Scared to be Jewish

But what happened in London was not 100k people marching and shouting "death to Jews"! What happened was: 100k people - including many Jewish people! - marching and asking for a stop to the relentless bombing, peacefully, and for a free Palestine (which - propagandistic hyperbole notwithstanding - is an altogether different demand than "death to Jews"!).

That is, in fact, a very mainstream opinion! The majority of the British people, according to opinion polls, want a ceasfire.

And while I am not personally aware of any (I have not been in London in recent weeks - but I have been to a lot of protests, on a lot of subjects, including one calling for a ceasefire last weekend, elsewhere), I have no doubt that some idiot, somewhere, will have shouted "death to Jews". Or raised the Hamas flag. Your "obligatory idiot" will be present at any demo of a certain size. I mean, I have been to anti war protests where the "obligatory idiots" called for the assassination of George W. Bush ... I have been to protests on economic issues that have seen the same "obligatory idiots" insisting on vandalising banks. Those people must be prosecuted! But you cannot make a pretty mainstream opinion forbidden. That is deeply undemocratic!

Well, the organisers should have plenty of stewards and make the case clear, because some certainly felt very emboldened.
Anyway. I know that I'm arguing pointlessly. These demos will continue. Hate will continue. I'm sorry, OP, I genuinely hope it gets better for you.

The weather is getting worse in the UK and I am pretty sure these awful marches will stop soon.
Meanwhile in good news today:

There was over a 100 thousand people on that march
Actually closer to 200 thousand
If a very small minority of racist idiots who are so dim they don't even try and hide their racist views chant such things it does not mean that the rest of the hundred thousand cannot march for a legitimate cause
Those idiots should be found and prosecuted which I believe the met are in the process of doing now after having made some arrests

I'm obviously being naive here but how do you know if it's a bot post? I can suss out quite easily when someone's trolling and spoiling for a fight, but wouldn't be able to spot a bot.

@Ginlette agree with you 100%

There are trolls and there are also bot posts. Many of them including on this thread.

@HeidiInTheBigCity I don't think it would "destroy democracy" by banning those who openly declare, on the streets of London, a wish to annihilate Jews.
Our system is surely more robust than that, without a permissive attitude to hate crime.

MN have deleted several bigoted posts on this thread alone that promote hatred of Jewish people. It takes a certain kind of bullying attitude to come onto a thread where a Jewish OP shares their fear about being the target of hate and violence and deny the OP's lived experience with a bucket load of whataboutery, victim blaming and silencing. Charming

Indeed. But this thread is not going to help anyone if it decends into fighting. Genuine trolls WANT to fight it’s how they wreak threads like these. That’s why troll hunting or piling on in them (like they give a damn) is never going to work.

Then my answer would be - and actually has been - basically the same (with a different set of people inserted):

Whoever actually marches to the streets, chanting "death to Muslims" (or similar) should be prosecuted and brought to justice. But we cannot compromise the foundations of our democracy because people express opinions we do not like".

Having said that: what you are describing has little to do with what people are actually marching for. A better analogy would be a handful of people shouting "death to muslims" in what is overwhelmingly a "stop immigration" protest. They must be allowed to chant "borders closed now". And, no, I cannot stand right-wing racists and some of the truly disgusting things they tend to think about immigrants. But the way to deal with them is not to destroy our own democracy.

They don't understand it - that's the point about those marches. They're not expressing political views others might feel uncomfortable with. They're chanting hate slogans and waving placards supporting, if not advocating violent antisemitism.

Quite

Reminds me of this:

"Yeah! He was painting that swastika anti-zionistically not anti-semitically!!!"

Some people will still disbelieve

I haven't been warning people to call out hate and report hate crimes for no reason. Plus getting annoyed at government responses. These things get to a point then turn very nasty and dark quickly.

If something doesn't change soon we could easily see the tipping point. The type of people that set out to hurt Jews or others need to understand that hate and violence won't be tolerated in Britain.

I'm not sure "personally uncomfortable with certain political opinions" adequately describes how I feel knowing protesters are carrying swastikas around but OK.

Alright, @HeidiInTheBigCity - what if, after the initial strikes on Gaza there had been a victory march in central London, with people chanting death to Muslims, using offensive slogans and images on placards. Do you think that would have been acceptable, too?
That's a genuine question because in all honesty I would have banned that too

I dint get you. anti-semitic is exclusively for jewish is n't it. So they are being anti-semtic with everyone else is it. Thanks.

So what are you suggesting be done? Ban all protests?

Because, realistically speaking, this would in itself be deeply concerning and a violation of rights! And, make no mistake: once you have this kind of thing happening, a precedent is set and nobody is safe from it happening to them in the future!

I will fully support you in any calls for anybody actually shouting "death to Jews" (or anything similarly clearly anti-semitic or even genocidal) to be prosecuted and brought to justice - but we absolutely must not undermine our own democracy, our own human rights (which include freedom of assembly) because some people dislike or feel personally uncomfortable with certain political opinions as long as it is merely that.

That, in a nutshell, is a pretty autoritarian demand and must be opposed!

Of course they are marches of hate. The first one started this time straight after the pogrom before Israel had responded ti the attack. They were literally still trying to fight Hamas out residential areas in Israel and stop them killing civilians at the time.

That first 48 hours of protesters marches was people cheering the pogrom, celebrating with fireworks and singing with joy in the street. Thousands of people around the world including London where they marched to trafalgar Square. Sick violence loving idiots.

Just don't get me started on what some social media and mumsnet users were posting in the first 48hrs!

Ignore them and keep sharing your fears, because there IS support here (It's just a pity you need to wade through the hate to find the support)

And are the people taking about deal Israelis children and antisemitism “unhinged” and “screeching” in your opinion?
No.

People like you are just as responsible for derailing threads like these. See a post that’s genuinely out of order? Report it. See a post that seems a bit irritating? ignore it. Don’t start a tit for tat slagging match that goes on for pages and pages.
MN have deleted several bigoted posts on this thread alone that promote hatred of Jewish people. It takes a certain kind of bullying attitude to come onto a thread where a Jewish OP shares their fear about being the target of hate and violence and deny the OP's lived experience with a bucket load of whataboutery, victim blaming and silencing. Charming!

@Trulywonderful - if you'd said that a few weeks ago, I'd have disbelieved you - but watching that mob in Dagestan last night makes me think, you're right.

Look at what happened in Russia over the weekend. Hundreds of protesters stormed first a hotel and then an airport looking for Jews. The made people show them passports and documents to prove the were not Jews. 20 people are in hospital and some of them seriously injured

If the police won't stop protesters shouting hate and inciting violence then we are only a step away from something like this happened here.

I find the marches terrifying and the police do nothing.

Yet misgender someone and they’d be knocking on your door.

That's the thing, they are marches of hate. They're a threat to peace and stability and communal security. Yet they carry on.