The Intersection of Soccer and Politics: Palestinian Solidarity in Spain

A little over three weeks ago, Spain’s Athletic Bilbao played Israel’s Hapoel Kiryat Shmona to a 1-1 tie in a Europa League match at Bilbao’s San Mamés. The match was a forgettable 90 minutes in Europe’s conciliatory competition, but a few media outlets did pick up on the Palestinian solidarity demonstrations put on by some of Bilbao’s supporters. This wasn’t the first time a sporting event had been the stage for Palestinian sympathizers to show their support: Celtic fans have held public demonstrations to raise awareness of incarcerated Palestinians on hunger strikes, Scotland supporters chanted and sang during an international match against Israel, and hardliners in Egypt took anti-Israeli sentiment to unfortunate and chilling levels earlier this year.  

Soccer and politics are no strangers, and issues of race and class permeate the game at all levels in Europe and throughout. Club soccer provides an interesting mix of various individual nationalities representing teams rooted in permanent space and history, and the pride in national teams can border on xenophobia and jingoism. Matches thus provide arenas for fans to air political grievances or forms of resistance while under oppression, as seen in rarely allowed Catalonian pride during Barcelona games while under Franco’s regime. More violent and unfortunate examples can be found in the ultras of Serbia's Red Star Belgrade, whose racism and extremism toward Croatians manifested itself on and off the pitch during the Balkan wars.

What made Bilbao’s protests so striking, then, was that it was done on the club level of a Spanish team, in full view of Israeli players. As a loose American equivalent, a mental image of onlookers holding up signs reading “End Abuse at Gitmo” while Tiger Woods tees off at the British Open comes to mind. An argument of universal human rights can be made – and I won’t argue that – but the power of the image remains the same: Soccer fans directly unaffected by the conditions they are protesting, with the protests themselves aimed at athletes who have little say in the foreign policy of the country in which they live.

That isn’t to say that I disagree with the show of solidarity on Bilbao’s part, although it is not something in which I would participate. I am certainly no Israel apologist when it comes to the treatment of Palestinians under an occupation lasting well over half a century, but I think there is something to be said for separating the state of Israel from the citizens of Israel. Unless Hapoel Kiryat Shmona’s left back is an illegal settler, I don’t blame him for the policies of the country he lives any more than I blame Woods for indefinite detention. 

Soccer and politics will continue to blend, with my work in Uganda being a constant reminder of that. But there should be a moment of pause before the sins of the state are shoved in the face of athletes who cannot be held responsible for them. I salute Bilbao supporters for their consciousness as human beings, and hope the positive aspects of mixing soccer and politics continues to promote progressive thought and action. But I also hope that that consciousness is directed through the proper avenues, and that national policy doesn’t define individual ideology.