Scottish football must extend anti-racism action to Palestine
Scotland is of course delighted that our win against Israel left our men’s football team “one game away” from the Euro finals. Despite a lacklustre game on 8th October, Scotland won the penalty shoot out. Following our win against Serbia we are now in the Euro finals and a nation rightly celebrates!
What was less edifying in the Israel game was the pre-match coverage, which did not once mention the political situation whereby the government of Israel is occupying Palestinian land and oppressing the people of Palestine.
It seemed not to matter that the people in Gaza are living under siege with only a few hours of electricity every day and shortages of food, water and medicine. Or that between 500-700 Palestinian children between 12 and 17 are in Israeli military detention in direct contravention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Or that Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank with impunity. Or that according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, nearly 3,500 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza since 2009, when Netanyahu became the Prime Minister. Of these, 799 were children, and 342 women.
Surely somewhere in the pre-match narrative, some reference could have been made to this appalling state of affairs. After all, when interviewing the Deputy Israeli Ambassador to Scotland on Radio Scotland on the morning of the game, the interviewer managed to ask a question about antisemitism. If that was deemed relevant, as might indeed be considered legitimate, why not the deadly discrimination faced daily by the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government that she represents?
A petition to the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Scotland, called on the organisation to issue a public message of support and solidarity with their fellow football players in Palestine. After all, along with match officials, Palestinian footballers face constant harassment and worse from the Israeli military. Sports events have been disrupted, travel for sport forbidden, stadiums bombed, sportspeople imprisoned and Palestinian football players have even been deliberately shot and disabled for life by Israeli soldiers, leaving them unable to play football again.
We heard nothing of this in the mainstream media though and sadly no statement has been issued by PFA Scotland. It seems it was enough to win the game.
We commend the way that footballers have rightly challenged racism through Show Racism the Red Flag and Black Lives Matter. This same solidarity needs to be shown to the people of Palestine. As Mandela said of South Africa, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”