ALL seven Scottish Green MSPs have backed a parliamentary motion for a sporting boycott of Israel.
The motion was put forward by SNP member James Dornan and calls for Scotland to lead the way in sporting boycotts in order to “isolate Israel internationally”.
This comes amid widespread campaigning to “Show Israeli Genocide the Red Card”, which calls for Israeli teams to be excluded from sporting events such as UEFA and FIFA.
This campaign was given significant support by Celtic’s Green Brigade, who organised tifos last month with banners saying “Show ‘Israel’ the Red Card”.
James Dornan, MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, submitted a motion last month asking for parliament to consider “that the Scottish Government must lead the way in calling for sporting boycotts, as an effective way to isolate Israel internationally, in order to help end what it sees as the apartheid regime in Palestine, pursuant to the freedom of Palestinian people”.
The motion states: “That the parliament recognises what it sees as the important work that campaigners in Scotland have done in the last year to highlight the campaign, Show Israel the Red Card, which aims to highlight what it considers to be the injustices of Israel’s ongoing participation in sporting events while, it believes, breaching sporting statutes and international law.”
He also “welcomes” the support of the campaign by Celtic FC supporters, who state: “Football is an incredibly powerful tool.
“If the football world unites to isolate ‘Israel’, then other areas will inevitably follow this example”.
Last week, the Green Brigade Ultras stated that there would be no traditional tifo for the weekend game due to a refusal by the Celtic Board.
They stated: “Last month, thousands of Celtic fans willingly participated in a tifo to ‘Show ‘Israel’ the red card’.
“This launched a global campaign of almost 150 similar actions across 126 sports clubs from 31 countries and 6 continents.
“All followed the example of Celtic: A football club held in the highest esteem for reasons beyond sport.
“Despite demonstrable proof of widespread support for Palestine across the fanbase, the Celtic board continues to sanction our group, and individuals, for this sentiment.”
Now, the Scottish Green party has unanimously backed Dornan’s motion, alongside one SNP member and two Labour MSPs.
Scottish Sport for Palestine, who are dedicated to “Holding Scottish sport accountable for Z?onism” posted to social media about this support yesterday, saying: “Big shoutout to the Scottish Greens for being the first party to back the motion on a sporting boycott of Israel in the Scottish Parliament.
“The SNP is definitely falling behind here – this was their motion. Where’s the team support?
“Election year’s coming up…just sayin’ (sic)”
Patrick Harvie MSP, co-leader of Scottish Greens said today: “There can be no place in sport for apartheid or genocide. Banning Israel is a small but important symbolic step that can be taken to show support for peace and solidarity for civilians who are bearing the terrible cost of the ongoing assault.
“Sport is about bringing people together, but the years of atrocities that Israeli forces have inflicted have shown a total contempt for the rights and lives of Palestinians and for international law.
“Russia has rightly been excluded from some major cultural events in light of its brutal invasion of Ukraine. It is time for the same standard to be applied to Israel and other countries who are committing such grave abuses and showing such disregard for human lives.”
James Dornan MSP for Glasgow Cathcart said today: “I am delighted to see that the Greens unanimously supported my motion and want to thank them for taking this stance.
“If ever the need to show our disapproval of the behaviour of the Israeli government it is today on the back of their latest attack on the innocent people of Gaza.
“I hope others from all parties will now follow their example.”
