--- title: "Lajee Celtic, a Club From a West Bank Refugee Camp, Marks Its 10th Year" description: "The club, which grew out of a protest by Celtic fans, is playing organized football for the first time, in the Thousand Martyrs Cup." author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-10T08:16:49Z modified: 2026-10-10T11:38:19Z url: https://rews.cc/a/lajee-celtic-a-club-from-a-west-bank-refugee-camp-marks-its--ede689 language: en tags: ["palestine", "soccer", "celtic", "refugees", "solidarity", "world"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Lajee Celtic, a Club From a West Bank Refugee Camp, Marks Its 10th Year *The club, which grew out of a protest by Celtic fans, is playing organized football for the first time, in the Thousand Martyrs Cup.* By rews desk · October 10, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/lajee-celtic-a-club-from-a-west-bank-refugee-camp-marks-its--ede689 ## In brief - Nearly 200 people met at a Lebanese bakery in east London in September to mark 10 years of Lajee Celtic - The Aida camp club is playing organized football for the first time, in the Thousand Martyrs Cup - The cup is named for the 1,014 athletes killed in Gaza since October 2023 - The club grew from a 2016 fan campaign after UEFA fined Celtic over Palestinian flags - Match the Fine for Palestine raised £176,076, according to the club Nearly 200 people crowded into Edami, a small Lebanese bakery in east London, in September to mark 10 years of Lajee Celtic, a youth sports club based in Aida refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/10/a-decade-of-lajee-celtic-the-palestinian-club-whose-fans-include-cantona) on Saturday. The club now takes in young Palestinians from Aida and other refugee camps, from villages around Bethlehem and from Hebron and Jerusalem. It is playing organized football for the first time, in the Thousand Martyrs Cup, a competition named for the 1,014 athletes killed in Gaza since October 2023. The club had planned to enter a Palestinian league three years ago. That plan was canceled when the Gaza war began. Besides its football academy and summer clubs, it added boxing and table tennis in 2025. The London party had Palestinian flags, manousheh from the bakery and plenty of the club’s shirts, which Eric Cantona and the actor Hannah Einbinder have both worn. Martin, an organizer from Glasgow who gave only his first name, came down for the event. He first visited Aida more than 10 years ago and called the trip life-changing. “I don’t think anyone would really have expected that the project would have been as successful as it’s been,” he said, giving credit to Celtic’s foundation, its Irish identity, its diaspora following and the values the club stands for. People who buy a shirt know the money pays for “football, sports and general youth development in Palestine,” Martin said, and anyone wearing one in Glasgow, London or New York is “making their own individual solidarity action.” He said that “fundraising campaigns come and go all the time,” but that a club with something concrete at its center means “you are creating a journey.” It started with a fine. When Celtic played the Israeli club Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the Champions League in 2016, fans led by the [Green Brigade](https://green-brigade.com/aida-celtic/), the club’s ultras, ignored warnings of punishment and filled the stadium with Palestinian flags. UEFA fined Celtic. The Green Brigade answered with a campaign called Match the Fine for Palestine, which raised £176,076, [according to the club’s timeline](https://lajeeceltic.com/about/), for Palestinian organizations, among them a football academy in Aida. On Aug. 17, the club’s account [posted on X](https://x.com/lajeeceltic?lang=en): “On this day, 10 years ago. The moment that led to Lajee Celtic.” Mohammed al-Azzeh, director of the Lajee Centre, a youth services center in the camp, called that match a turning point. He first went to Glasgow in 2012, after getting to know Scottish and Irish visitors to Palestine, and talks about an academy followed. In 2015, footballers from the camp traveled to Belfast for a match. The team was formally set up as Aida Celtic in 2019, according to the club, and [took the name Lajee Celtic in 2024](https://www.lajeeceltic.com/a-new-chapter-lajee-celtic-2024) as it drew players from beyond the camp’s walls. “It becomes about more than just playing football,” al-Azzeh said of bringing young Palestinians together. The team has also played two friendlies in Cape Town. Samir al-Amir, a club coordinator who spent more than 19 years in Israeli prisons, left the West Bank for the first time on that trip and saw the sea. Al-Azzeh said he was “acting like a young boy.” Al Jazeera placed the tour in 2025. The club’s own timeline lists a South Africa tour in 2024. Bassil Mikdadi, a journalist who founded the site Football Palestine, called the club “a blueprint for ways in which fans of European clubs can directly support those on the ground in Palestine.” Grassroots clubs matter, he said, because teams in the West Bank and Gaza are where the national team finds its players. “It’s connective tissue,” Mikdadi said.