The least shocking story of the weekend came late last night when the head of Liel Abada’s new club told the media that the Celtic fans loved him and supported him, knocking out the idea that it was our supporters who were responsible for “driving him” out of the club.
The hacks who are covering this sound almost surprised.
It shows how poisoned this narrative is, and it’s obvious to those of us who followed this story all the way in who poisoned it as well. The media themselves are partly responsible for this.
They were the ones who kept on pushing this entirely false version of events, with their constant references to the Palestinian flags and other things.
Palestinian flags are not new in the Celtic support. As one site pointed out, we’ve had them in the stands for decades and for 15 straight years we had an Israeli in the team without it causing the least bit of hassle, except that some people back there made it clear that they didn’t like it.
The difference here is that Abada was easy prey for them. Bitton had served in the military; there was no way they could level allegations of being unpatriotic at him.
This nasty little idea started on the Israeli right and amidst those over there who have mistaken support for Palestine for antisemitism, or don’t care to make the distinction.
They hate our club, and they used a young guy miles from home to hit us with a hammer. It’s disgusting. Imagine putting pressure like that on somebody. They must be so proud.
But sections of the media over here, knowing full well that this was the situation, were happy to spread that lie and ramp the pressure up on him. And every time they filed a story about Celtic fans and Palestinian flags, they gave that hard-core section of the Israeli machine justification to keep the pressure on and push Abada further into the corner.
That some of these same hacks are apparently surprised to learn that none of it was true just goes to show how thoroughly they believed their own nonsense.
They told themselves this story so often, and with nothing to back it up, that I think some of them just swallowed it and subsumed it into their thinking about this situation.
All of those people owe our fans an apology, but of course we won’t get it and shouldn’t hope for it.
This is the closing of a difficult chapter in our recent history; it is somehow satisfying now, at the end of it, to know that the record has been set straight and in a way where even the hacks had to write about it, and reflect the facts.
Thats just not true James.
Lots of fans on Celtic sites on Facebook stating that they understand his reasons for leaving was because of a section of our own fans. Check them out.
Too easy to blame but the situation at the club had became very difficult for him watching flags being waved each game. He is a young man. He goes with my best wishes.
He has denied that. His agent his denied that. His current club has denied that.
And you want me to listen to a handful of guys on social media?
Give it a rest.
A handful of guys James. Really. I asked you to check it out. Don’t comeback with a wee cheap shot until you look it up. There has been hundreds of comments on it.. Check it out.
The Israeli right? Seriously? Absolute nonsense. We all know who drove Liel Abada from Celtic, and you do too. You,re just blind to that flag, aren’t you?
Hasbara hogwash is best ignored.
And the only people the supporters have had any intention of
‘driving out of the club’ are the Lawwells – for good reason.
Celtic is a club open to all. Israeli players will be supported like any other Celtic player. But people have to realise that many Celtic fans are politically engaged. And whilst I don’t agree with the GB speaking on behalf of the Celtic support about anything, I think it’s fair enough they collectively support the Palestinian cause in Gaza. It is not anti Semitic. It is not anti Zionist. It’s objecting to an oppressive regime. However there is much nuance to that political discussion and I am not comfortable for Celtic fans to be seen as unilaterally supporting Hamas who have also committed atrocities. This is not our fight. I wish we weren’t dragged into it. But, if that’s the GB’s stand then that is up to them. If Israelis don’t like that then that is also up to them. Just don’t tar us all with the same brush. There are many Jews and even Israelis who think Netanyahu is a tyrant. Are they also anti Semitic?
After witnessing the slaughter of innocent babies, amongst other unbelievable atrocities, i would say that the support for Palestine among football fans will have grown accordingly.
Despite Celtic willing to respect Abada`s beliefs by giving him time off to celebrate a Jewish feast, they still accused the support of having a hatred for their religion rather than their actions.
and so they advised Abada to leave. Abada`s wages, I would assume, would be kept intact.
I remember well when Christmas wasn`t celebrated in Scotland and when we took the day off work the wages were deducted. I wonder what the craic would be if the Catholic Church advised all catholic players to leave OLD FIRM SEVCO under pain of excommunication because they hate our Faith, or if the FAI “advised” Irish players to stay away from them as, by the way, it should be because of their hatred of all things Irish. As for the Israelis: they don`t
half cash-in (exploit to the fullest) the anti-semitic lark. They just need to mention it and the whole world lands on its knees.
Yeah but they didn’t apologise for their role in maintaining and growing the fiction.
They’ve ‘ reflected ‘ on the facts in one days output in spite of months of concerted unfounded facts being spewed out to a mainly ignorant tabloid reading public. Most of whom are ‘Aye Ready’ to believe the worst of Celtic and the support.
The image of the Celtic’s fans support of Palestinian, Hamas, terrorism is firmly planted in the subconscious of many thousands if not millions of people out there in the wider world.
How do we change that impression? It would be useful, for once at least, if our Board tackled the Scaddidish Medjia on this. The damage to our reputation could be immense. Even our pecuniary minded Tories on the Board should be able to equate this to a loss of Commercial, Retail and Sponsored revenue not least the hit we took on Abada’s Transfer price. That at least should stir them into some form of action.