NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE - BUT NO PROTESTS PLEASE By James Forrest

Main Forum Description
jimbob
Posts: 0
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 4:47 pm
Contact:

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE - BUT NO PROTESTS PLEASE By James Forrest

Postby jimbob » Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:16 pm

From April 3rd – April 11th 2002, as world attention focussed on the growing diplomatic and political pressures being ratcheted up in the expanding War on Terror, a battle took place in the West Bank city of Jenin, between the IDF, the Israeli military, and the forces of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Battalion, of the Palestinian Fatah movement and their then allies in Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The Israeli’s went into the battle in force; they brought with them two infantry battalions and a brigade – over 1000 men, with highly sophisticated weaponry and tanks. They fought a force of just over 200.

In the weeks after the conflict, with reports circulating the world about the state of affairs in Jenin, which was on the verge of a humanitarian crisis, I joined a protest march through Glasgow, one of many I attended with Palestinian friends and colleagues in the Trade Union Movement that year. We marched to George Square and heard a first-hand account of what it was like to live in the city, from a resident, and a stunning speech by George Galloway, who himself had been over to see the situation in the aftermath of the battle, and the subsequent Israeli pull-out.

I don’t remember ever feeling so angry in my life as I did that day, or ever feeling so inspired to do something about the appalling state of affairs facing the people of Palestine. I have been campaigning on their behalf for nearly 15 years now, and their cause is my own.

My history with the Scottish Trade Unions Congress goes back almost as far, and I have never been anything but proud of that fact. I am what some people might term an unreconstructed leftie, and I am proud of that too, and I consider myself, and always will consider myself, a trade union socialist first and foremost. The late great Bill Speirs is a man I considered a friend, and whenever I met him we would talk about Palestine and about the things that had happened in the region since we last spoke. He was as passionate and knowledgeable about their cause as anyone I’ve ever met.

Graeme Smith, the present General Secretary of the STUC is another with whom I have a long history. He and Bill were two of my role models and mentors in my early political activities; when I joined the STUC National Youth Committee in the mid-nineties, these guys looked after me and gave me good direction. I didn’t always take their advice – Graeme once told me I was making a mistake because I wanted to make a speech on drug legalisation at a conference, I made it anyway, and consider it one of the best I ever gave – but God, I respected them both, and still do. Talk about commitment to the working people of Scotland – these guys were living what most politicians only talked about.

There has never been a time in my life when I have disagreed with showing support for the Palestinian cause, and there has never been a time when I have disagreed with a statement from the Scottish Trade Unions Congress, or rejected a call for action coming out of Woodlands Road. Today, in light of the STUC calling for Celtic fans to show support for the Palestinians, in protest, at our coming match against Hapoel Tel Aviv, at Celtic Park, on Wednesday night, I am going to do both.

I think this is wrong. I think it is asking for trouble, for us, and furthermore, I think it is dangerous and detrimental to the cause it seeks to support, and that, as much as anything, makes it one of the worst ideas in the global History of Bad Ideas ..... worse even than a Scottish club goading its biggest rival with “If you spend a fiver we will spend a tenner ....”

That’s how stupid I think this notion is.

Let’s start with why it’s wrong. It’s wrong because it’s the wrong venue for such a heavy duty display of political grandstanding and it’s wrong because of all the clubs in Israel the STUC could be protesting about, Hapoel Tel Aviv is the one with which we should have some of our strongest links. As a club with roots in the Jewish Trade Union movement, its supporters groups are fanatically left-wing and count amongst their closest allies our brother fans in St Pauli to name but a few.

I am not going to try and snow job anyone here; there are serious problems with the political stance of the trade union they represent, in relation to Palestine. It is a Zionist organisation, first and foremost, and supported the invasion of Gaza last year. I will return to that a little later.

That said, our brothers in St Pauli consider their supporters as fellow allies in anti-fascism. The club itself has an anti-fascist outlook, and has never been openly or actively Zionist in itself, in contrast to other Israeli teams, like Beitar Jerusalem, a club which [I:24e9ee45]does [/I:24e9ee45]promote its Zionism and wears it right out there on its sleeve – and on the club badge, which has the Menorah as its central symbol.

Middle Eastern politics is a minefield, and one we are well shot of. I have long said that supporting one side or another in the conflict – and as I’ve made clear, I am very much pro-Palestinian – is to turn a blind eye to some of what that side does in the prosecution of its war, and the idea Celtic, as a club, this broad church of ours which certainly includes numerous Jewish fans as part of our Family, should be seen to endorse one of those sides does no justice to either. The political, historical, social and religious context of the struggle is so deep and wide that, to me, a true understanding of the issues, let alone a comprehension of who is right and who is wrong, is better left to the individual to attain undertaking. No issue in modern times, and I mean that literally, can so easily be misunderstood or misrepresented by listening to the bias which surrounds it on all sides.

For that reason, it’s wrong. It’s wrong in a million different ways.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it is asking for trouble, and the worst kind of trouble you can imagine. God forbid our club ever – and I mean ever – gets tagged by anyone as anti-Semitic. The tag is bandied around these days with far too much ease, and it’s the kind of mud that can stick for a long, long time. It’s the last tag we would ever want. Regardless of the fact it would be wholly undeserved – Celtic has no history of it at all, quite the opposite in fact – makes no difference. Any organisation which seeks to promote the cause of Palestinian freedom is open to the charge, and any organisation which slams Zionism is almost certainly asking for it. The Zionist lobby is one of the most ruthless on the planet, and they are already in high-gear on this issue as it stands.

Let me make something clear. If Hapoel were a club which actively supports Zionism, made up of men who view the two-state solution as heresy, and was materially run by hardliners, I would not care a jot what the Zionist lobby thought about a protest, and would probably, on balance, support some kind of statement or protest against it. The Zionist lobby doesn’t make me afraid for the future of Celtic, or our reputation, but it will add fuel to an already growing fire here at home, which we don’t need.

Celtic has just emerged from the furore over the Silence of the Poppies, and we’ve done so with credit as a club, and as a support. Yes, a small band of fans sang songs outside the ground, but those who want to focus on that are looking at the peas and not the steak. We conducted ourselves with the dignity and class for which we are known, and everyone inside that ground observed that silence, each for his or her own reasons. If you cared about the Iraqi civilians who have died, maybe you kept silent for that. If you have family on active service in Afghanistan, or known someone who is, maybe you said a prayer for their safe return. If you kept silent to commemorate the British war dead, all well and good, and if you kept silent, as many of us did, to commemorate the wasted lives on all sides in all wars, then I applaud you and I respect you and I honour you.

Having emerged from that with genuine credit, aside from the occasional barb from discredited hacks and the insane ranting of demented Hun websites, what good does it do us now to jump head-first into the most easily misunderstood and violently boiling dispute anywhere on Planet Earth right now? What does the club, or the support, gain from taking a hardline stand on such a divisive and controversial issue?

As I stated previously, we have Jewish fans as well as Palestinian fans. Our club, despite what some say, respects and tolerates political diversity, and no-one entering the ground with a Palestinian flag should be prevented from doing so; indeed, a lot of fans bring them to [I:24e9ee45]every game. [/I:24e9ee45]But a mass protest? To what end? To who’s benefit? Certainly not ours. Our opponents would have a field day, at our expense.

Consider this. Say, on Wednesday night, five to ten thousand Palestinian flags are on display at the game. It’s an awesome show of support for people on the other side of the world, and it’s featured in every sports journal across the globe. Perception is reality, right? Our club has just been tagged with the Palestinian cause.

Say the following day, Hamas launches a rocket attack into an Israeli settlement and hits a school, killing dozens of children. Do you want our club associated with that act? Do you want our global Family to rend itself in the days and weeks to follow, as Israel retaliates by hitting Gaza from the air, or ordering a full-scale land invasion? Do you want our name anywhere near that kind of explosive situation?

Those misguided fools who believe the nonsense about us being “supporters of terrorists who kill women and children” because some of us are Irish Republicans already look at our club as some kind of aberration, and it gives fodder to the halfwits who hate us enough to peddle the same disgusting myth, piling hatred on top of their already diseased mindset. I for one think we can do without giving them further “proof” that we are callous human beings ..... and not because I care what they think, but because their hate is already at dangerously high levels and for the good of society it shouldn’t be given any further encouragement.

Not all of our fans support the Palestinian cause. Not all of them fully or properly understand the issues. On this one, their wishes need to be taken into consideration, along with the feelings of the club. This isn’t Ireland, where to all intents and purposes the war is over, even if key issues have yet to be resolved. This is an open wound, still bleeding, an ever evolving situation to which our club has no links. The same can’t be said about the Irish struggle, which our club has deep roots in. In the end, too many people have used us, or tried to, as a political football as it is.

Finally, for us to protest would be detrimental to the cause for which the thing is supposedly geared, the cause of a Palestinian homeland. Celtic, for better or worse, is a powerful force in the land, but whilst it brings together disparate groups of people from all walks of lives, from all political and religious denominations and from all social and cultural backgrounds, we are viewed by many as an interloper, as an outsider, oddly as a divisive club, one half of a fault line which runs through the West of Scotland. That this is a view at odds with the truth matters not; what we’re dealing in here is religious, political and social perception, not reality.

There are Rangers fans, Hibs fans, Aberdeen fans, Hearts fans, fans from every club, who support the cause of a Palestinian homeland. STUC General Secretary Graeme Smith, who has fought for decades on this issue, is an Ibrox season ticket holder himself, and a more fair, passionate or committed man for workers rights and solidarity you could not hope to meet. I am amazed that he wants one club – one half of our social and cultural divide – to become associated with a cause which he knows well crosses all social, religious and footballing boundaries, when that association will as a natural consequence of the land in which we live, put other people who might have otherwise have been allies on the other side of the fence.

I think it’s dangerous because it associates a political situation of immense complexity with the tribal rivalries of the West of Scotland. It will provoke a counter-reaction from Ibrox yahoos, maybe even some of the same yahoos who went to Jerusalem and made Nazi salutes, to fly Israeli flags and blur a vastly complex issue even further, and in doing so will stop people engaging with it in a meaningful way. People who might wish to become associated with this cause will dismiss it if it is perceived to be yet another part of the “Old Firm” morass, and rightly so. It will draw in every halfwit who thinks he knows what it’s all about, and will create more problems than it will bring benefits in either the short or long term.

Proper engagement, from all sides of the spectrum in Scottish society, is needed on this issue. Engaging in it and becoming educated in the complexities of the politics and history is vital to a proper understanding of events, and it is this understanding which is essential to bolstering the political support needed for the two-state solution.

That support will not come from cheap, politically motivated stunts. This brings me back to the Israeli invasion of Gaza, and the Jewish Trade Union movement from which Hapoel Tel Aviv sprung, and should shed some light on what’s really going on here.

In January this year, the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histadrut"][COLOR=black:24e9ee45]Histadrut[/COLOR:24e9ee45][/URL:24e9ee45][COLOR=black:24e9ee45] were widely condemned by the TUC for declaring its support for the Israeli government actions. A war of words ensued over the issue, and it has created problems between the Israeli Trade Unions Congress and the British Trade Union Movement. [/COLOR:24e9ee45]

Maybe it’s just the cynic in me who sees links between the two events, but certainly I am disturbed by the notion that the TUC might be trying to use its Scottish branch, and Celtic Football Club, to settle a political score. And whatever the rights and the wrongs of the issue at play, I am against my club being used as a political football by other people.

I firmly back the formation of a Palestinian State. I believe in No Justice, No Peace like Holy Writ. But in this case, I have to say no. It’s not in anyone’s interests for us to go down this road. Not the interests of the Palestinians, not the interests of the STUC, and certainly not in our own.

In the end, I believe too in the trade union slogan that “Together, United, We’ll Never Be Defeated.” I don’t understand how anyone can think there is any gain in combining an already divisive issue with the explosive political and social issues we already have in the West of Scotland. It does no-one any favours. We should have nothing to do with it.

Fellow Celt’s, avoid this one like the plague. It’s not who we are.

Rupert The Tim
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 8:18 pm
Contact:

Re: NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE - BUT NO PROTESTS PLEASE By Janes Forrest

Postby Rupert The Tim » Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:37 pm

Pity you didn't avoid this one like the plague as you advised others to do. Please take your politics to an appropriate forum.

max
Posts: 0
Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2008 1:25 pm
Contact:

Re: NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE - BUT NO PROTESTS PLEASE By Janes Forrest

Postby max » Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:05 pm

Well said James.


Return to “Main Forum”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 19 guests