resolutions have to be violated, how many more children have to be annihilated? this is not a war, it is systematic genocide, but whatever in shy, palestine will never die free palestine, hello, i'm chris williamson and you're watching palestine declassified, we're the only weekly tv show focusing on investigating and exposing the israeli

regime's global war against solidarity with the illegally occupied people of palestine. in this week's show we'll be highlighting how the growing public backing for palestine in britain contrast sharply with the british political class to continue to give sucker to israel. one such example is the increasingly voluable support for palestine on the terraces of celtic football club. these displays of solidarity have been frowned on by the club's directors and the union of european football associations used. referred to by its initials uefa, has even imposed fines. amina taylor has this report about a group of celtic fans known as the green brigade who display their solidarity with palestine at celtics matches. back in 2006, a seemingly unlikely bunch of football supporters got together to create the green brigade. staling themselves as ultras, they were declared anti-fascist group and from the beginning champion the cause of palestine.

the green in the title refers to the hoops on the shirt of their football team celtic, team created in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigrant irish population in the east end of glasgow by an irish priest brother walfred. the cause of ireland has always therefore been core to the politics of the green brigade. their devotion to irish republicanism and to the cause of palestine have attracted tension and attempts to constrain and abolish the group, but all attempts have so far failed. in june, 2012, a flory of palestinian flags flew proudly, and banner appeared reading, "dignity is more precious than food." this was a display of support for palestinian hunger strikers in israeli jails. "we did this in solidarity," they said, "we want palestinians to know we're thinking about them," and encourage scottish civil society. to look at the

injustice in palestine. in 2016, celtic were fined 8,619 pounds by uefa for supporters flying palestinian flags at an august 2016 of uefa match against israeli team hopel bershiva at celtic park. the green brigade launched the crowd funder to raise 10 thous pounds to pay the fine, but in the end raise 188. they donated the balance to palestinian charities. after the launch of alxa flood on the 7th of october, the green brigade did not shrink from action. that day, during the game with kilmanuck, surrounded by palestinian flags, their banners read free palestine, victory to the resistance. on the 25th of october 2023, thousands of celtic fans during a uefa champions league match against atletico madrid. flew the palestinian flag

and unfurled the same large banners that red free palestine and victory to the resistance. fans dedicated the song, you'll never walk alone in solidarity with palestinians in gaza. in response, celtic suspended the season tickets of green brigade members, effectively banning them from the game. in november us for find the club 15,200 pounds for the atletico madrid action. the israel football association took credit for the complaint that led to the fine. however, the green brigade returned triumphantly to celtic park on the 23rd of december last year, and emits sea of banned palestinian flags on veils a banner quoting a section of a prisoner's christmas song. many homes, they are sad tonight, they... for someone's name

by the candlellite, 20,000 plus killed, 8,00 plus children, the spirit of resistance is strong in celtic park as it is in gaza. all power to the green brigade. as always, we're joined by our resident expert david miller. david's an academic and a former professor at bristol university and is a leading british scholarly critic of israel. david is also the co-founder and co-director of the lobby and watchdog spinwatch. our guest contributor today is steve hedley who joins us via skype. steve is from derry in the north of ireland and is lifelong socialist and trade unionist who was the senior assistant general secretary of the rmt trade union until quite recently. also been an anti-racist pro-palestinian activist all his adult life and is lifelong celtic fan too. his book derry boy will be published at the end of the month, and having had sneak preview, i can tell you it's a compelling read. welcome to the show. steve, let me start with you. i mean, you grew up in derry, as we've just said there, with an appreciation of the

scottish raised irish republican leader james connoly. i wonder whether you can explain for our viewers how the irish question and celtic fc are intertwined. well, conorley was act. a hibernian supporter, he was instrumentally big big hibernian fan, which was an over irish team in in edinburh, but the the link with the palestinians and the irish despora that settled all over scotland and did all over the world is that we were oppressed people, we were dispossessed people, um, for hundreds of years britain had sent in settlers to ireland, taken our land, tried they have genocide by so-called farman that was stealing our... so we naturally as an oppressed people sited with other oppressed peoples like the palestinians, if you think that the in the 1840s the iris were fleeing and dying in their millions, we see that exactly is what's happening in palestine now and we want to show up solidarity with those

people and the people in celtic park, the green brigades and the celtic als and others a large large crowd outside of the green brigade support palestine. and do everything in their power to raise the issue of the palestinians. well david, um, just say a little will you about the connection between glasgow and and palestine and and how is it related to the irish question? well, so i mean glasgow is about 30% catholic, yeah, almost all uh of irish origin and to uh regard themselves as as being irish and of irish origin, you can see it in the flags and uh uh in celtic park and in the... color green uh and so that's the the key connection and of course as she's been saying it's a it's a common sense of oppression but i would go further than that because of course you know what's happening in palestine is a settle colonial problem and of course the issue in the north of ireland is settler colonial problem the fact that britain still

remains part of the north of ireland is still not uh decolonized ireland fully is that the reason why the still actual issue in the north of ireland, so people people in the north of ireland, naturally, republicans the naturally regard uh the question of palestine as something which is core to their sense of of being, and so of course it's not surprising that you find palestinian flag flying among celtic fans and you don't find it flying uh amongst rangers fans just across the city in glasgow at the other end of the city because that's largely a team which comes from the the protest and imperial tradition so there's the difference yeah well steve i mean the the banners at celtic park supporting the resistance are the kind of things which people have been arrested for in today's increasingly censorious climate, aren't they? mean, what do you think is happening with descent over palestine in this country? well, i think there's been a deliberate attempt the oppress all descent and not even that, but um, even news about

palestine, real news, and if we look at, there's now been over hundred journalists killed in uh less than two months in palestine, and you know, what we're do what we're what people are doing it seltic is try to get that news and raise the profile of palestinians and we are in a position where we're slipping into authoritarianism we have this ridiculous spectacle where people who are quite happy to see children blown up and mutilated every night on their tv suddenly find the the um phrase from the river to the sea is is somehow oh that inspires terror but seeing children blowing up the they don't want to call for a cease fire but that phrase from the river to the sea palestine will be free, we're told inspires terror and people, and i don't believe that, i think it's a it's a deliberate attempt, one of the many attempts to actually uh oppress freedom of speech, and if we're not careful, we're heading the was very authoritarian regime, if those if people can't express their their freedoms of speech in this country, no

indeed, he's absolutely right there, isn't he, david, but it's not actually um illegal is it to to support the resistance, and we've seen all these arrests. and clamp down this, it's rod, well so there's a contradiction is under international law there is a right of an occupied people to armed resistance, so resistance including armed resistance, and that's a right which which the people of palestine. clearly have under international law, but under terrorism legislation in the us or the uk, there's a number of organizations which are listed as being quote terrorist and you cannot support them explicitly because that would be a crime under the terrorism act right, but of course not not all the palestinian resistance factions are on the list, so there's some you can support, the dflp for example, democratic front for liberation of palestine isn't on the list, but more broadly speaking of course what resistance refers to, including armed resistance is a wider question of movement in palestine, how was itself is called the islamic resistance movement in arabic, that's

the name of of the organization, so there's a sense in which resistance, calling for resistance, even armed resistance is not the same thing as supporting uh so-called terrorism, and of course, but the contradiction is something which has to be worked upon, so steve's talking about from the river to the sea is being regarded as being somehow genocidal and supportive of terrorism, but of course people are not being dissuaded. by by by that argument and what will happen really is that the more that people say there's a right to resistance, the less it will be possible to prosecute people for that? no indeed. well step, what's your experience of of of trade unions offering solidarity with palestine? well, look, chris, i'm going to be brutally frank here and i think that um when trade union leaders get up and wax ligal and indeed just announce their union policy as supporting palestine and calling. for an antigenocide, that's wonderful, that's great, but what's actually achieving? we have the royal fleet auxiliary

which has got rmt members now it in the red sea supporting genocide. now those members aren't supporting a genocide, but the leaders are doing nothing about ballet and those members are instructing them not to work. similarly, you've got members of unite, members of the gmb who involved in technological firms and even arms manufacturers that are selling uh goods to israel, which is enabling that genocide and and again we have these same people getting up on stages and front of thousands of people uh getting clapped when they say that we should stop the genacide what are they actually doing about it you know uh the rhetoric doesn't actually match what's going on in the ground the ritoric doesn't match the the reality so i think that the trade unions it's incumbant upon trade unions this isn't a matter of what's legal or illegal it's a matter of what's right or wrong are we going to stand like nazi war criminals uh you and just say well we were just ' following the law, we were just doing our job, are we are we actually going to try to stop this genocide which is happening on our watch?

yeah, well we'll just pause the discussion there for moment, just to watch our next report now about celtic's namesake that was established in palestine in 2019. uh, in a celtic is the name of football team which grew out of the palestine solidarity work of the green brigade, the infamous match against the israeli team hapolsheva in 2016, ufo find the club total of more than 8,00 pounds for the crime of flying hundreds of palestinian flags. these constituted illicit banners. the green brigade launched a hashtag on twitter #matchthefine for palestine. from gaza to the west bank, palestinians showed their support and thanks for the campaign, photographs of children and medical volunteers displaying. the hashtag appeared, video messages from aida camp in bethlehem filtered through, a

gazan football team posed the longsider, thank you celtic love from gaza banner. these actions laid the foundation for legacy beyond the campaign. donations flooded in from all over the world. the initial target was quickly surpassed in more than 180£, was eventually raised. the money was divided between medical aid for. palestinians and the laji center from ahida refugee camp near bethlehem in the illegally occupied west bank. iida celtic, football academy was launched in 2019. since october 7th, iida celtic have faced harsh challenges and the solidarity has continued. according to academic study, aida refugee camp is the most targas space on earth. on november the 26th, over 100% tear gas canisters were fired into the camp, many landing on the football pitch.

on october the 25th, the poet and writer, dr. rafat alayer posted on x, the bombs are falling, as i am writing this, celtic fans are amazing, thank you from gaza, from under the israeli bombs, your solidarity means a lot to us. in december, fans were quick to point out that dr. alarer had been murder. by designist at the end of november, who staff member dima alhaj was murdered alongside her husband, their six month old baby boy and her two brothers. over 50 family and community members sheltering in the same house also died. al-haj was a former glasgow university masters students who had been in close touch with celtic fans. at one in the morning on the 10th of december, 2023, occupation forces invaded aida camp and broke into the laji

center to remove the palestine flag which proudly flew from its roof. the flag pole was cut. with an electric saw and stolen alongside the flag. the poll was later installed on the occupation base, which overlooks a camp, flying the zinanis flag. by sunday evening, new palestine flag was proudly flying from the laji center roof once again. as ida celtic posted in response, they have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one palestinian. doesn't want to be broken, david, the green brigade, the they're excoriated, aren't they in certain quarters and and yeah they they played a blinder didn't they in the uh development of celtic, yes, so they did this hashtag and they raised all this huge sum of money, which which more than 20 times almost

paid the fine, and they give all the rest of the money to bit palestinians and for the to creat. this club which of course now is a is is a going concern in idea camp uh which of course as we've seen is you know heavily tier most heavily teargus place on earth it's it's said so this was a an amazing way of turning round this oh you support terrorism kind of argument into saying well actually there's this practical solidarity coming from glasgow which is actually aiding the resistance uh in the west bank against designers so i mean extraordinary and it led to huge outporing of uh celebrity support uh musicians giving them money, of course the the special uh football strips that they've done with the palestinian flag and the celtic strip and of course the logo of primal scream glasgow band with irish connections so all of that is is part of the mix yeah yeah well steve i mean what's your take a der celtic and and how this experiment has actually gone well i think it's wonderful

i think that the palestinians now recognize that the support are getting from the irish despora and people in... school who are supporting celtic and i think it's terrific, i think uh resistance isn't just about violence and actually the the occupied people's right to oppose the occupation, it's also cultural, it's also through sport and whatever form it takes wherever people come together in large numbers like football teams then um the resistance is is what happens and resistance to designist occupation and i'm absolutely absolutely so proud that my my club celtic. a hand in aiding that resistance in palestine uh by giving all that money that they raised uh you know uefa uefa tried the uh stimy resistance in celtic park and what happened is resistance sprung up in palestine because of that because of the funds that were raised and i think that's magnificent yeah meanwhile of course davids have been actively trying to subvert the green brigade

aren't they yes so the are the israeli football association made a compl made the complaint which led to fine which led to them having the hashtag campaign which led to the fantastic work that they've done in in the west bank and of course you know the designs then under also flood we saw in the film there i 1 o'clock in the morning breaking into the the football club taking their flag taking the flag pool and then using the flag pool to to fly the israeli flag in the in the occupation base over looking them mean how ridiculous is that it's incredible that they that the occupation stoops to that kind of thing but seen this time and time again in the last three months, the the humiliation, the theft of of people's things, even that case of the the british idf, uh so-called idf soldier rifling through the the laungery draw of a palestinian woman, absolutely incredible, the depths to which thesires are stooping, no indeed, well steve, it seems

that the uh camp is perhaps the most tear gas place on earth, and i mean what should we make of the... design is the tax on refugee camps and and children's football. well look um israel is just rook state now and that's a rog state that's getting back by the united states and what we see is um just incredible things i mean the the're gassing people and gassing children at the football uh their murdering children 800 children now are dead in palestine and we see the united states baking this united states biting crying crocodile tears he could cut off the money any stage he just they stop funding israel and it would stop, so this pretends that uh america are somehow trying to interven in a good way, is it's just a potence, it's just the by time, but i think that the what what what is? remarkable and i grew up by the way in dear getting tear gassed by the british army and they they would go around the discriminantly gassing people uh in the boxside and the craig and and other nationalis areas so again that's that's why

we support palestine because we've experienced it ourselves and i think that the more you oppressed people the more they fight back for every every person that they've killed in palestine it's going to be 10 people their family or their their friends who are going to want to pick up a gun and resist i mean that's the reality of the situation so what is really doing is is everybody there. everybody they guess, they dig in their own grave, no, indeed, and the the uh, the images of the occupation soldiers forcibly uh removing the the flag and the the flag pole, it kind of suggests a sort a level of, well can we put it, contemptible pettiness, doesn't it? yeah, i mean, we have seen a veritable catalogue, i think even those of us who have known and thought that... 'zionism was genocidal from the beginning um how perhaps have been surprised by the level of pettiness and sheer brutality and the parading of men in their underwear

and forcing them to to denounce hamas uh the the the shooting of uh people waving white flags as they try to move in the direction told they've been told to move by the zinas mean it's truly despicable and the levels'. of brutality of contempt that that you see - in in in the in the propaganda, i mean the example of those the the four women who are held uh by uh the resistance factions have been the resistance has been denounced by all these zins propaganda saying these poor girls are held by the evil hamas and of course what they are failing to to know is that these are women who are active duty um military officials who who... 'who are soldiers who've been who have been taken as hostages or or prisoners by the resistance factions and and we see no understanding uh from from the

zionists that that what they're doing here is a brutal genocidal occupation and it needs to stop and there is absolutely no understanding of that displayed by almost any zionist in the uk the us or anywhere else and that's a sign really of depth of misunderstanding the zianists have have have revealed'. they do not understand the horrors that everyone else sees, and that's why of course isn't must uh be totally ended as an ideology, no indeed, mean i saw just before we we went on air to get more images of of palestinians being being stripped and and held and you humiliated in that way, but just to return back to if i may to uh to the uh to the to the green brigade, because mean you know as well as holding banners aloft proclaiming support for the resistance. and so on, i mean it seems in many ways that you know they're making a more of a significant political stand than the uh official - palestine solidarity campaign, yes, so you saw the some

the banners there, i mean end zionism is a is a is a remarkable one really, because end the the official palestine solidarity movement, we cannot talk about zionism an open way, we can't talk about ending zionism and we can't really talk in the end much about genocide, so the the the politics of the green brigade is way in advance so... official palestine solidarity movement attached to this palestine solidarity committee now of course in scotland as you'll recall we've had mick on from this scottish palestine solidarity campaign, the scottish palestine solidarity campaign is of a peace with the green brigade, much more advanced its politics and what we need to see in this the palestine solidarity movement is move towards a much more militant sense of solidarity with palestine and and no mely mouth stuff about about or we can't talk about zionism, zyanism is genocidal ideology, it has to be removed. and destroyed from the world and that we have to do that by resisting wherever it is, and the palestine solidarity movement, it seems to me could learn some lessons from the green brigade, indeed, indeed, and i think uh, the

the grassroot support is moving well ahead isn't it of the of of the official campaign, but unfortunately uh, we're going to have to draw the discussion to a close now because we're right out of time, i'd like to thank our guest steve headley and of course our resident expert professor david miller, palestiny classified, we'll be back next week with more forensic investigations and analysis, but in the meantime you can follow... show on facebook, twitter and telegram where we post regular clips and updates and remember to share today's program on your social media platforms to help us continue growing our audience, so until next time, this is chris williamson saying bye for now. to occupy palestine to expel palestinians

from their homes. and to kill them at will, they needed excuse, so they called the land their own homeland overnight, asuring in a dark chapter in the history of the world, but shall the owners of the land return home?

the headlines on press tv: 100 days of us israely genocide in the gaza strip, the number of palestinians killed in the israeli strikes is nearing 24, the leader of lebanon's resistance movement hezballah says israel has been trying to cover up his failures in the garzan strip. and us officials reportedly say much of yamen's offensive ability in the red see remains intact despite the recent us de air strikes on the country.