Nir Bitton

In my opinion the onus here really falls on the player, not the club. The club wouldn't know a players personal beliefs, but a player can certainly get a feel for a club before moving to it.

Well, that's on him and his agent I'm afraid. What we can be certain of is that he is all too aware of how a lot of our fanbase feels now.

He's been here almost a year, so why he would post something like he did is absolutely baffling. Unless, of course, he doesn't mind getting the grief for it?

 

Agreed, I'd just add that, complicit though the US government is in all this, some of Zionism's most articulate and passionate critics are American and the majority of US citizens would be appalled if their media actually reported what their ally (and indeed their tax money!) was doing in the region.

 

So let me get this right.
Waving a flag or singing your national anthem can be a show of support for your country and government.
We don't want any players who have shown support for any country that has taken part in any conflict...ie middle east.
No players that have made any show of support for anything we don't like.
We should also really get rid of anyone who has been convicted of a crime.
And don't get me started on any player that does not show the manager or staff the utmost respect.

 

:smiley-laughing002:

 

I am sure as * NOT in support of Palestine. Or Israel for that matter.
If they want to go on killing each other for some land then let them * do it.
Biton is an idiot for posting that message as is Stokes for his message although, with Stokes message i agree with him about the murder of those 4 children.
Professional sportsmen and women should know better than to make statements like these that most certainly will be picked up by MSM.
Celtic players shouldn't give the gutter press in Scotland even more ammunition.

 

It's not the conflict that's the problem; it's more the forced exodus of a people, the decades long apartheid regime, the killing bordering on genocide, the deliberate flouting of international law, the targeting of civilians and even children...

 

Whoops. I'll just edit that.

 

I agree all players should know the club well and it's supporters there representing, i just don't believe most youngsters take the time to research..

I reckon he does know by now how the support feels about the situation over there and that it's a bit of both in terms of why he chose to put that out last night.. Part genuine for his people and what he believes and second part because of the way our support supports Palestine and i reckon it clearly doesn't sit well with him..

 

Sorry but for me this is bollocks. What you're basically saying here is akin to Rangers telling their Catholic players they are not free to bless themselves when they take the field. I would hope you don't condone that.

Biton is an Israeli citizen and if he has himself served in the IDF in the past then it is hardly surprising that he is supportive of them and supportive of his government. Rather than pinning the blame on Biton and saying he should have researched the attitude of a section of the Celtic support towards the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, perhaps the club should have researched Biton's beliefs or made it clear to him before signing him that keeping quiet on the subject might be in his best interests.

The whole Palestinian flag thing at Celtic matches is an irritation to me so I'm not going to castigate Biton for thinking the way he does. Flying flags pertaining to a conflict in the Middle East at a Scottish Football match is * stupid as far as I'm concerned. Those flags have no place in that arena.

If the fans turn against Biton en masse over this and force him out of the club then I think that will be a sad thing. Hopefully this will be nothing more than another internet storm in a teacup and Biton can get back to doing what he does best - playing football for Celtic.

 

There's a difference between playing for the Israeli national side and condoning Operation Protective Edge or the murder of 227 Palestinians, to put it plainly. Stop trying to be a smart-*.

 

Do away with those Irish flags while we're at it.

 

Well as the player is Israeli its no surprise what his views are, so perhaps the club should do more homework ? Or are we going to go down the road of just not signing Israeli's ?

 

It is also worth noting that Israel played a major role in creating what Hamas is. They encouraged them from the beginning as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the PLO and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat's Fatah. In the 1970's Mujama Al-Islamiya (a early part of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's Islamists "network") was giving charity status by Israel. The main goal of this charity was to spread the works of Sayyid Qutb.

When Israel took control of Gaza from Egypt they tracked down (and often killed) Fatah and other secular PLO factions. At the same time they removed the restrictions on the Muslim Brotherhood which had been put in place by Gamal Abdel Nasser. This allowed them to create this terrorist monster.

Israel never gave monetary support but they used the Islamists to try and destroy the PLO.

 

Got to consider the reality of the time, nobody wanted the jews, it wasn't just the nazis who were prosecuting them, Britain was quite vocal on not wanting a "Jewish problem" and stopped hundreds of thousands crossing the channel. The restoration of a Jewish state in the area must have seemed sensible at the time. It was wrong that it happened at the exspense of Palestine, but you now have millions of jews living in the area, most of which will have been born there, they have just as much right to live there as the Palestinians now.

 

Not posted in absolutely ages but reading this thread has wound me up a little. If Biton had read up on Celtic as a club before signing then he would have noticed hundreds upon hundreds of posts every single day by Celtic fans on Twitter/Facebook/fans forums claiming Celtic are a club "open to all."

Now we are just a club open to all except those who disagree by the looks of it? He has been brought up believing Israel is right in all of this - the fact that most on here disagree with that fact does not mean the man should never wear the Hoops again. He's a football player, let him play football.

 

Yeah that's totally the same thing.

 

Basically to summarise some of the guys on here sticking up for Biton

If Adolf Hitler was playing for us and expressed his views, it wouldn't matter as long as he performed on the park


Sickening


Stick to hashtagging "BeCeltic" you reprobates.

 

If a British player had served in the British Armed Forces and had posted a prayer for British soldiers slaughtering Irish civilians, I don't think the indoctrination argument would fly with as many of you.

 

Kayal's Israeli.

 

It's not like that at all. A more comparable situation would be a Catholic Irishman signing for Rangers then going on to post pro-IRA images on his Twitter.