Anti-Israel activist shares 1939 clip of ‘Palestinian’ Jewish soccer players

Controversial British former MP George Galloway, well known for his anti-Israel views, shared a video of a soccer match on Facebook Sunday, in an attempt to counter claims that the Palestinians never had a country before Israel was established in 1948.

Galloway shared black and white footage from a 1939 match between Australia and Palestine and wrote, “They say there was never a Palestine…”

His post, shared as England defeated Panama in the FIFA World Cup in Russia, was shared over 6,000 times.

In fact the video provides no evidence of an Arab Palestine — quite the opposite.

Even though it was billed as a match between British Mandate Palestine and Australia, the touring team was actually Maccabi Tel Aviv, which played a total of 18 games, mostly against regional teams, winning 10, losing two and drawing one. Maccabi also played five matches against the British national team, including the one in the video clip, winning only one, drawing one and losing three.

Had Galloway looked closer at the footage, he would have noticed that when the players shake hands at the beginning of the match, the captain of Palestine has the Star of David logo on his shirt.

A contemporary news report pointed out that the Palestine team played in blue and white — the colors that eventually became those of the flag of Israel.

The names of the Palestine players are a mixture of Hebrew and European, including captain Avraham Reznick, Jerry Beit-Halevi, and Binyamin Mizrahi.

Last week, Galloway, who supports a boycott of Israel, scored another own goal when he was photographed eating shakshuka in an Israeli restaurant in London.

The awkward moment you're sitting in Israeli shakshuka café @cafelorencamden and this guy walks in. Way to fail, @georgegalloway.https://t.co/cJ3N2MMD9U pic.twitter.com/kWF4oCla8L

— The Mossad: Zionists and Loving It (@TheMossadIL) June 21, 2018