AFTER a season spent fighting fires of their own making, only to embrace unity in the final breaths of the title campaign, the Celtic board have taken less than a fortnight to reignite division between themselves and the club’s support.
Robbie Keane is currently among the bookies’ favourites for the vacant managerial position after what have been described as “constructive” talks with Celtic’s principal shareholder Dermot Desmond earlier this week. Now, there are perfectly legitimate footballing reasons to question interest in Keane.
His managerial experience remains relatively limited and his record is hardly exceptional by Celtic standards. But frankly, football is the least of our concerns.
Keane may not have much managerial experience under his belt, but he acquired some of it through a stint at Maccabi Tel Aviv, leading them to the Israeli Premier League title during the 2023/24 season. That same season, the bombardment of Gaza was intensified, and a humanitarian crisis erupted around 45 miles away from Bloomfield Stadium, which is home to Maccabi as well as Hapoel Tel Aviv and on occasion the Israeli national team.
It means that, while humanitarian organisations warned of children being starved to death, hospitals were flattened and entire bloodlines wiped from existence, Keane chose to work just dozens of miles away from the devastation, in the country responsible for it.
When questioned at the time, he said that he did not want to “get into politics” and that he was simply there as a “football man”.
The notion that football or sport somehow exists separately from politics is nothing other than a convenient myth.
Gaza and its people were being systematically destroyed. He might prefer to view his employment as a politically neutral decision, but it wasn’t one.
The idea that involvement with the Israeli state – in any way, shape or form – while it annihilates an entire population could possibly be considered politically neutral is absurd.
In almost every other context, we accept that the institutions we choose to work for, represent and associate ourselves with reflect something about our values.
We understand that choices have consequences and that public figures are open to judgement based on those choices.
Yet, when it comes to Israel, we are expected to entirely suspend that logic.
For almost three years now, the world has watched horrors unfold in Gaza that should have changed the way we think about Israel forever.
Tens of thousands have been killed. Not just in Gaza either, but across the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran – entire communities have been erased, starved or displaced while the international community watches on and does nothing.
I don’t pretend to know Keane’s personal moral leanings, but as an adult with agency over his own decisions, he should expect those decisions to be put under scrutiny. And he should expect to be judged accordingly given that he is interviewing for a job at Celtic.
I recently wrote about the club’s origins and the values that define its support, so I won’t dive back into it now – but the simple reality is that there are intrinsic reasons why any endorsement of the Israeli state sits so uncomfortably at Celtic Park, why his appointment would be such a sore insult to many.
THAT by no stretch of the imagination means that every Celtic supporter shares the same politics, or even demands that of a manager. What it does mean is that there are certain issues that strike a particularly deep chord with Celtic support because they echo experiences and struggles that are woven into the club’s own story. Palestine is unquestionably one of them.
Celtic fans have spent years making their position on Palestine abundantly clear, even intentionally fostering relations with the Palestinian people and sending delegations to the Lajee Center of Aida Refugee Camp in the West Bank.
Sustained activism and fundraising for Palestine have attracted attention from across the world on multiple occasions – more recently, the “Show Israel the Red Card Campaign” which saw fans adopting the slogan in an attempt to encourage Fifa and Uefa to ban Israeli teams from competitive football in response to the genocide.
Desmond knows that. I think it would be too generous to say that he has just misunderstood the moment he faces – there is simply no way that he can’t foresee the fallout that will ensue if he appoints Keane to the job.
The fallout that is already ensuing. Celtic Fans for the Liberation of Palestine released a statement earlier this week making it abundantly clear that there would be pushback if the appointment went ahead.
This isn’t a misunderstanding; it is a conscious decision.
After seeming to rebuild some level of trust with a group that had grown increasingly frustrated and disconnected from them as the club’s hierarchy, it seems Desmond and the board are willing to walk straight back into an avoidable conflict.
And for what? It is not as though fans are being asked to make the difficult choice between principle and definitive success.
Keane is hardly an outstanding candidate, and his credentials do not justify the controversy he risks bringing to the club. Which only makes the willingness to pursue him all the more revealing.
The Celtic board know exactly what Palestine means to large sections of the support and they know how Celtic’s history is intertwined with the cause. They know why Keane’s decision is viewed by many as morally indefensible and out of step with Celtic – and they appear willing to proceed regardless.
It’s difficult to view that as anything other than contemptuous – not just for the fans, but for the club itself.
