Tony Cope

@FGRFC_Official club statement: This is our position on Palestine. Why we speak out in support of the Palestinian people and why we fly the national flag of Palestine. Why we call for a Free Palestine. And why necessarily we criticise the actions of the state of Israel. It’s about respect of human rights and international law. We see a great crime in progress, the abuse of an entire nation of people. We consider keeping quiet in such circumstances to be immoral. What it’s not about is politics, race, or religion. Our support for the Palestinian people is not and never can be anti-Jewish or anti the people of Israel. It is anti the government of Israel and its armed forces - the people directly responsible for the atrocities the world has witnessed, not just recently but going back over fifty years. Palestine is an occupied country. The Palestinian people are denied basic human rights by Israel. We condemn all forms of racism and we condemn all acts of terrorism. We condemn the acts of Hamas on October 7th as we condemn the ongoing atrocities of Israel. The people of Palestine are not Hamas - the flag of Palestine is not the flag of Hamas - this needs to be said. We support the people of Palestine and their right to their own country, we support the United Nations and the many countries of the world that call for Israel to end its occupation of Palestine, a country recognised by the UN and now Britain and in fact - most of the world. We support a two-state solution. The call for a free Palestine is a simple moral call for the application of international law and human rights. Palestinians have lived for decades under an occupation that has steadily expanded. While the government of Israel talks openly of removing all Palestinians from their own country - this is ethnic cleansing. In Gaza we have witnessed extraordinary civilian suffering: mass displacement and intentional starvation, the deaths of huge numbers of civilians, including children - and not just deaths but maiming (Palestine has the highest rate of child amputees on the planet), and the targeted killing of journalists and aid workers. International institutions and human-rights organisations have raised the gravest possible concerns about Israel's conduct, while the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity, there is also a provisional finding of Genocide against Israel - which also stands accused of Apartheid. Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing and Apartheid. These are extraordinary crimes. These are not footballing issues as such - in a simple sense, where football exists in a moral vacuum. These are not political issues either, not issues of left or right. They are matters of morality, of human rights and of international law. We believe we have a duty to speak about them. It is for others to decide to speak out or not. But it is not for others to decide if we should speak out or not. Criticism of Israel is often conflated with an attack on Jewish people, this is a cynical tactic to use race to defend the actions of an openly racist state. Criticism of any government is not and never can be considered racist - it is criticism of a government. Jewish people should never be held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, just as Muslims should never be held responsible for the actions of Islamist terrorists. Collective blame is wrong, wherever it is directed. As is collective punishment, a crime in International Law - which we see in occupied Palestine. Football has a fantastic record of using its platform - to challenge racism, sexism, homophobia and all other forms of prejudice. Standing up for Palestinian human rights belongs to that same tradition. Football does not exist in a moral vacuum. Football's governing bodies have a question to answer. Russia was excluded from international competition for its invasion and occupation of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Israel continues to participate in football despite a decades-long occupation and an ongoing invasion - while the conduct of its government and armed forces in Gaza is subject to the most serious allegations imaginable under international and human rights law - and simple morality. It is reasonable to ask why those situations are treated differently. At FGR we will continue to speak about the plight of the Palestinian people in a factual and principled way. We will criticise governments and institutions where we believe criticism is warranted, including Western governments that we believe have failed to do enough in response to the suffering in Gaza. We do not hold people, any nationality, ethnicity or religion responsible for the actions of the state of Israel - we hold the government and armed forces solely responsible. Everyone is welcome at FGR. Every race, every religion, every creed, every walk of life. Supporting Palestinian human rights does not contradict that principle. It is an expression of that.