#France — MFC 1871 supporters honored the Paris Commune and Louise Michel in La Celle-Saint-Cloud during the third-round match of the French Cup.

In France, Dialectik Football published an interview with FC St. Pauli’s Francophonie fan club. The interview also discusses the club’s and its supporters’ stance against the genocide in Gaza, as well as the Antideutsch and pro-zionist influence within the club. You recently decided to make a financial donation to the Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS) and Mesarvot, the network of Israeli conscientious objectors. What motivated this decision? Every year, since our fan club has existed, we have decided to politically and financially support associations with the money from the small profits we make through the sale of our merchandise. To be clear and transparent, we decided this year to support four associations. Harburg Solidarisch, which is an association of residents of the Harburg district, in the south of Hamburg. The Harburg district is a very cosmopolitan neighborhood — 48% of its residents are of foreign origin — but also very poor compared to most of the city’s other districts. Faced with growing inequalities and poverty in the neighborhood, a collective of young people revitalized the Harburg Solidarisch association in 2025, whose aim is to create a mutual aid network in the neighborhood and hold public office hours to inform residents and refugees of their rights. They take part in the anti-fascist struggle. The association plans to move into premises and turn them into a social center. The Maël Association (Mobiliser, Aimer, Encourager, Lutter), which collects donations for the Téléthon for an 18-year-old young man. Maël is also the child of one of our members, and our treasurer, who is a teacher, had him in his class. He suffers from Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disease. This association fights for better inclusion of young people with disabilities, for a different view of this disease, and also to raise money for gene therapies which, hopefully, will one day allow Maël to be cured. We do not forget that the Téléthon has been attacked by reactionary associations close to the far right, who call themselves pro-life — in fact anti-abortion — because it develops therapy trials on embryos. Here too, the far right is on the offensive! The Association France Palestine Solidarité for a direct aid project for Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. And Mesarvot, which is a collective of young Israelis, refuseniks, who therefore refuse to serve in the colonialist and genocidal army of their country. Each association will receive a donation of €300. Obviously, what motivated our support for AFPS and our comrades at Mesarvot is the continuation of our positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since October 7; namely, support for the right of Palestinians to have a state, the denunciation of Israel’s colonialism, the fight against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the rejection of the “essentialization” of Jews, which would make every Jew a supporter of the criminal and fascist policies of the Netanyahu government, and the rejection of all antisemitism. Through these modest donations, we want to show politically that it is possible to concretely support the Palestinian cause without falling into antisemitism. We want to publicly show that there are also, and within Israel itself, other Jewish voices, anti-colonialist and anti-genocide voices, just as there are in France with the UJFP or the Tsedek! collective. In recent years, in the context of the genocide in Gaza, the management of the Sankt Pauli club, as well as many of its supporters, particularly the ultras, have repeatedly expressed their support for Israel. Did this surprise you? Obviously not. But more than positions of support for Israel — which do exist within the German left, let’s not deny it — it is the denial of what the Palestinian people have suffered for 80 years, namely dispossession, colonization, and now a genocide, that shocks us. This lack of support for an oppressed people is all the more incomprehensible given that legitimate support for other oppressed peoples — Kurds, for example — is very strong at Sankt Pauli. This debate does not exist only at Sankt Pauli, but throughout the German left, and has done so for decades. We must never forget the history of Nazism and the Shoah, which means that part of the German left considers, completely wrongly, that any questioning of the policies of the State of Israel, or worse, a solution involving a secular state where Jews and Arabs would live together, is in principle antisemitic. We obviously oppose this analysis, which is particularly strong within the so-called “Antideutsch” movement, which itself is quite influential in Hamburg and among the Sankt Pauli Ultras. In opposition to the club management and many of its Hamburg supporters, international Sankt Pauli fan groups protested against the genocide in Gaza and against the positions of their beloved club. They were accused of antisemitism before subsequently dissolving themselves. In June 2024, in a statement, you criticized the support for Israel, which you described as “out of touch and completely disconnected.” You also stated that “Benjamin Netanyahu’s fascist and colonialist project must be stopped as soon as possible.” How was this position received? We think that, in general, positions against the policies of the Israeli government, against colonialism, against the genocide and in favor of the rights of Palestinians are becoming increasingly popular, if only because today everyone can see, despite the killing of Palestinian journalists and the ban on entering Gaza, the horror unfolding before our eyes. “Antideutsch” positions seem to be declining in Germany, with the emergence of a new left. One only has to look at the debate within the Die Linke party over the definition of antisemitism. The traditional definition of the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), which can allow criticism of zionism to be equated with antisemitism, is opposed by the “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism”, produced by 200 academics, which clearly states that anti-zionism — the rejection of a Jewish confessional state — is not antisemitism. This second definition, which opposes the shameful conflation of “anti-zionism = antisemitism”, was adopted by Die Linke after many debates, sometimes heated, let’s admit it. Moreover, what shocks us is the conflation, including by Dialectik Football, of all, or at least a majority, of FCSP supporters with Antideutsch positions. Very soon after October 7, banners denouncing Israeli policy appeared, affinity-based supporter groups brought out scarves or stickers for Palestine. Graffiti can also be seen around the city… In short, it is difficult for anyone to know the majority opinion of FCSP supporters on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Portraying Sankt Pauli supporters as defenders of Israel is, after all, largely a caricature, which we fight and denounce. Source: dialectik-football.info/nous…