news in brief this hour, the yemeny army says it has talked to another american ship in the gulf of aden with appropriate naval missiles and supported the people of gaza. it added that the recent attacks on yemen by the united states and the uk will not go unanswered and unpunished. a un rights expert slams israel's measures in gaza as violation of international law, describing them as highly illegal and highly unlawful. the un special raporter on the occupied palestinian territories says the regime used 6,00 bombs per week during the first two weeks of his regression alone. the iraqi prime minister

reiterates government's opposition to the presence of us forces. mama shia sadani says american troops must leave as daesh is no longer a threat to iraq. he says ending us military presence is crucial for iraq security and stability. fresh israely attacks on gaza bring the total death toll of this invasion to over 24,600, mostly women and children with. nearly 62,00 others wounded. israel has lately stepped up his strikes on the southern areas in the gazas sriff. and another palestinian journalist has been martied following israeli strikes on the gaza strip while abu fanuna, the chief executive officer at quts today satellite channel, was killed in israeli strikes in central gaza city. nearly 120 journalists have been killed by the regime's occupation forces. since

october the 7th. why do you think little boys are going stones at tanks and we'll never really know how many people are dead they drop bombs on innocent girls while they sleep in the bed. israel is a terror state the terrorists that terrorize i'll testify my television television. how many more resolutions have to be violated, how many more children have to be annihilated, this is not a war, it is systematic genocide, but whatever they try, palestine will never die, 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, usually referred to by its initials uefa, has even imposed fines. amina of taylor has this report about a group of celtic fans known as the green brigade who display their solidarity with palestine at celtic 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, of

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 attention 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 of in solidarity, they said, "we want palestinians to know we're thinking about them and encouraged..." civil society to look

at the injustice in palestine. in 2016, celtic were find 8,619 pounds by uefa for supporters flying palestinian flags at an august 2016 uefa match against israeli team hopel bershiva at celtic park. the green brigade launched a crowd funder to raise 10£,000 to pay the fine, but in the end raise £1888, 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 kilmanuk, surrounded by palestine. 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 onfurled the same large banners that

read 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, uefa 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 23rd of december last year and emits sea of banned palestinian flags, unveils a banner quoting a section of a prisoner's christmas song: many homes, they are satinite, they whisper someone's name by the candelight, 20,000 plus killed, 8,000

plus children. the spirit of resistance is strong in celtic park as it is in gaza. all power to the green brigade. 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 watch dog 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. he's 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. 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, connely was actually a bernian supporter, um, he was instrumentally big hibernian fan, which was another irish team in in edinburgh, but um, 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 then settlers to ireland, taken our land, tried they uh have a genocide by a so-called famin that was stealing our food, so we naturally as an oppressed people, sited with other oppressed peoples like the palestinians, if you think that the in the 1840s the irish were fleeing and dying in their millions, we see that exactly is what's happening in palestine now, and we want the show up most solidarity with those people, and the the people in celtic park, the green

brigades and the celtic ultras and others a large large crowd outside of the green brigade support palestine 100% and do everything in their power to raise the issue the palestinian. w 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% uh catholic, yeah, almost all uh of irish origin and to regard themselves as as being irish and of irish origin, you can see it in the flags and uh in celtic park and in the 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 settler 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 and still not decolonized ireland fully is the reason why there's still an actual issue in the north of ireland so people people in the north of ireland naturally republicans there 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 protestant 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 i mean what do you think is happening with descent over palestine in this country? well i think there's been a deliberate attempty oppress all the centre to and that, but um, even news about palestine, real news, and if we look at, there's now

been over 100 journalists killed in less than two months in palestine, and you know, what were do, what were, what people are doing itseltic is try to get that news and raise the profile of palestinians and we are in a position where we're slipping in the authoritarianism, we have this ridiculous spectacle where people who are quite happy to see children blowing 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 seasfire 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 'who can't express their their freedoms of speech in this country? no indeed, he's absolutely

right there, isn't he dead, but it's not actually um illegal is it to to support the resistance and we're seeing all these arrests and and clampdows, it's rather od, well so there's a contradiction in 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 isn't on the list, but more broadly speaking of course what resistance refers to, including armed resistance, it's 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 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 someh genocidal and supportive of terrorism, but of course people are not being dissuaded 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, st, i mean, 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 achieved? we have the royal fleet auxilillary which has got rmt members now it in the red

sea supporting genocide now those members aren't supporting the genocide but the leaders are doing nothing about balloting those members are instructing them not the work similarly you've got members of unite members of the gmb who are involved in technological firms and even arms manufacturers that are selling uh goods the 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 said 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? 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. aida celtic is the name of football team which grew out the palestine solidarity work of the green brigade at the infamous match against the israeli team hapalol bercheva. in 2016, ufo find the club, total of more than 8,00 lbs 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 ida 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 180,000 was eventually raised. the money was divided between medical aid for palestinians and the laji center from ida refugee camp near bethlehem in the illegally occupied west bank. aida celtic, football academy was launched in 2019. since october 7th, ida c faith harsh challenges and the solidarity has continued. according to academic study, aida refugee camp is the most tier gas space on earth. on november the 26th, over 100 tier 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 murdered by the zianist. 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 student 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 aida 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 who doesn't want to be broken. "david, the green brigade, they're excuriated aren't they in certain quarters and yeah they they played a blinder didn't they in the uh development of - saltic, yeah, 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 betically palestinians and for the to create this club, which of course now is a is a going concern." a camp uh, which of course as we've seen is you know heavily tear most heavily teargas 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 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 yes ye 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 glasgow 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 uh my my club celtic had a hands in aiding that resistance in palestine. by giving all that money that they raised - 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, david, the designs have been actively trying to subvert the green birgade, aren't they? yes, so the the israeli football association

made a compl made the complaint which led to the 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, the designs then under - of flood we saw in the film there, i mean that one 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 we've 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 shocking. of a palestinian woman, absolutely incredible, the depths to which designers are stoping, no indeed, well steve, it seems that the uh camp is perhaps the most teargas place on earth, and i mean

what should we make of the zianist attacks on refugee camps and and children's football? well look, um, israel is just roke state now and that's a rogue state that's getting back by the united states and what we see is um just incredible things, i mean the... gassing people and gassing children at the football uh their murdering children 8 children now are dead in palestine and we see the united states back in this united states biting crying crocodile tears he could cut off the money any stage he just needs to 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 pretense it's just the by time but i think that the what what what is remarkable and i grew up by the way in derry getting tiergas by the british army and they they would go round the discriminantly gassing people uh in the bog side and the craging and and other nationalist there is so again that's that's why we support palestine because we've experienced it ourselves and i think that the

more you oppress people the more they fight back for every every person that they've killed in palestine is going to be 10 people their family or their their friends who who are going to want to pick up a good and resist i mean that's the reality of the situation so what is really doing is is everybody they oppress everybody they gas they're taking their own grave yeah. indeed and the the uh the images of the occupation soldiers forcibly uh removing the the flag and the the flag poll it kind of suggests a a sort of level of what can we put it contemptible patiness doesn't it? yeah mean we have seen a a veritable catalogue think even those of us who have known and thought that zionism was genocidal uh 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 uh

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 ziners i mean it's truly despicable and the levels of brutality of contempt that that you see... 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 military officials 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 the zionist 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 or anywhere else and that's a sign really of depth of misunderstanding the zines have have revealed they do not understand the horrors that everyone else sees and that's why of course sianism must uh be totally ended as an ideology, no, 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 want to just to return back to if i may to uh to the uh to the to the green brigade because mean uh you know as well as holding banners aloft you know proclaiming support for the resistance and so on, mean it seems in many ways that you know they're making a more of a significant political stand than the official palestine solidarity campaign, yes, so you saw the the some of the banners there, mean enzionism is a is a is a remarkable one

really, because 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 of the 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 paladine solidarity campaign, the scottish palestine solidarity campaign is all a peace with the green brigade, much more advanced than its politics and what we need to see is... 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 zianism. zianism is genocidal ideology, it has to be uh removed and destroyed from the world and 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. 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 hedley 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 the 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. with other politicians uh just to spare head the independence total independence of congo and today we are proud of him. uh as hero to

know what's what is your fight and uh how far you are ready to go for that, because if you do that you will inspire your community and your community will inspire a big bigger community and that's that's how you change the world left us a great legacy that is working for. the people and uh avoiding influence from from uh uh western countries.

10 years of chaos and war in syria, the ruins left in syria, who benefits from the continuation? of this war, what is the view the west, particularly america towards war in syria and the support of many countries for creating chaos in syria? why syria, a different narrative?

your headlines for this hour, the yemen army says it has targeted another american ship in the gulf of aden with appropriate naval missiles in support of the people of gaza. the iraki prime minister once again calls for the withdrawal of us forces from the country. saying it is crucial for iraq's security and stability, and the un human rights expert slams israel's measures in gaza as violation of international law, describing them as highly illegal and highly unlawful.