Do you think the Palestinian protests should be restricted?

I am in a couple of minds about banning / restricting protests.

On the one hand, I am deeply suspicious of governments who want to control people’s lives.

On the other hand, I am in central London. The endless protests are a real nuisance - and mean that I avoid certain places.

I question, to some extent, how much I hate the protests is down to my own prejudice. I grew up in Brighton so spent my youth listening to left wing people who like to shout about how righteous they are. I think the pro Palestinian protesters lose more hearts and minds than they gain - stuff like blocking Brighton station on the evening after those people were killed at the Manchester synagogue and dancing in the street is just downright unpleasant. I think that people who choose to go to a protest with their faces covered are probably up to no good.

I suspect that I am a bit older than some of the posters here. One of the things I find so depressing is that young people seem to have lost the ability to debate - they scream and shout in people's faces. I wonder if they will look back and wish they had acted differently.

There have been a couple of things in the Times about people who have done things like cut yellow ribbons down or post horrible things about Jews on Twitter / X ... including their names and photos. Now the woman who cut down ribbons may genuinely have organised her life so that having this sort of piece in a national newspaper won't affect her all that much. But the other person is a surgeon - so far she is still able to work but there's a chance that her career will be badly affected by this. What a waste of taxpayers money, training surgeons is expensive.

It wont benefit anyone. Even with the peace deal happening these work shy lost souls are still going out protesting! Makes me wonder if some of them like the war so they can be part of something?

There are no just marches in the UK. They are all over Europe and in Israel. It’s natural that peolle
want to do something and this is one means you can contribute. Better than apathy.

Yes

Does your ego actually believe that you are stopping the war with your protests in the UK! You said:

"but it looks to me that if we keep quiet for a second on this, then Netanyahu will just get to do whatever the fuck he wants"

Do you actually really believe that 🙄 oh my, just wow. Nothing to do with Trump, Arab leaders, The EU leaders but the screaming and chanting on the marches in the UK stopped the war and if you don't continue screaming at people (yes it happens) then the war will restart....

There was nothing in the news about ‘ghastly celebrations after the Manchester attack’

I think this rumour has turned into a fact as it’s been passed around. Including on mumsnet because no one so far has been able to offer any evidence of that when mumsnetters have asked

This is how propaganda starts, it’s very unhealthy and breeds hate and division.
This country doesn't need any more of that

They are absolute morons. I'm glad that people are starting to see through their behaviour now, after the ghastly celebrations that were held after the Manchester terrorist attack.

It's interesting that none of them are calling for Hamas to reach a peace deal or release the hostages (it looks like there is some tentative news now)

The aggressive or stupid behaviour of some does nothing for the cause indeed, but then funny enough the ones who seem to be arrested (according to the news) are pensioners that have never broken a plate in their lives.
I think the police should have arrested and charged anyone brandishing Hamas signs or being aggressive by now (2 years on). Instead of pensioners.
But telling UK standard citizens not to demonstrate against what is going on between Israel and Gaza and not to push for ceasefires and a full long lasting peace agreement(remember the dramas we went through for the first set of ceasefire petitions?) is not a good idea. It just looks like they want to silence them.

A few weeks ago we had a group of protestors work shy, selfish idiots blocking a main arterial route into the city centre at rush hour. Can someone enlighten me as to how this could’ve possibly benefited Gaza in any way, shape or form? All I saw was angry, unsympathetic commuters being made late to work.

Yes, the antisemitic marches should be restricted. I think the new proposals strike the right balance.

I just posted on another thread - is it acceptable to march on Remembrance Sunday? Trying to access the Cenotaph?

I must add that in my area, these protests are completely peaceful. They stay in place with placards and they chant slogans. They do not obstruct traffic or pedestrians, or bother anyone. Cars hoot when they pass. Some bypassers join or have a chat with them. So it does not look like PA has made it here, thanks goodness.

I am against stopping the protests.
I get that it can get tedious, but it looks to me that if we keep quiet for a second on this, then Netanyahu will just get to do whatever the fuck he wants. With Palestine and then beyond. He is starving Palestinians, for months and months, and still the PM. It is unreal!
I am fed up of reading that the president of US tells him not to do something, then the next minute he does. Fed up of the bombings, threats of extended regional war, the way his fan club thinks they can impose their horrid views on us and we have to shut up, or we get called names. Fed up of hearing things like he is inviting Tommy Robinson to Israel. Does he not have enough on his plate that he needs to put his hand in our politics? Nope. He should go. He is wiping the floor with Israel's name. I feel really sorry for those who want him gone and yet have their children sent to this war by this man and his lot.

You didn’t answer my question @Ellen2shoes

For the past 2 years, people around the world have been watching a genocide unfold live-streamed onto their phones. It is beyond horrific.

Israel finds itself isolated not because the world is anti semitic, but because it has massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians, a disproportionate amount of whom are children. They have bombed every hospital, killed journalists and doctors. They have deliberately targeted children with snipers and withheld food, including baby formula, in attempt to starve an already desperate population to death.

They have committed ecocide in order to ensure ethnic cleaning is complete and people cannot return to agricultural land.

The global protests are a humane response to the atrocities, an attempt to persuade governments to put in place arms embargoes and insist upon the release of aid. People attending the protests are from all faiths with thousands of Jewish people alongside Christians and Muslims. This is not about religion, although there are those who seek to divide and weaponise by attempting to conflate Judaism with the actions of Israel.

Peaceful protest is a fundamental democratic right and anyone who seeks to undermine it does so to the detriment of us all.

Mate, it's not all about Gaza.

The war with Russia. Do you think this is a great time to be putting British military assets out of action?

This is not a war. It’s a genocide.

What is tragic is the massacre of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in a genocide. Let’s have some perspective.

Those students can’t be working that hard either…

Yes, it sounds like a great plan with no downsides. Not sure why they suggested it like it was a bad thing.

Sounds good to me! Let’s do that too

Well, if they were restricted, then the same rules would have to apply to people protesting outside hotels where asylum seekers live.

The ones outside my office are mostly students and retired professors all congratulating themselves for being on trend.

I think it's a bit of dawning realisation and 'oh shit that's actually really bad and I've supported them, wait if they assaulted police with homemade whips and knives instead of a sledgehammer then maybe I was justified in supporting them thinking that my placard would save Gaza and I would be a hero of the ages'

It's tragic

I have to admit I find some of it quite selfish. I’d love to know how much it’s cost the UK in terms of resources, policing, planning etc we can ill afford on an issue so far away we have no realistic prospect of changing.