israel, south africa, and ronnie rosenthal

There have been, you may have have noticed, some deeply fascinating articles in the Guardian by Chris McGreal this week concerning links between modern-day Israel and Apartheid-era South Africa. The first made a direct analogy between the treatment of the Palestinians and the Black South Africans (McGreal points out that just as Afrikaaners falsely claimed there were 'no black people in South Africa when they first settled in the 17th century', Israel was hailed as 'a land without people for a people without land' - despite the presence of the Palestinians), the second explored, shockingly, the actual links between the two - so close at one point that they were assisting eachother with the arms race. I urge you to read both, but feel - especially in the light of the feedback which the paper printed yesterday and today - utterly unequipped to advise you whether the comparison is just, fair or malicious. It is certainly bold, and certainly worth a read, but I don't know enough about it to judge. Like a lot of people with leftish instincts, I sympathise with the Palestinian cause - I feel fairly sure, however, that I do so without having done sufficient research. Anyway.

I do, however, know quite a lot about Tottenham Hotspur, who - like Ajax - are well known for being a 'Jewish' club. What this means, of course, is just that a large population of the local area is Jewish and that this community has always (although perhaps not so much nowadays - much of the Arsenal board these days, incidentally, is Jewish) allied themself with Spurs. We were the first club to field an Israeli player, the much loved Ronnie Rosenthal. Conversely, we spent much of the 90s worshipping our Arabic midfielder, Nayim. Anyway; we've been long the targets of crass and often disgusting anti-semitic chants from other teams (I once heard Chelsea fans singing 'Spurs are on their way to Auschwitz'...), so it pains me deeply to feel duty bound to link to Simon Hattenstone's article in the Guardian today. He writes of a Spurs-supporting friend:

"On Monday he came into work, distraught. He'd been at White Hart Lane on Sunday and said he'd never heard anything like it. "It was bloody horrible," he said. "You know me, I can take most things, but ... I felt embarrassed to be there." Spurs fans have chanted against Sol Campbell ever since he left for the enemy, Arsenal, in 2001. Last week, as Campbell broke down and did a runner from Highbury, the abuse reached its nadir."

Go to the article to read what the Spurs fans sang, if you wanna know. I dunno if the articles about Israel and South Africa crossed the line into anti-semitism. But the songs Spurs fans sang about Sol Campbell on Saturday are grim, sickening, racist, homophobic bile, and I feel ashamed to call myself a Spurs fan.

Hattenstone does, at least, manage to end on an upbeat note, so I'll nick his closing paragraph and do the same.

"Meanwhile, Bob is mourning a lost innocence. In his email he asks: "What happened to the light-heartedness of the days when we sang songs such as this one for Man Utd games (to the tune of My Old Man's a Dustman): Posh Spice is a slapper/She wears a Wonderbra/ And when she's shagging Beckham/ She thinks of Ginola."