Having slept on this, I can see that some PPs here really do mean well with the marches and consider them a completely harmless way of declaring the obvious need for such a horrible war to “just stop.”
As leader of the suffragette movement, Emmeline Pankhurst achieved a lot as a political activist and had strong ideas about what was right and wrong. During World War I, she organised women to distribute white feathers as a form of public shaming aimed at encouraging men to enlist in the military. They handed these feathers (a symbol of cowardice, from cockfighting lore where a bird with a white feather was considered weak) to men in civilian clothes to imply they were shirking their duty by not joining the armed forces. This was her form of public virtue signalling and she believed it was her patriotic duty. Many men were deeply humiliated, because they were on leave from active service, medically unfit, too young/old to enlist, working in essential war industries, or even conscientious objectors to a war that in retrospect is understood as a senseless conflict driven by outdated imperial ambitions and rigid alliances, resulting in over 16 million dead.
So please be careful when you choose to virtue signal in a highly charged political situation that you cannot fully grasp.
In particular, please try to bear in mind:
- Middle Eastern politics will never make sense to Westerners, as they reflect an entirely alien ideology (e.g. attitudes to death).
- Hamas is not going to just settle down quietly after signing a piece of paper, and this is not Israel’s fault for inflaming a whole new generation. They were going to be “inflamed” anyway because that’s the culture Hamas has imposed.
- This is also a propaganda war being played out on social media, and Hamas uses this to their full advantage in a way that Israel so far has refrained from doing. It is very hard to get the image of a dying baby out of your mind. Much easier to draw a veil over events like 7 Oct that are discreetly shrouded.
- Calling Israel’s actions a “genocide” is simply incorrect. I have felt like an absolute fucking psychopath spelling out why, but please look it up and understand the true meaning of the term. It does not mean “too many dead babies.” This is not a numbers game, it is about specific intent.
- You using that term is particularly insulting to the Israelis and the entire Jewish race, who actually ARE facing an immediate genocidal threat (again!).
- When you say things like “I have nothing against Jews, but oppose this genocide” you are revealing a deep ignorance about what is at stake for Israel that suggests, at the very least, indifference to the fact that a lot of very rich ME countries want to wipe them off the map (and not just in Israel).
I think this conflict has driven us all mad with grief and anxiety. We often say to each other on here, “I bet you don’t comment as much on Sudan” etc, and I must admit I have never taken much interest in world politics and can’t pretend to unravel the insanely complex picture of this one. It feels as though the world has taken a nightmarishly dark turn, and it is awful feeling so helpless in the face of it. I completely understand the need to “do something” and how marching in the streets might help to alleviate that feeling of frustration and despair. But for all the reasons outlined above, however peaceful your marches, please consider that in reality you could be helping to achieve something you will one day deeply regret.
Also, please try to have a nice day. There is absolutely fuck all we can do about this ghastly state of affairs, but we can try to refrain from helping to polarise UK society. When there is so much suffering in the world, I think all we can do is count our blessings that we are lucky enough not to be in peril. Kiss our children, enjoy the sunshine, give thanks for this wonderful life that so many would give anything to swap places for.