David Singer: PLO-Hamas anti-England, anti-Israel Hatred Politicises FIFA World Cup

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Hatred against Britain and Israel surfaced in Gaza as England progressed its way through the World Cup to meet Sweden in the quarter finals.

One Gaza fan was outspoken:

“Of course I will support Sweden.

I can’t imagine a Palestinian supporting England, which created the Balfour Declaration, or not supporting the country that stood before the world and recognized our state.” 

The 1917 Balfour Declaration has never been forgotten or forgiven by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Hamas – both of whom consider the Declaration to be null and void – spending decades in spruiking this false message to their respective constituencies – fomenting Arab hatred against the Jews since the Declaration first called for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.

The fuming Gaza fan was expressing his resentment by barracking for Sweden – even though Sweden was one of the 51 countries that transformed the Balfour Declaration into binding international law by unanimously incorporating it in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922.

Our anguished fan was blissfully unaware of these facts having obviously not studied the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict. Anti-England prejudice was enough to back his decision to go for Sweden. True – Sweden had purged itself of its 1922 decision when officially recognizing the State of Palestine in October 2014 – making it the first major European Union member state to back the PLO’s statehood bid.

However in atoning for its 1922 sin, Sweden’s recognition of the “State of Palestine” was a fiction that failed to meet the requirements demanded in international law by Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention which states:

“The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications:

a. A permanent population

b. A defined territory

c. Government

d. Capacity to enter into relations with the other states

FIFA’s admission of the Palestinian Football Federation as a member of FIFA in 1988 had also contravened Article 10.1 of FIFA’s then governing articles:

'Any Association which is responsible for organising and supervising football in its country may become a Member of FIFA. In this context, the expression “country” shall refer to an independent state recognised by the international Community.'

FIFA started living in its own dream world 26 years before Sweden joined it. Who will replace Sweden as Britain’s nemesis was summed up by another fan:

“Anyone supporting England is supporting Israel itself. These teams represent their countries and governments and will raise their flags in the stands. How can I support the country that allowed the Jewish state on our land?”

The Gazan fans are in for a shock and a reality check when they begin choosing one of the three remaining teams – France, Belgium or Croatia – to topple the evil Brits.

France, Belgium and Croatia just happen to have all voted in favour of the Mandate for Palestine incorporating the Balfour Declaration.

The semi-finals, final and third-place playoff will be agony for Gazan viewers as one of these last four countries holds up the trophy on the winner’s podium come finals day – the others the three minor places - with their flags filling Gaza’s TV screens.

The moral is clear – international law cannot be turned on and off as circumstances dictate – because one day the perpetrator will become entrapped in the hopeless position that the Arab States, the PLO and Hamas now find themselves.

Throwing out binding international law – the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate for Palestine – and falsely creating fake international law – “the State of Palestine” – goes to the heart of why the Arab-Jewish conflict still remains unresolved in 2018.
 
(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

A Forlorn and Fuming Footy Fan (video)

Here's the guy who gives a whole new meaning to the term "football fanatic", before the game at Watford last Saturday with the usual Israel-demonising blarney and accompanying banners and leaflets.

Crowds are noticeably absent ("Maintenance work on the train network in preparation for Crossrail probably kept a lot of supporters away", explains video-maker Alex Seymour/Seymour Alexander in  uploading the footage to YouTube.)

The campaign to expel Israel from FIFA has hit a snag, and the star of the video forlornly fumes against UEFA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhR3Am_vmxQ

"We Need to Support Jeremy Corbyn — Back Him All the Way..."

Outside Wembley Stadium in London on 20 August, Israel haters familiar and not so familiar appear in this by no means uninteresting footage by video-maker and staunch BDSer Alex Seymour/Seymour Alexander, according to whom (we don't see them, unfortunately) pro-Israel passers-by made their feelings known.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWEpdgp9fZE

There's the loquacious Irishman who constantly campaigns to have Israel thrown out of Fifa (the campaign literature has now been translated into several languages, we hear him say.

There's the rather plummy-voiced grey-haired lady who's a ubiquitous sidekick to Sandra Watfa (the lady seen on many a Seymour video who inveighs against Israel at countless demos in London including, this year, the Al Quds Day excrescence).  Here outside the stadium Sandra's sidekick is seen handing out leaflets to football fans arriving for the game.

Another familiar Israel-hater is the little lady of Jewish origin whose "Israel is an apartheid state" spiel in front of Seymour's lens includes a plaintive charge that "The media seem to focus on how wonderful Israel is".  (Ever watched the BBC, darling?)*

A young woman in sun glasses tells Seymour that she has been "a life-long supporter of Palestine," that "Unfortunately they [those pesky Zionists] have a lot of support, a lot of power ... a lot of lobbying, a lot of power" and asserts that, to turn the tide, "We need to support Jeremy Corbyn — back him all the way ..."

But my favourite scene in the video comes when Seymour asks a darkly handsome young man in a keffiyah, who's expressed appreciation of the demo, "Where are you from?"  

"I'm from Gaza" the smiling young man replies.

"You managed to get out?" 

"Yah!" the Gazan readily assures Seymour.  He'll be returning home in a month's time.

 (Not the answer to the Israel-haters' prayers, eh, undermining as it does the "Gaza is a prison" trope that's part and parcel of their bag of tricks.)

*Talking of the BBC, see BBC Watch here for the despicable claim of BBC World Service correspondent Max Pearson that ".... Just the phrase ‘tension in the Middle East’ has become shorthand for referencing the decades of mistrust between Jews and Arabs following the creation of the State of Israel, carved – as it was – out of land which had belonged to the Palestinians...."

"Why Are You Boycotting Israel, Why Aren't You Boycotting Iran ...?" (videos)

Outside Sotheby's in London, a gaggle of familiar figures unfurl their flags and unleash their slander of Israel; it's the same old stuff, screamed by Sandra, the lady with the beautiful hair and powerful lungs, except that, rather early in the footage (so no need to stay around for the raucous ranting), passers by (I counted three in all) politely challenge the demonisers.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEtWlXdE7B4

A second Alex Seymour video from the Old Dart, featuring, to a background track of a tinkling old joanna, footsteps hurrying past a demonstration by the Kick Apartheid Israel Out of Fifa brigade outside the stadium where Spurs and Watford are about to play.

Suddenly, the dulcet tones of Alex Seymour/Seymour Alexander himself are heard, interviewing the loquacious Irishman with whose face and voice we have all become so well-acquainted.

Some time ago, the latter and the grey-haired woman who appears in the above video as a sidekick (no pun intended) to Sandra had a habit of boarding London Tube trains and reciting anti-Israel "poetry" to the hapless captive audience.

But this man's main shtik is getting Israel kicked out of FIFA, and as he regretfully explains on camera, there's no chance of that happening this year.  But it might happen next.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHOKbc-uzAk

Oh, and talking of next year, how's this for whacko?

Mischievous, actually.  So very mischievous and evil indeed.

"Kick Israel Out of FIFA" Fanatics upstaged by an Evangelical Preacher (video)

Here are the "Kick Israel out of FIFA" brigade outside the Spurs vs Aston Villa game in London at the weekend, spewing, courtesy of their loquacious Irish-accented spokesperson, their usual bile.

Unhappily for them, they find themselves unexpectedly sharing their patch with an old-tyme Evangelical preacher:

(Mr AlexSeymour video)

Meanwhile, across the La Manche, more BDS mischief (scroll down for English translation)

These Legs Were Made for Walking (video)

While fanatics fume, football fans (mostly) walk on by.

Another glimpse (courtesy of arch-BDSer Alex Seymour) of those "Kick Israel out of FIFA" types, this time during the match between Crystal Palace and Chelsea at the former's home ground, Selhurst Park, at the weekend.

A strange touch is provided by the guy who poses for his photo in front of the "Israeli apartheid" signs and then, when asked by an expectant Seymour whether he supports the Palestinian cause, reveals that he can hardly speak English and doesn't know what the demo's all about.

"There's a Name for That & it's Antisemitism": Some Snippets

Alan Dershowitz talks to Jonathan Sacerdoti regarding the exhibition at London's Hinde Street Methodist Church, about which David Collier writes here and Archbishop Cranmer (hat tip: Ian G.) here, as well as (with additional material) Richard Millett here, all three writers showing the vile antisemitism the exhibition has unleashed:

 Ben White's ten cents' worth:

(Is that the Stephen Leah of York PSC, author of Israel-demonising lyrics set to the music of well-loved hymns?; I seem to recall anti-Israel soprano Deborah Fink warbling one, in a church.)

Jenny Tonge and friends approve the  White piece:

Girls set off for Gaza:

On a bus stop outside a Jewish school in North London, just some of the crude antisemitic grafitti scrawled there on 16 September (h/t: DC):

In Newport, Wales, on 15 September, one of the PSC's squalid little demos, plus a comment (inset) from Welsh Greens' leader Bartolotti:

'Around 50 Pro-Palestine protestors gathered in Newport this afternoon to rally against Israel's European football union membership. The protest began outside the Westgate Hotel at 4pm, ahead of the game between Wales women and the Israel women's side at Rodney Parade. Members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) aimed to lead a march to the stadium before the Euro 2017 qualifying group game, but were stopped by police when crossing Newport city footbridge. There were reports of anti-Israel shouts inside the ground after the anthems though. But security carted out those responsible, according to eyewitnesses. Members of the PSC said the were holding the protest because Israel "should be boycotted until it abides by international law and gives the Palestinians their human rights”....

Joining the protest was Ella Furness, from a group called Easton Cowgirls, a women’s football team who went over to Palestine to play football with the women there. Miss Furness said she was excited to be a part of the protest, and hoped it would raise further awareness of the situation in Palestine....'

(Ella Furness and the gals would of course be better employedpersuading Islamic countries to allow women to participate in sports instead of picking on Israel!  Strange, eh, that they don't seem to think of that?!)

On 24 September, before the Arsenal vs Chelsea match, some familiar voices and faces:

(It seems the little lady in the baseball cap and friends who want Israel expelled from FIFA have met a bit of a snag, since FIFA has changed its rules on expulsion, as the guy with the Irish accent explains in this Alex Seymour video)

To quote the uploader:

Demo by Football Against Apartheid calling for the expulsion of Israel from FIFA. The action took place immediately before the local derby game at the Arsenal in front of supporters rushing to the match and beneath a police drone.

"There Should Be No Racism in Football" (video)

"There should be no racism in football" says the first interviewee in this Alex Seymour video from outside the Wembley Stadium before the FA Cup Final last week in which Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 2:1.

No, indeed.  And that sentiment should extend to the Israel-haters who spend so much of their time working to get Israel thrown out of FIFA.

 To quote the maker and uploader:

"Manchester United playing against Crystal Palace, two teams with Football Against Apartheid supporters amongst their fans. We were at the magnificent stadium at Wembley to leaflet and spread the word amongst football's devotees that Israel, as the only country in the world currently practicing apartheid in both sport and in day to day life, should not be allowed to get away with it and has to be penalized where it will most affect the man in the Tel Aviv street, by being excluded from FIFA, as part of the general BDS campaign to free the people of Palestine from the yoke of Israel's near 50 year occupation."

There's a  particular irony in all this. Something to do with violations of human rights. I'm drawing attention to it, inter alia, on my blogpost on Elder of Ziyon this Tuesday.  So please watch that space. (Update: See here)

Meanwhile, even the BBC is not hiding this example of anti-Jewish racism

From the UK, a Quartet of Video Nasties

More anti-Israel fanaticism from nasties in the UK.

Nasties demonstrate against Thales:

A camp follower of "Jewish heritage" aids and abets the usual suspects who seek to expel Israel from FIFA:

Same occasion, different interviewees, courtesy of arch-BDSer Alex Seymour:

 And here the faithful camp follower joins a "poet" from Exeter set upon the same noxious goal:

"They've Got It Coming, They'll Soon Be Running, 'Cos This Land Belongs to Palestine" (video)

Some familiar and not so familiar faces in this video outside Arsenal's football ground before the Arsenal/Watford match on 2 April.

There's quite a bit of hustle and bustle in this footage by BDSer Alex Seymour, and two youngsters bubble with enthusiasm for the anti-"apartheid" cause.  The goal (no pun intended) here is to expel Israel from the sport's governing body FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association).

The "singer" may be considered to provide comic relief, but stick with the video until the end to learn the burden of the song: "The Zionist losers and their friends the abusers/They've all got it coming/They'll soon be running/ 'Cos this land belongs to Palestine..." Makes a change from the usual Israel-hating chants, I suppose.