To be worried about the effects on British society of the conflict in Gaza

Yougov has polling on this. When asked about who their sympathies lie with over 50% say “don’t know” or “neither”, 19% with Israelis and 27% with Palestinians. The level of reporting is not really in line with the majority view on this.

Personally I think it needs to end, it’s gone too far and the human consequences are too much to bear. But the idea that the actual UK population is really galvanised by this is probably inaccurate.

There’s been a discussion on another thread about this

Why should we not discuss this in schools?
Surely only if we didn’t discuss any conflicts in schools.
Raise a generation of children who think anything happening outside of the U.K. doesn’t concern them?

I think it's really important that we have a problem with inhumane treatment of human beings elsewhere in the world, regardless of what that will mean for our society. If we didn't, it would be an indication that our society has lost its soul and moral compass which would be far more concerning than anything else that could happen to it. I think it's important for the Israeli government to consider what it can ask its allies to stomach morally and avoid becoming isolated as a result of caring out a genocide. No country can commit war crimes without penalty.

"By having a continued focus on Gaza we could exacerbate tensions in our own communities "
I think ignoring what is happening in Gaza would be much more damaging . You can’t sweep things under the carpet.

I know I have argued elsewhere that we should keep the debate of the conflict out of schools but I don’t apply the same argument to society as a whole. Obviously we need to continue our focus in Gaza. It is a terrible situation and the consequences will be profound and dire .

I think there will always be issues that divide us and keeping our society civil is an ongoing issue.

We need to call out inflammatory language.
We need to call out misinformation.
We need to stand up for minority groups who are being shouted down
We need to show compassion for people whose views we don’t agree with.

@mids2019

There has been massive division in the UK since the Brexit referendum and due to 14 years of Tory rule. I think this thread and another one you have started recently are more to do with you trying to silence debate and criticism of Israel as opposed to any real concern for cohesion in Britain. You keep talking about your concern about division but your threads are creating just that.

The UKs position with regard to Israel is not anti Muslim but simply an alignment with a long term ally whose existence the British were partly responsible for. We cannot escape history.
And many don't want the UK allied with Israel these aren't immovable positions and public pressure can help with that.

Israel are well within their rights to defend themselves and this is well recognised under international law. Israel are prosecuting a war against a terrorist organisation which as you say has avowed the elimination of Israel. Israel as a state will use all military means to defend itself as we currently see.
This is your true position, you obviously support the current conflict and Israel's response and are continually trying to silence those that don't by claiming you care about community relations and they are stirring things up.

I live in a Muslim community and they are extremely upset about Gaza, it comes up often even with the kids after school.

However it also comes up with atheist friends as well. Look at the killing of the World Central Kitchen crew - the front page of the Daily Mail asks was it a war crime?

A much wider swathe of the UK public are wondering if we should be Israeli allies given the current Israeli government's actions.

Surely whether you are Muslim or Jewish, you can recognise war crimes taking place when you see them.

We have sanctions against Putin and Russia. Long overdue to bring in sanctions against Israel.

I agree with you OP, being concerned by a foreign war is understandable. Allowing it to disrupt relationships between communities is another, Jews and Muslims living in the UK are not responsible for the actions of any parties in the region and should not be made to feel they have to account for them.

Governments don’t act “morally” they act in a way that builds a web of influence and leverage so they can trade and co-ordinate with other countries in a way that benefits them directly. If the government only had relations with countries that have a completely clean bill of health in terms of moral action we’d probably only be talking to sweden or something.

"By having a continued focus on Gaza we could exacerbate tensions in our own communities "

OP, I hope you aren't suggesting that news organisations should cease to shine a spotlight on what the israelis are doing.

They have half a million people penned in and are starving & bombing them because of the actions of a few. They are committing genocide.

I'm not particularly supportive of either side. In many ways they are each as bad as the other, but Israel's recent actions and the UK's tolerance of those actions have provoked a disgust in me that I have seldom felt before.

If one of our allies is committing genocide, it is time to drop them.

I find that people generally are becoming very entrenched in their views and unwilling to listen to anything that might challenge them.

I am more concerned about threat of terrorist attack on British soil rising rapidly because of British government being complicit

@BerryMess things do feel very divided at the moment. It feels like this conflict, on top of the pain caused by the actual humanitarian crisis, has given a green light to people to just be openly hateful and prejudiced.

Before this, I did quite a bit of inter-faith work. Most of that has fallen apart now, due to a withdrawal of funding and a lack of desire from other people to continue it. It is considered more acceptable than ever to verbally and physically abuse people on the basis of their perceived faith. There are yet more efforts to remove 'undesirable' voices from discussions. The far-right has become rather centrist on the new political spectrum.

And people are genuinely afraid for what the future holds for their families.

@mids2019 you speak an awful lot of sense. I despair honestly. I don't think I've ever felt such a sense of division within the UK than I do right now. And there are sectarian political parties waiting in the wings ready to capitalise on the division - George Galloway anyone!? But what is the answer? For many (myself included) religion plays very little part in my identify but for others it defines their existence and informs their thinking. Neither are wrong but whereas before we could celebrate our differences or agree to disagree, nowadays this feels almost impossible . I don't want to sound horribly pessimistic but I think there's a long hard road ahead for Britain.

What do you mean by "therein lies the rub" in this particular case, @mids2019 ?

Israel is an ally of the UK and independent of the current crisis we will have trade and military ties with this partner state.

I guess it's a question of what do you value more? If trade and military ties are more important to you than you can pretend you don't see people getting killed and starved to death in another country

People's experiences of Islamophobia in the UK are not actually solely because of the Israel -Gaza conflict. We've experienced hate and discrimination for a long time before this.

Imagine reading your post being trapped in Gaza. You lost your family members and your children are starving.

How would you feel about the country and its people being diplomatic about the genocide that is affecting you. Especially if their country supply weapons.
I guess it's down to how empathetic you are.

@PurpleChrayn it is very disingenuous to quote the 1998 charter rather than the 2017 one.

I think we have to remember we are all citizens of the UK and we live in a democratic state whose aim on an international level is to act on our interests forging alliances with friends and allies in the world. Israel is an ally of the UK and independent of the current crisis we will have trade and military ties with this partner state.

And this is more important to you than the fact that it is very likely that your country is aiding and abetting war crimes breaking International law?

I'm not in the UK I have no skin in the game but I was wondering earlier how 3 British citizens being killed whilst on a humanitarian mission to feed people who are being starved to death has gotten fuck all reaction on mumsnet. When the news last night suggested that an Irish citizen was killed Irish forums were ablaze with 'our government needs to act now' but 3 British citizens are killed and crickets....

The UK is complicit in war crimes, stopping this is where the urgent attention of every single British citizen should be. How on earth can you expect there not to be 'tensions' when your government is complicit in the deaths of your citizens and the family and friends of your citizens.