Maccabi Haifa's Israeli forward Yarden Shua dribbles past Strasbourg's Belgian goalkeeper Matz Sels (L) before scoring a goal during the second leg of the Europa league second round qualifier football match between Maccabi Haifa and RC Strasbourg at the Sammy Hofer stadium in Haifa on August 1, 2019. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP) (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Yesterday, I talked about the furore surrounding Celtic’s attempt to sign a player from a club in Israel. Last night, another rumour surfaced suggesting the club is trying to sign a different player from another Israeli side, one even further to the right politically than the club we are already dealing with.
This time the club in question is Beitar Jerusalem and the player is Yarden Shua, an Israeli international. That is a problem we do not need and I hope this is one of those rumours that has not one word of truth in it.
Normally these stories would leave me cold. Not this one. This one requires some comment, even if it’s knocking down something as insubstantial as wind.
Let me be clear. I believe you deal with the world as it is, not as you wish it to be and normally, I would reject the idea of refusing to sign players on the basis of nationality. It is wrong, self-defeating, and strategically mad.
It hands advantages to rivals and achieves nothing.
In principle, I have no problem with Celtic signing Israeli players. I would only care if someone actively and publicly celebrated atrocities or broadcast extreme views in a way that dragged the club into controversy. Otherwise, a footballer is a footballer.
That’s the world I’d like this to be. But that’s not the world as it is.
This is a colossally bad time for an idea like this. This is not an issue the club should put front and centre, yet that is exactly what would happen. There are people on the fringes of Celtic right now with their own agendas, and they would seize on this immediately. The player, who as far as I know has no political agenda at all, does not deserve to be caught up in that. Celtic does not need to plunge itself, or him, into that morass.
Is he a good player? I have no idea. Would he fit the team? I could not say. What I do know is that he would arrive carrying enormous baggage, much of it placed on him by others. I am not even thinking about the club’s stability here, which is fragile enough already. I am thinking about the player himself.
He does not need that pressure. He does not need that scrutiny or to carry the weight of a conflict he did not create while trying to perform on the pitch. Frankly, however we sign needs very broad shoulders because he’ll be carrying our title challenge.
I have already said that this club has shown an astonishing capacity for self-harm in recent months. This would take that to another level.
It would be gratuitous, unnecessary, and inflammatory. There is no justification for it. It would be deeply unfair on the player, who would face pressure at home in Israel as well as here in Scotland. Even if he could cope with it, Celtic has no right to put him in that position when other options exist.
Yesterday afternoon I said the club cannot afford to drag its feet in the transfer market. I stand by that. I also understand that if Celtic had this player on its radar and progressed talks, then political realities or fan reaction forced a rethink that it might even send us back to square one.
You know what? There are worse places to be than back at square one. Nobody deserves the level of scrutiny this would bring, and the club does not need another front in its ongoing war with sections of its own support.
I have called for Israel’s national team to be excluded from UEFA competition my, yet my own position on this conflict is nuanced and considered, not absolutist. I do not pigeonhole individuals simply because of where they come from.
But that is precisely why this idea alarms me.
I know how this would play out and the player would suffer for it. I know it would further alienate part of the fanbase.
If a deal like this happened, I would struggle not to believe that this further split was part of the board’s calculations.
That would be shameful.
It would mean using a young man who has done nothing wrong as both a weapon and a punching bag. There is no moral defence for that. Anyone at Celtic entertaining this idea should stop and consider what a scorched-earth approach like this would do to a club already under immense strain.
For now, this remains a rumour. Rumours are everywhere.
This is one that should be killed as quickly as it appeared. Even in a calm, stable environment it would be a bad idea. In the middle of the current chaos, it would amount to throwing boxes of dynamite onto an already raging fire.
Under normal circumstances I’d refuse to believe anyone at Celtic would be reckless enough to do it … but shit begets shit.
Anything is possible with the people we have running this club right now.
Putting any money into the economy of a country that has no problem killing 10s of thousands of innocents is wrong. F off Celtic plc
I have absolutely no issues with the player (I don’t know enough about him). But to get the player we put OUR money into the coffers of a club in Israel, and by extension, their tax system and eventually their genocide machine. Israeli players are not an issue. Where we put our money is.
The club who are ‘open to all’ signing someone from Beitar Jerusalem?! The club with a far-right support who even have Netanyahu as an fan and who have an exclusionary signing policy comparable to a club we used to know?!
Well that would certainly require some Delta Force level PR effort around it…..
This is a disgraceful article to write. Utterly shameful!
You’re just another bigot masquerading as a social justice warrior!
Would you sign a Russian? A Saudi? A Syrian? An Iranian? A Somalian?
What about players from Nigeria, Sudan, The Congo, China?
You demonstrate exactly why our fan-base have morphed into the 2nd cheek of Glasgow’s bigoted arse!
A club open to all indeed
Thay is the major issue for me. Its only Israelis that seem to matter.
Never mind all the fucked up countries you mention PaulF. What about the USA? The USA are big backers of Israel. They are financing Israel. When are we going to turn on them? What about americans playing for us? What about CCV?
Show me any ‘bile and hate’ that I have shown ?
I’ll keep asking that until you show me.
Show me where I made excuses for others atrocities?
PaulF said
“So we can take £25,000,000 from Saudi Arabia but not £2,000,000 from Israel?”
Volps reply to this was
“Britain was instrumental in the creation of KSA as an islamic dictatorship and we happily maintain it”
There is a classic example of you making excuses for atrocities.
I’ve never once heard you condemn saudi. Never once have you said Celtic should not accept money from a country where woman are oppressed and gays are persecuted and the massacre of yemenis is brushed under the carpet. I doubt if the GB have even heard of Yemen. If it was Israel victimising woman and gays and massacring yemenis you would be off the scale but you just forgot about it ffs.
So now is your chance. What about us taking £25,000,000 from saudi? What about Brendan and his sportswashing project? We never hear any thing about it.
The silence is deafening!
Volp your silence on these matters is deafening!
Show me any ‘bile and hate’ that I have shown ?
I’ll keep asking that until you show me.
Perhaps Celtic and Irish peoples faced a similar situation of colonialism that the Palestinians face hence our SPECIFIC connection to Palestine and not with the Saudi or many many other situations.
We can cite many different wars, occupations etc that Celtic fans share empathy with the victims. But only specific ones that are directly similar to the Irish occupation elicit the same connection.Which is the SPECIFIC reason why Celtic and Irish peoples are with Palestinians more than other situations of human rights abuses.
Joe Gorman raised a good counter-point about the KSA which i take onboard.
What the KSA does to LGBTQI folk is horrific as is it’s treatment of women and apostasy, never mind it’s appalling treatment of workers.It committed genocide in Yemen,starving 10s of thousands to death over many years, nevermind their part in funding jihadis in Syria but I genuinely forgot about it, I’m 60, I can’t remember every atrocity as they have been constant throughout my life.
So yes let’s not do business with the KSA until they to stop their horrific human rights abuses. I’m all for that.
And BR and Jota for going there are wrong as were we in selling him.
Yet you mention nothing of Britains part in all of this in Israel,in Yemen in KSA which is what I was alluding to.
Britain also committed genocide in Ireland for hundreds of years.
The same country involved in it all which Celtic and many other countries peoples know well.
You can also see in my mind and see that I didn’t forget about the Yemen genocide when I admitted I did ?
You follow an agenda in which you falsify my reasoning, which you do not and cannot know.
You make up fake stats against Celtic supporters which you can never back up with evidence when asked to.
You run away from these issues when asked yet you state them again at later times then run away again when asked for evidence to back them up.
I await your evidence or apology and will continue to politely request it .
He’s already here. I’d be 100% behind no more Americans at Celtic for as long as the USA continues to be the rabid, rogue state with maniacal leaders it has become. No Saudis have or will sign for us so no point addressing a strawman but I sure as hell would rather we did nothing that bolstered its economy and rehabilitated its image until it too behaves like a true nation should – kinda hard when you’re an artificial invention of the worst of the West though. Syrians? Why not? They’re victims of an imperialist-imposed government just as the very first fans of Celtic were and the reason we were formed as a club, to survive in such a hostile environment. I’d welcome a whole team of Iranians if they were good enough. Love Iran and its multicultural demographics and especially its stance on the temporary statelet of “Israel” – a creation of the British empire that now serves as an outpost for the whole of the oil and blood thirsty Western remnants and inheritors of that empire.
It’s not just “Israel” – they just happen to be the only “nation” that churns out war criminals faster than the Hague can build cells for them to be rehoused and that Celtic have a fetish for at board level – and it seems that weird penchant for propping up genocidal psychopaths has trickled down into the support. Feck “Israel”, death to the antiquated lunacy-ridden, supremacist ideology that is already on life-support called Zionism and to hell with its handful of international friends who love a bit of genocide themselves.
You’re on the wrong side of history Mojo and possibly the wrong side of Glasgow when it comes to teams to support just like the board who can’t send enough cash to the dark presence occupying and starving Palestine and its people with our help. And name your strawman – I don’t give a cr@p who it is – if they’re imposing a famine on anyone including their own people then the doors at Celtic should be shut to them. And stay up to date ffs, Russians are banned from taking part in anything FIFA and its subsidiaries like UEFA oversee and have been for years so down goes another strawman before you repeat any nonsense about signing their players again – it’s not possible which probably gives you a nice wee glow in your heart.
Youre on the wrong side of reality floyd.
You love Iran, what a joke statement. There are 1000s of Iranians seeking refugee status in the UK. Why dont you go over to Iran just now and see just how much you love it. Or why not Iraq or Syria or Saudi or any other of these fucked up places with their medieval way of life where woman are 2nd class citizens and gays would fear for their lives.
Just on the news tonight that 538 people murdered in the Iran protests.
But that doesnt matter to you floyd because you like their stance on Israel. What a lovely place I hope you have a great time over there with like minded people.
Im guessing one day you will realise it’s you who was on the wrong side of history!
It’d be great if we could sign players in a political vacuum but it’d stick in my craw to put a penny of our money into that country, especially to a club like Beitar.
THIS is exactly when the Celtic board should be immediately stating their position on this. Are the rumours true? I am very sceptical,.These rumours have been created to cause further disharmony at Celtic. I’ve not seen any other club (specifically clubs in Scotland) being “linked” with these 2 players. Or any player currently plying their trade in Israel.
Celtic need to confirm if the rumours are true. And they need to nip them in the bud if they are not true. They don’t need to state why, they just need to confirm the “rumours” are false/true. They could put the record straight via the mainstream media and/or via Celtic TV.
For all we know, these 2 players may desperately want away from Israel due to what’s going on. At the same time i can see the argument for not putting money into Israel’s economy.
Celtic really need to address these rumours one way or another.
There are some astonishing viewpoints on here.
Let’s make no mistake Celtic has changed. We had jewish israelis play for us before. That is in the past.
There is almost no chance of an Israeli or a jew wanting to play for Celtic now. I just hope the people across the city dont sign one because it will expose a section of our support to the entire world.
We really need to sort this out asap.
Jews, Israelis and all other religions and nationalities should feel welcome at CP.
In the 1980s when we all stopped trading with apartheid South Africa, it didn’t mean we stopped liking diamonds and meat and other goods. It was about not giving money to the dicks causing the problem. This player would be very welcome at CP. Giving that club money for him is the issue.
Show me any ‘bile and hate’ that I have shown ?
I’ll keep asking that until you show me.
Show me where I made excuses for others atrocities?
You also accused me of spreading ‘bile and hate’ which is a very serious accusation and which you can provide no evidence whatsoever to back this accusation up.
I expect a full apology for this appalling and serious accusation to.
Who drove Abada out of Celtic?
We loved the guy but the right wingers in Israel made it untenable for him.
You never heard of Chomsky or Finkelstein or even Orthodox Jewish folks or even Holocaust survivors who are against the treatment of Palestinians by those Israelis accused of war crimes?
You seem unaware that there are a huge amount of Jewish folks who are anti- Zionist and favour a two state solution. Why wouldn’t any of those Jewish folks want to play for Celtic?
Why do you overlook all these Jewish folks ?
In the Celtic support do you think it is just the Green Brigade who have empathy and connection to the plight of the Palestinians?
Yes I have listened to all these people and yes many jews want a 2 state solution but the resistance dont. They want death to all jews. It’s non negotiable.
As I understand it Zionism is the belief jews should have a safe homeland in the area they are now where they originated. What is so wrong with that concept? There are many islamic states, most of them oppressive shit holes and nobody bats an eyelid at this!
Surely there is room for one jewish state where they can be safe even if they are surrounded on all sides by people who want their destruction.
I see no similarities to the Irish struggle.
There is imo nothing wrong with having a homeland which is Jewish as set out by the UN in 1947 which was 55% to Israel and 45% to Palestine.
Trouble is they are stealing Palestinians land as we speak and now have 85%.They also control many aspects of what’s left of Palestine land like utilities. Then there is the frequent attacks on Palestinian civilians through the years as well as the recent genocide.As Chomsky a Jew stated, the West bank and Gaza are the largest open air prisons in the world.He said that around 2005 or so.
Normal Finkelstein the American Jewish political scientist has stated that Israel is an apartheid state.
As have Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.B’Tselem an Israeli human rights organization came to the same conclusion.
Many UN resolutions refer to the West Bank and Gaza as occupied territory.
You may not see similarities between the British occupation of Ireland but there are.
Palestinians have sought a two state solution for decades but the Israeli settlers just keep on stealing more Palestinian land until it is down from 45% to 15% and that is very fragmented.
Volp said
“The green brigade are my kind of people as they represent everything that makes me a Celtic supporter”
Volp subsequently said
“pigwatch is hateful as was the banner after the 7th october attack which was very nasty for the victims and their loved ones”
Volp, if you wish to amend that first statement I will apologise for conflating your views with that of the GB.
I dont wish to offend anybody who is not full of bile or hate but I make no apologies for calling out people who take hate into CP.
No problem.
The green brigade are my kind of people as they represent everything that makes me a Celtic supporter, except their banner after the 7th Oct and their pigwatch campaign.
I await your apology.
That is a fairly half hearted retraction volp. The GB have far more hate than these 2 cases. The vast majority of jews consider them antisemetic. They hate the british armed forces and the police in general. Many who are Celtic supporters. They hate ex Celtic players like Nir Bitton and put his name alongside other victory to the resistance messages. The banner supporting Hamas on oct 7th is not the only time they have done this.
But I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you dont understand their full agenda so I apologise for saying you are spreading hate and bile like the green brigade.
Like a lot of Celtic supporters I hate what the Zionists have inflicted on the Palestinian people, and how over the last 80 years it has led to groups of Palestinians turning to terrorism in defence of what little land and rights they have left.
I am not anti Jewish and I know that there are lots of Jewish people who would like to see a two state solution, Jewish players would be under great pressure from some people within Israel not to sign for Celtic with a support that is mostly very sympathetic to the persecuted Palestinian people. If the player himself was open to signing for Celtic I’m sure he would be welcomed, at the moment it’s a hypothetical question.
Hamas don’t want a 2 state solution. They run Palestine supposedly. They want death to all jews “from the river to the sea” leaves no space for jews
Total destruction of the jews is their endgame!
The PLO worked with many international arbitrators and various Israeli administrations toward a two state solution whilst Israel kept stealing more Palestinian land.
The Israeli government destroyed the PLO and as Chomsky stated it was deliberate to drive Palestinians away from the secular PLO and into the hands of islamists who didn’t want a two state solution.
Not my assessment but Chomsky’s.
It looks like many Israeli administrations end game is to eventually take over all Palestinian land until they have no more.Which has been literally happening.
I’m remembering this from many many years ago when I did read Chomsky, Finkelstein,Herman and Parenti.
Not worth commenting on a rumour with no substance as yet. Let’s not get out knickers in a twist.
I really don’t understand you logic here…and that’s putting it mildly.
You have identified Israel as a murdering State, and I agree with that wholeheartedly.
Their treatment of the Palestinians is shocking ..and they should be taken to a Court of Law for War Crimes.
Having said that….There are many other murdering States in the World…who don’t need named…’cos we know who they are.
So will you call them out as well, and advise the Club not to sign any of their footballers ?
I think we know the answer to that..
This is exactly my point. This is why Israelis and jews cannot play for Celtic. Why would they want to?
Perhaps it comes down to solidarity with those who experience/experienced SIMILAR SPECIFIC situations to that which your tribe/nation suffered.
If a people/nation have gone through say colonial occupation where they had their land stolen ,were ruled by the colonisers,were treated as expendable second class citizens by the colonisers,were ruled and kept in poverty by the colonisers,were starved to death and driven away to try and survive by the colonisers etcetera.
Then to free their people from hundreds of years of such colonial barbarism peaceful people had to pick up guns and give their lives.
That nation knows colonialism red in tooth and claw and generational trauma from hundreds of years of colonial barbarism by an certain empire. So when they see specifically similar situations arise in other nations which are supported by the left-over of that same colonial empire they intuitively support the victims.
This gets muddied in different situations around the world where similar atrocities occur but it isn’t as straightforward as coloniser and colonised.
Which is the reason why Celtic supporters and Irish peoples in general have great support SPECIFICALLY for the Palestinian right of self determination and a two state solution because their history had many similarities.
The irish struggle is nothing like the palestinian resistance. Hamas want death to all jews and the complete destruction of Israel. You cannot negotiate with these people who think Israelis shouldnt have a homeland in fact they think Israel shouldnt exist. When Israel pulled out of Palestine a few months ago Hamas lined up Palestinians in the street and murdered them in front of a baying crowd. That was their own people ffs . Ireland was never like that.
That should have read..when Israel pulled out of Gaza…not Palestine
Israel destroyed the secular PLO (who wanted a two state solution) to drive Palestinians into the hands of Hamas islamists (who don’t want a two state solution) for one obvious reason –
If islamists who don’t want a two state solution rule Palestine then Israel can happily just keep building more settlements and stealing their land until Palestinians have none left.
This insight was written by the Jewish intellectual Noam Chomsky in 2004.
That is itself considered an act of genocide by the United Nations.
You see according to Chomsky Israel want Hamas to rule Palestine as it gives them free reign to keep stealing Palestinians land.
Where as having the Palestine Authority ( who seek a two state solution) in power in Palestine could create a two state solution thereby hindering the constant Israeli land grab.
This is from a Jewish intellectual not me.
The overall situation in pre-1921 occupied Ireland’s history has many similarities to that of the Palestinians hence the connection between the two.
Btw according to the UN, Palestine is under occupation and under International Law any people under occupation have a legal right to fight the occupiers to free themselves.
Again not my law or rules or opinion or desire ( I’m a person of peace) but that of International Law.
I’ve admired your writing for quite some time James and I’ll admit the headline shocked me a bit. Of course I shouldn’t have been concerned as that you voiced the problem very sensitively and logically. I also agree IN CONTEXT. Celtic should have nothing to do with Beitar Jerusalem a club so proudly bigoted with a bona-fide terrorist group of ultras that they make the Ibrox support look tempered and sane. And you’re right, in the terms of supporters politics and the fragile status of those relations at the moment this is a landmine we don’t need. However, I do still have reservations of going down this wormhole too far.
Israel, well specifically the people of Israel are not as unified in hate as the Western Media likes to portray. Here in the US (among the few sane among us that remain) its pretty well known that Netanyahu only backed the cease-fire after Trump guaranteed him immunity knowing Bibi is likely to be charged criminally IN ISRAEL very soon. I have no problem with an Israeli international playing for Celtic and I hope that most of the support wouldn’t either. I also wonder what the response would be if he were coming from one of the more left-wing social justice oriented clubs in Israel that enjoy an “across the barricades” fan base. Say he were from Hapoel Tel-Aviv or Maccabi Haifa? Also keep in mind Celtic’s Palestinian support isn’t exactly a secret. Any Israeli international willing to accept such a transfer would likely have a more nuanced opinion on these issues.
And this is how it should be. Do we know how Austin Trusty feels about the US ICE Raids? Was Joe Hart an ardent brexiting Tory? How does Sebastian Tounekti feel about the supression of democracy by Kais Saied? I think you see my point overall.
Nail. On. Head jimpolk99. To persecute individuals for the behaviour of their club or country is completely unacceptable. Any suggestion that such a player is an innocent abroad when it comes to Celtic and any opprobrium that he may face for signing for us is naive. So notwithstanding this if he is willing to sign (and crucially and obviously if he is good enough) we should welcome the player as I would see him as standing in solidarity with us as a club.
For the avoidance of doubt I do not agree with the premise of JF’s article – I take from this that all potential signings would have to be approved by him or the Celtic Collective? If so welcome to the mad house.
Agree with that summation PortoJoe, we should treat players as individuals not as representatives of their country. Let’s face it there will be lots of political opinions and none amongst Celtic players.
This is the point you lost me as a reader of your blog. You’re every bit as bigoted and ignorant as the Ibrox group. All the Celtic “supporters” who believe the same are a poison to the club. You people make me sick.
What specifically do you refer to ?
Celticfc4life – please don’t go, your insights on the MSL and predictions regarding Nancy were right on the money.
Twice I have tried to reply to Mr Mojorisin to find no reply option at the end of their comment.
Is there a limit to how many replies one can have from one comment ?
Absolute guff and waffle.What about all the “Celtic minded and Irish people” who have accepted gongs and awards from the British?.One of the biggest and genocidal empires the world has ever seen.
I just want new fuckin players at Parkhead !