Search

Anti-Israel protest, hostile crowd disrupt Israeli-Scottish soccer match

An unruffled Israeli player ate pie thrown at him by angry Scottish fan.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Israel’s national soccer team faced off against Scotland in a World Cup qualifier in Glasgow on Saturday evening, with the Jewish State scoring a goal in the fifth minute of the game.

Although Scotland won 3-2 thanks to a dramatic overtime goal, the wild back-and-forth of the match was not the most memorable part of the event.

Rather, an anti-Israel protest outside the stadium that included signs that read “Victory to the Intifada” and loud boos, jeers, and whistling from the Scottish fans during the Israeli national anthem, emerged as the highlights of the game.

Last month, after the match was announced, protesters vandalized the bus ramp to the stadium, writing “Palestinian blood!” and “Free Gaza” in red paint.

The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign organized the Saturday afternoon protest at Hampden Park, writing on Twitter that Scotland should not play the Jewish State because Israel is “an apartheid state based on the rule of Israeli Jews over others.”

The group’s statement alleged that “Palestinian football is not exempt from Israel’s brutal occupation apartheid regime” and that IDF soldiers “have killed many promising young [soccer] players as part of its ongoing shoot-to-maim and shoot-to-kill policy against demonstrators.”

Read  WATCH: Hatikvah plays at start to Israel vs France soccer match

Protesters held Palestinian and Iranian flags, along with signs bearing messages including “Zionism is racism,” “Victory to the Intifada’ and “End Israeli apartheid.”

Fans in the stadium booed, jeered, and whistled while HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem, was played at the beginning of the match.

Scottish supporters also threw objects onto the pitch, including food.

Arab-Israeli player Muanas Dabbur was struck by a piece of pie, which was hurled at him by a Scottish fan after he scored Israel’s second goal of the match.

In one of the more comical moments in the game, the unruffled Dabbur simply picked the pieces of pie off his shorts and began eating them.