To feel like the tide of public opinion has turned against the pro-palestine protestors

Thunberg and her silly grinning flotilla pals actually using an image of Evyatar David on one of their publicity fliers sums up many of the pro pal groups. They have not got a clue, it's all about the clicks and the tiktok clips.

Hosting pro pal events on Oct 7th was despicable but sadly unsurprising, many people have no compassion at all. How many times have we all seen 'Oct 7th was horrid but...'.

We can only hope this is all ending soon and the marchers can move on to their next tiktok production.

And yes to answer your question the tide most definitely turned when the protests continued even as innocent British people were murdered, some were celebrating even. And they continued even on the 7th of October. This has never happened here before, respecting the dead and the grieving has always been a part of our culture.

Now there is a peace plan on the table, and they refuse to even engage with it at all.

That tells us everything we need to know now about their reasons for participating in blatant anti semitic, overt racism doesn’t it.

Israel is a foreign country. The Jews being intimidated, harassed, and killed in the UK are our fellow citizens and our direct responsibility.

Free speech is critical, but choosing to march masked, shouting, etc. on the anniversary of 07/10 right after antisemitic murders looks more like hate speech. These marches aren’t people holding candles and flowers singing hymns!

Theyre the same ones who think Israelis all come from America...

The absolute irony of protesters shouting “Go back to Jew land” 🙄

I'd love to see the receipts on that. My own experience, as a liberal zionist who is firmly anti Netanyahu, is that I genuinely feel distraught about all the suffering and try to reflect that with nuance, but all I ever get back is CHILDREN ARE DYING YOU MONSTER.

We all agree that what is going on is absolutely horrific, don't we? Who is saying it isn't? To my mind, anyone who is doing all shouting and no listening is most definitely part of the problem.

You keep telling yourself that…others are seeing through it.

❤

I’ve seen a lot of videos where they were asked, what does “From the river to the sea…” mean for you, and most of them didn’t have a clue, they just clam up and don’t know what to say.

Do these people really care about the orphans of Gaza? Will they care in a year’s time, five years’ time, ten years’ time? They will move on to the next trendy thing, they won’t give a toss.

Yes the anti semitism is painfully obvious now, they are on the whole not even supporting a peaceful solution, given the ‘genocide’ they describe you would think they would immediately support a peace plan, but no.

So that now reduces the protests down to racial hatred, blatant anti semitism and inciting violence and death in this country, and that isn’t cool, no.

The pro palestiniens are extremely violent. I sympathise with those who want Israël to stop bombing Gaza and let humanitarian workers in. But the pro Palestiniens seem to be so antisemitic that I just loathe them. They don't seem to get that jews in Israël and all over the world are out protesting against the israelian government. It's like saying all Palestiniens = Hamas. There is no nuance or critical thinking to their stance so how can you agree with them.

Some protesters are driven by anti-semitism, and they certainly do the cause a huge disservice. But many, many of us are appalled by the actions of the Israeli Government, which does not mean we do not understand what Hamas is, or completely condemn their actions of 7/10. I have the right to protest our government’s direct complicity, which, along with the scale of the slaughter and the fact it is perpetrated by a democratic nation, makes it different from other current atrocities (although in some cases more tenuous links can be made to the UK). I also have friends in Gaza and am regular contact, which makes it very real to me. I have been to a few small marches and vigils locally (which were absolutely nothing like the scenes yesterday- very much focused on Gazan deaths and famine and no “river to sea” rhetoric).

It is possible for several things to be true at once. There is a rise in antisemism and some protesters are antisemitic, which is appalling. Hamas are evil with no interest in the wellbeing of the Gazan people. But that doesn’t mean that Israeli government actions towards civilians are not completely abhorrent and we should be able to call them out without being labeled antisemitic.

It's important to care about what's happening hundreds of miles away, of course it is. But if we use it to neglect our responsibilities to tackle racism in the UK, well that's like the Mumsnetter who's too busy tearing down other posters to properly parent her own kids.

The fortunes of Jews and Muslims in the UK are strongly linked. There are lots of people in both communities who work hard on inter-faith relations and they deserve better than the polarised grandstanding the pro-pal movement is currently generating.

My local shul runs a long-standing food bank and support programme for recent immigrants, most of them Muslim. There are mosques that reached out to the Jewish community after the Manchester atrocity. These initiatives do more good than all the performative keffiyeh-wearing, ribbon cutting, river to the sea chanting in the world.

Manchester, the mosque attack and the anniversary of 7th October were all golden opportunities for activists to show that they actually give a shit about racism in this country, to prove that when they say they're not antisemitic they mean it.

Saying, 'Israel didnt take the day off' is pathetic and just screams that its more important to you to be right than to do the right thing.

Did they ever have majority popular support?

Great to see cancel culture alive and well though- express a perfectly legal opinion and we will have you removed from your Uni course. Because that can only ever be used by one side, and the worm of public opinion definitely isn't fickle and can't turn at any moment. 🙄

Meanwhile hamas are still beheading their own people in front of their children in the midst of the war. Yeah, go hamas🙄

Me too

Yes israel is really focusing on social media propaganda now

Are whipped into this kind of frenzy by any other war, like Sudan, Yemen, or the massacres of Druze and Nigerian Christians by any chance?

I bet not.

What particularly stands out for you in this war that you think you can judge other people for not agreeing with your views?

I don’t think it’s a genocide btw (in what genocide were civilians warned to evacuate and the enemy facilitated aid?) and think the protestors on our streets are a bunch of deranged Jew hating morons with nothing better to do.

Im not ashamed.

I have never understood why they aren't stop the war or peace marches.

That I could support. But chanting 'from the river to the sea' is to support more genocide.

Yes within that there is recognition for Palestine and a two state system. But that isn't what those chants mean.

There's also very little criticism that those making decisions for Hamas are doing so from a different country in luxury. How can that ever be right? To continue to subject your people to a horrific life while in your luxury apartment in Qatar? Is this not part of the problem with any peace deal?

The minimising of October 7 upsets me. Oh it's not that bad because more Palestinians have been killed. It was a horrific act and the taking of hostages was deliberate as a negotiation tactic for war.

Of course there have been negative actions from Israel before this which deserve to be called out but nothing can ever justify what was done on October 7 - it was planned and coordinated with knowledge of what it would bring. The Palestinian people deserve to be free of hamas and I fail to see how people chanting their support for Hamas in London is really helping them. Rather it emboldens a terrorist organisation prepared to use civilians as human shields.

It’s called an algorithm. You’re in an echo chamber.
Support is still strong for Palestine.

Your feed is showing you what you want to see, based on the words you search for. Start searching positive key words around the rise in condemnation of the genocide and growing protests and you'll see that you're stuck in your news bubble.

Israel was victim to a major terrorist attack by an organisation and people who want to decimate them.

Decisions they have since made about the strategies they've used in war have been extreme and in some cases criminal, hence the legal implications that are likely to follow once this is all over

They were and continue to be at threat of decimation by Hamas and followers of Hamas, and Im still looking for evidence that Gazans dont support Hamas.

The Arab states around Gaza dont seem to support Hamas funny enough.

The thing is, of course we empathise with Israelis. 7/10 was awful.

But it is not a justification for what has happened since.

The difference between people like you, and most other people, is that most people can see both sides have suffered. The Israeli people lost 1200 of their family, friends and community in a brutal, unprovoked, slaughter - many were kidnapped and treated horrendously, some for years. Some died in captivity.

You can only empathise with Palestinians. You aren’t recognising the hurt on both sides. The cruelty on both sides. To not empathise with Israelis for what happened on 7th October is cold and concerning.

People SHOULD empathise with Israelis. As they should Palestinians.

Stop talking about “Israel” as it all Israelis wanted to get involved in a war was Palestinians. I’m pretty sure the majority are very sad it’s come to this.

The bias is unreal.