Palestinian flags fly inside Celtic Park

PRO-PALESTINIANS PROTESTED as Glasgow football club Celtic played Israeli team Hapoel Beersheva this week.

Activists displayed Palestinian flags and chanted anti-Israel slogans at the Champions League qualifying match at Celtic Park on Wednesday evening.

A small group of demonstrators shouted “Israel is a racist state” and “Viva Palestina” on the concourse outside the ground. They were policed by several officers mounted on horseback.

Stanley Lovatt, the honorary Israeli consul in Scotland who was at the game, said he saw “a couple of dozen protesters” before kick-off.

He added: “There was a flurry of Pal- estinian flags inside the ground just as the game started, but absolutely no trouble at all.”

Before the match, hundreds of fans had joined a Facebook page titled “Fly the flag for Palestine, for Celtic, for Justice”, calling on supporters to display the flags as a protest against Israel.

A group called Celtic Fans for Palestine set up the page. It called on Celtic fans to use their “democratic rights to display our opposition to Israeli apartheid”.

Celtic were warned by Uefa, European football’s governing body, that the club could face sanctions if protesters displayed flags in the ground.

The was a flurry of flags inside the ground before kick-off