A decade of Lajee Celtic: The Palestinian club whose fans include Cantona

The football club founded in a West Bank refugee camp has built a global movement of solidarity. Save Share London, United Kingdom –Nearly 200 people packed into Edami, a small Lebanese bakery in east London, to celebrate a decade of Lajee Celtic, a grassroots sports club based in a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. What began as a football project has grown into an international symbol of solidarity. In London, the room was filled with Palestinian flags, the aroma of Edami’s freshly baked manousheh, and Lajee Celtic shirts – which have been worn by celebrities, including football icon Eric Cantona and the actor Hannah Einbinder. Martin, a Lajee Celtic organiser, travelled down from Glasgow for the celebration in September. He first visited Aida Camp, in the occupied West Bank, more than 10 years ago, a trip he described as life-changing. “I don’t think anyone would really have expected that the project would have been as successful as it’s been,” said Martin, who requested to be identified by his first name. “But Celtic is a unique football club with its foundation, its Irish identity, the diaspora community, its universal support and then the values, which tie so much of that together.” The relationship between Aida Camp, where Lajee is based, and Celtic supporters developed over years. Mohammed al-Azzeh, director of the Lajee Centre, which provides services to the youth of the camp, remembers how it all began. “We’d built up relationships with friends from Scotland and Ireland who had visited Palestine, and then in 2012, I travelled to Glasgow for the first time. We started to have conversations about creating a football academy,” he recalled. By 2015, the idea was taking shape when a group of footballers from the camp travelled to Belfast to play a game. Then came the 2016 Champions League draw. Celtic were paired with Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva. Supporters ignored warnings that displaying Palestinian flags could result in a fine. As the teams emerged, the stadium was transformed into a sea of Palestinian flags, an action led by Celtic ultras, the Green Brigade. UEFA subsequently fined Celtic. The Green Brigade responded by launching the Match The Fine For Palestine campaign. Not to pay the fine, but to support Palestinian organisations, including with the formation of a football academy in Aida Camp. For al-Azzeh, it was a turning point. “The support and solidarity shown in that game was really a pivotal moment,” he said....