Thanks @Eatapeach for both a very interesting discussion and generous response. I can understand where you're coming from, especially since current discussion of the middle eastern situation often seems to be lacking a backdrop. IMO, and I'm happy to accept I might be wrong in this observation, this often amounts to as crude a distinction as to who is seen to be on the 'left' and who the 'right', and for people to flock to one side or the other on the basis of this kind of strange political 'tribalism'. I suspect those chanting 'Free Palestine' are of the same ilk as those chanting other political slogans seeming to emanate from the left, but which look nothing like any form of leftism I've ever seen in my life before. The L/R distinction is fast becoming meaningless; no longer is it clustering around the centre as is the British way, and IMO should not give people an easy 'out'. They should think about and work through their political loyalties, and examine why it is they hold the opinions they hold. Unfortunately as we've seen in too many of these threads, people are often unwilling to do this.
I've seen footage of what some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators were chanting about UK Jews, and was horrified. The last century has shown where this kind of thinking has led. I'm also deeply worried by the rhetoric permeating our universities: in particular the unions. A local branch came under fire for its vocerifous support of David Miller, who was sacked by the University of Bristol for whipping up anti-Jewish sentiment. That branch stood by him and wanted him reinstated. They found themselves on the receiving end of accusations of antisemitic racism (which is fair, they should have investigated their loyalties more closely). The charge stuck against Miller, who even at his tribunal accused the JSoc of being a racist group because it supported Zionism. Unsurprisingly, Bristol stuck to their guns and refused to reinstate him. This lazy, ideological adherence to supposed left-wing thinking (that isn't left) is one of many reasons I'm currently seriously reconsidering my membership of the UCU. And I'm wondering what the hell working in today's universities must be like for my (sometimes very left wing) Jewish colleagues.
I read Anthony Julius's The Trials of the Disapora after I heard him interviewed on Radio 4 when the book was first published. This resugence of antisemitism is sadly not new, albeit I do disagree with his ultimate conclusions that any criticism of Israel is antisemitic. Such an erudite, nuanced book IMO deserved a more balanced conclusion. In the meantime, Jewish people have suffered in silence an increasing groundswell of antisemitism for nigh-on two decades, if not more.
As to backdrop, a lot of people seem to be forgetting who Hamas are. And who Netanyahu is, and his role in sabotaging the only real chance at a peace deal there's ever been. Hamas are the progeny of the ANO. The ANO, who employed some of the most barbaric instruments of torture humanity ever conceived, who orchestrated the Pan Am bombings, and who wanted every single Jew massacred. Celebrating their hideous actions is IMO akin to al qaeda supporters dancing in the streets after 9/11. But somehow, because it didn't happen on our doorsteps in the West, UK demonstrators seem to find this perfectly OK.
I find it unconsionable.