnel, based a lot closer to home, and as the fund peaks a quite incredible £140,000 this evening you best believe this isn’t the last of it.
Attempting to link it to terrorism, or support for terrorism, has failed and that card is the only real one these people had in the deck; sheer weight of public opinion and support has killed any chance they have of getting their version into the public consciousness.
The guys behind the campaign did their work too well for our enemies to score real points.
The two charities involved are beyond reproach.
But don’t think this is over yet.
The sort of people who would attempt to link an incredible act of generosity like this to terrorism are beyond the reach of decency, and they won’t quit because this particular smear has failed to hit the mark. They are out there. They always have been.
They hate our club, because of where it comes from. Because of what it represents.
They will be back.
Stay vigilant.