THE CAMPAIGN
The Green Brigades group of Celtic fans are running a crowdfunding campaign for two Palestinian charities intended to match (approximately) the fines their club is expected to from UEFA.
The campaign is run over the hashtag #matchfineforpalestine and the crowdfunding page can be found at: https://www.gofundme.com/matchfinepalestine
The target charities are Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP, http://www.map-uk.org/) and the Lajee Centre for children in the Aida refugee camp in occupied West Bank's Bethlehem. The donations will be split between them 50/50.
The target of the campaign was originally 15 000 £, but after far outdoing expectations its currently set at 80 000 £ and is now at 75 274 £.
BACKGROUND:
The fines - and possibly a closure of their stadium from audience for one or two more matches - is a result of some of the audience holding and waving flags of Palestine in an Champions League match against a team from ethnically cleansed Palestine 1948.
The opposing team, Hapoel Be'er Sheva FC, was founded in the immediate aftermath of the Nakba in 1949. It's situated in the ethnically cleansed town of Beersheba, whose Grand Mosque - build as a result of a crowdfunding campaign of the time by local communities and finished in 1906 - has been turned into a museum by Israel, in which it has organized wine festivals.
Various authorities - both football ones and Scotland's police - had demanded that no Palestinian flags would be brought to the stadium for the match. Israel's embassy had also made a similar demand.
Afterwards Israeli lobby has demanded criminal punishment for the fans, for which there is no basis in law according to the Scotland's police forces.
UEFA IS TRYING TO ERASE PALESTINE
According to UEFA the flag of Palestine, whose football association is a member of FIFA, is banned as a "political statement". Somehow it has gotten past UEFA that the act of banning flags is also a political statement - in this case in favour of the occupier Israel.
Not to speak of the very political statement of accepting Israel, situated in Asia, into an European football organization and its contests.
UEFA, like Google with its maps, is trying to erase Palestine - which played official football matches already during the British mandate era - from existence. In this case from existence in the global football family in benefit of Israel.
SOURCES:
“A club like no other” Match the Fine for Palestine goes viral
Celtic fans vow to cover UEFA disciplinary fine & match it for Palestinian charities
Dispute over wine festival in Be'er Sheva mosque: 'Muslim rage' or Israeli hypocrisy?
IOA turns Grand Mosque of Beersheba into museum
Match the Fine for Palestine
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