Do you think the Palestinian protests should be restricted?

“There should be arrests”

There haven’t been. People are dead, which is what some people on these marches have called for and celebrated. What now?

Why are peaceful people continuing to march alongside these hate mongers instead of calling them out or refusing to march alongside them or leaving the hate speeches or reporting them to the police?

More judgement of them is needed for enabling it.

That large number of arrests was of peaceful activists sitting on the ground holding up placards. They were arrested not because of violence but because Labour decided PA is a terrorist group. Nothing more.

Thousands of people attending a peaceful protest don't have control over everyone who shows up. You could argue the same thing about every protest - why are people happy to march alongside small groups of people who show up with horrendous views?

Those kinds of views aren't the point of the march, and people who genuinely want peace can't stop others with malicious views from attending. That's an issue in many protests.

If people show up to marches (or indeed anywhere) spreading hate speech or inciting violence, that is a crime and a matter for the police. It doesn't mean others should stop marching for peace.

If there is hate speech and an incitement to violence, there should be arrests in that regard.
Peaceful protest is a staple of democracy and cannot be undermined simply because some people disagree with the cause.

The right to peaceful protest is a pillar of our society. No restrictions, thank you.

Be very, very careful what you wish for.

I think that these chants, anti semitism and calls for violence (globalise the intifada) is still continuing after 2 years, shows that protesters don't actually care and believe these things. I couldn’t march alongside that. They appear unable to control themselves. It doesn't look or sound peaceful either. Perhaps they want violence here, terrorism here, it seems that way calling for globalise the intifada, they will probably get the extremists to do just that. They hear them call it enough times. Will they be happy when that happens, some will no doubt.

I notice that the people saying peaceful protest should be allowed carefully avoiding addressing the calls for violence and the murder of Jews, the celebration of October 7th, the support for Hamas which seem to keep happening at these marches.

Why do they keep happening at these peace marches? Are they a bug or actually a feature?

And if they are a feature, is that really what we want to be encouraging? Saying they should be arrested is all well and good but where are we two years later? Hate chants still ongoing and Jews murdered on the streets of the U.K. Not that the protestors give a shit.

@PurpleThistle7 that bullying of your daughter is absolutely appalling and the parents should be utterly ashamed.

Absolutely not. Peaceful protest is surely a fundamental right which is carefully being eradicated in the UK.

Acts of terror here should not be used in the political game of the rights and wrongs of war crimes and a humanitarian crisis.

That sounds like a made up person?

The people I know who attend are of all ages, professional backgrounds, races and hairstyles.

That’s appalling, @PurpleThistle7 - I’m so incredibly sorry your daughter was subjected to that, it must be terrifying for all of you.

I’m not Jewish, but find the marches deeply intimidating, even though I know plenty of people who participate in them and know that they’re motivated by horror at the situation in Gaza and concern for the people there. I share their concern, but am appalled by their readiness to align themselves with flags and slogans which, intentionally or otherwise, call for the annihilation of Israel. I find the fact that marches went ahead following the attack in Manchester absolutely abhorrent, and have felt completely alienated by people I know and love draping themselves in the Palestinian flag and kefiyeh for the past two years.

As for Ireland, there is something incredibly unsettling about the insistence on aligning Irishness with the Palestinian cause. An Irish TD wrote a piece for the Guardian not long after 7th October in which he said that Ireland was able to take a more clear sighted view because they didn’t have any Jews they needed to appease. It sent chills down me just reading it.

There are weekly (or more) protests outside my office as I work at a University. It's awful and I've been using my annual leave to avoid them. They yell all sorts of horrible things, wear the scarves and masks and are just really frightening. Oddly they also wave trans flags around (though an area of the world less friendly to trans people is hard to imagine). I think the way these protests have developed into some sort of oddly expanded 'protest all the things' is bizarre and very distracting from what should be their core principals.

I will repeat to anyone listening that I have no issue with anyone protesting for anything they like (I regularly attend protests and marches with my children) but the actual feel of these as a Jewish person is really, really awful. It frightens me and encourages hate. I'm not saying this is the intent and it certainly (for most people anyway) didn't start like this, but it's absolutely what it's turned into.

And my continual reminder that my daughter was the victim of 2 different attacks at school after all this started - one 2 years ago when she was 10 and she was surrounded on a school trip by her classmates yelling 'free palestine' and 'who do you root for?' and 'my family wants yours dead' (and that child was the one family to not apologise at all) and once in high school last year when she was 11 and a group of children surrounded her in the stairwell and yelled 'free palestine' and waved their scarves in her face and wouldn't let her leave until she 'promised to tell her family to get out of here' (where 'here' was is unclear). They then told her that they'd 'get our cousins to come find you' so we had to track her back and forth to school for a while - and sometimes I still do on a bad day.

My daughter has never been to Israel. She is the only Jewish child in a school of 800 children (and my son the only Jewish child in 450 children in the primary school) and I am worried every.single.day for her. She has nothing to do with this and to be honest - these stories could have been far worse if her schools hadn't immediately jumped right in to support her. So while I can't imagine 99% of the protesters want this to happen, it has absolutely created this situation for my family.

The first ask for any of this should be to get rid of Hamas - being ruled by a terrorist organisation is horrible (as per the Taliban) and anyone with any sort of wish for safety or security or women's rights or anything we all hopefully value in our society here in the UK should be really worried about giving Hamas our support.

Do you really think a scruffy 20-something white person with dreadlocks singing 'from the river to the sea' and 'globalise the intifada'is a humanitarian mission that will end the war in Gaza? Honestly?

I find it completely deluded and embarassing

Of course they should continue. We have a right to peaceful protest.

Someone was saying they should stop in light of the Manchester attack. I don't think that's right. The protests are largely peaceful protests opposing genocide. They're not anti-Semitic marches.

Of course, there should be absolutely no place for hatred in a peaceful protest. Anyone using hate speech or using this genocide as an excuse for antisemitism is not a peaceful protester and should face swift legal action.

Jews and non Jews can unite against genocide and call for peace. We are stronger when we come together in our common humanity. Seeking an end to the war in Gaza is a humanitarian mission.

There is no room for religious hatred in that conversation, which is really about caring about and seeking an end to the suffering of others. That message needs to be absolutely clear.

All of this proves the hatred spewing from these marches. Is disgusts me. All this promotion of violence in the UK, calling for supporters of mohammed to 'slaughter Jews'. Turn us into a medieval country then.

No. It's a hard won right and we give it up at our peril.The vast majority are anti genocide which seems reasonable to me.

Yes. It has encouraged an environment of anti semitism in the UK which is completely unacceptable.

Whilst what is happening in Gaza is awful the protests have become a fashionable cause. It is bizarre and horrible to think that but it is true.

Stupid people, often young, who actually do nothing real to help anybody or have any desire to find out the complex history which has led to the current situation think that by waving flags, putting stuff on their social media they will be seen as socially conscious, on the right side and can congratulate themselves and their equally superficial friends.

The middle east is shitshow of death, prejudice and division.
The last thing we want is to import that here.

If you genuinely want to help lobby your mp, donate money for aid, volunteer for a charity.

What a pity, given your claim to live in Ireland you haven't bothered to educate yourself on the history of the country.
There are many reminders of the deliberate starvation of over a million and a half people with a similar amount forced into emigration. The population has still not recovered to pre An Gorta Mór levels.
That is a huge part of why the Irish support the Palestinians. 'If you know your history....'

No because the right to protest should not be restricted as a fundamental right.

However it’s painfully clear to most normal people that the protests involve a not insignificant number of bad actors who either use the protests to legitimise their hatred of Jewish people, or support foreign terrorists.

Put them in an industrial estate and let them protest every week. Just not where it inconveniences everyone else.

😂 many of the 'protests' appear brainwashed, repeating hateful chants and inciting violence. Sheep like chanting.

Peaceful is ok. Law abiding is ok. Not using hate speech, is ok.

When they support proscribed terrorist organisations they are breaking the law, not ok.

When they use violence or incite violence, not ok. Eg globalise the intifada, not ok

When they use hate speech, death to Jews, as per recent video from recent 'protest' not ok.

When they scream things at passers by, not ok.

Etc etc etc

No, people can't protest whatever they like. That's just your misunderstanding of the law.

It’s a knee jerk reaction and after the conflict ends we’ll just be left with fewer rights to protest.

People can protest whatever they like … as said, if they are committing a criminal offence the current law will deal with them. We don’t need to curtail the right to peaceful protest