Many pro-Palestinians DO actually support Hamas

That’s interesting @quantumbutterfly, can you explain a bit more?

Some do. The greater number are driven by forced teaming from what I've seen.

I think that’s what makes it superb. They’ve tapped into several strands of current Western thinking (about racism, colonialism, and oppressor/oppressed narratives) while also revitalising deeply embedded antisemitic themes for a new audience who, mostly having been born after WWII, don’t see them for what they are.

I’m sure Hamas and Iran understand how Western academia and political tribal allegiances work. I’d be surprised if they hadn’t been paying careful attention to transgender ideology’s tremendous success in mainstream ‘left’ thinking and the success of the extreme element of the trans rights movement in getting apparently intelligent people to parrot dangerous lies in the name of ‘compassion’.

Pro-Palestinians see themselves as humanitarian, progressive and compassionate, they are wedded to that view of themselves, and they suffer cognitive dissonance when something challenges it, and that’s exactly what Hamas’s propaganda plays on.

The truly scary thing about Hamas propaganda is that they have proved there is nothing they can do that is so bad it will lose them support in the west. Film yourselves gleefully beheading a Thai man with a garden hoe? Hold a fake funeral ceremony for a baby and a toddler you kidnapped and murdered? Film a young man you have kidnapped and slowly starved being made to dig his own grave? Yep, all fine. You are the future the west wants for itself. At least you didn't do something truly evil like make an ad with a play on the words 'genes' and 'jeans.'

The argument about whether or not Hamas is an army is just another take on this being big, bad Israel crushing some tiny, powerless insurgency, instead of Israel being up against Hamas and the PA and Hezbollah and the Houthis and Yemen and Qatar and Syria and Russia and China and whatever other Muslim Brotherhood strongholds or corrupt autocracies are against it.

I can understand being unable to see past the distress caused by having your social media flooded constantly with images of dead and dying babies and children, especially when this is always presented as "Look what Israel is doing."

It must also be difficult to imagine what life under Hamas is like. There are a lot of "voices, long silenced" (and not by Israel) that will never see the light of day.

One day, the role of social media algorithms in public perceptions of this conflict will become more visible. Maybe I'm being ridiculous, but I can't help noticing that the relentless influx of spamming threads on CITME has subsided quite a lot since Haniyeh and Sinwar were wiped out.

I have yet to see a thread started by a "pro Palestinian" questioning why Hamas chose to put its people in harm's way by committing a pogrom in Israel.
Or one questioning how so many Hamas soldiers , hale and hearty were to be found in the last round of performative hostage release.....when so many Gazans were being starved " by Israel".
Or why Hamas, obviously having lost the war it started will not unconditionally surrender , but continues to carry on like a valid shot caller and to the point that it has now got Egypt on its shitlist.
All instead of enabling the beginning of the end to its people's immediate physical suffering.

I have yet to see a thread started by a " pro Palestinian" of superior intelligence questioning why in a war consisting of two sides, only one side is being demanded of to facilitate the end of said war.

Or starting a thread to ask if the " anti Zionism" is stronger than the " pro Palestinian" in the " pro Palestine/nian discourse and if the " anti Zionism" is not getting in the way of material advocacy on behalf of Gazans now.
I have seen a lot of emotionalism, trying to centre Gaza in everybody's life and mind to the expected ignoring of anything else in order qualify as a good person and if one is not Gazan, one does not qualify as being violated, bullied or suffering.
Neither have I seen threads in the name of peace loving " pro Palestinians" who hate " imperialism/racism/colonialism" and all that " Israel represents" started about Arab or Islamic colonialism , how Russia has been intertwined with "Palestinian" advocacy/terror since the inception of modern Israel as part of the Cold war and funded Arafat at the same time as Che Guevara. And funds Hamas via Iran today.
Or the fact that being anti Arab is cultural in the non Arab Middle East and Iranian shenanigans in the Mediterranean/Gulf Middle Eastern states is all about Islamism and anti Semitism....the Palestinians are just a collateral damage red herring...to Iran and Hamas.
If one is truly pro Palestinian instead of " anti Zionist" that train of thought of linear thinking would have easily produced threads of this skin deep knowledge/ interest nature along with the usual " US/ Israel BAD" threads from the same quarter.

Are the "Pro Palestinians" on Mumsnet True To This or New To This?

Because right about now, I mostly see a bunch of empty barrels making the most noise in order to try and disguise something inside so strong that they do not want to attend to or reveal outside of fellow travellers.
And if it is not that, then if I was Gazan and not pro Hamas or anti Semitic , I would wonder what a bunch of under thinking foreigners think that there mutual gyrating could do for me.

What is it with pro-Palestinians in that the moment you try and have a measured conversation about why we are where we are, they churn out punchy statement about killing babies?

Why can’t they just have a sensible two way conversation about the conflict?

Not superb, they just have a number of enthusiastic amplifiers.

Your real issue seems to be that Palestinians are now able to speak, to share their reality without it being filtered. That their voices, long silenced, are finally being heard.

I'm sincerely concerned that that's all you think is happening here.

Oh the irony of your post.

Did you spot any Jewish ones perchance?

It’s important to recognise the difference between a state’s official military- which operates under internationally recognised laws and accountability- and a non-state militant group like Hamas.

A terrorist group like Hamas

Fixed it for you.

Hamas has armed fighters but isn’t a national army of a recognized state

Because it’s a terrorist group.

You can’t be both at the same time.

So everything is Israel’s fault

I mean Israel has no control over Egypt’s border but sure, it’s their fault Egypt doesn’t open it.

Can I ask - where do you get this information? What’s your source?

Oh, so we’re deflecting now- justifying the starvation and siege of nearly a million children because decades ago, a Palestinian group committed airplane hijackings?

Let me be clear: I don’t justify any act of terrorism. I’ve repeatedly condemned October 7th, Hamas, and all violence against civilians. But the phrase “public grievances” doesn’t quite cut it, does it? You’re referencing historical acts of desperation rooted in statelessness, exile, and occupation and using that to frame today’s mass civilian suffering as somehow deserved.

Your real issue seems to be that Palestinians are now able to speak, to share their reality without it being filtered. That their voices, long silenced, are finally being heard.

And your response to that is deflection, rather than horror at what they’re enduring. what exactly is it you’re defending?

It specifially highlights air travel terrorism as a tactic "popularized by Palestinian terror groups—including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Abu Nidal Organization—who used airplane hijackings in order to publicize Palestinian grievances and gain worldwide coverage for their cause."

Now they can just use social media for that. Oh and throw in the odd 7 Oct just to keep Israel on their toes. No one seems to mind that.

That’s an interesting take- but the analogy wasn’t infantilising Palestinians. It was highlighting the extreme power imbalance between a nuclear-armed state and a besieged civilian population with no army, no sovereignty, and no escape.

Calling that “paternalistic” is a deflection. Recognising structural oppression isn’t racist - but ignoring it while reframing any empathy as manipulation might be.

You’re more outraged by metaphors than by famine. I’m sure everyone reading these threads can see who’s really buying the propoganda.

Does recognising the structural difference between a militant group and a nuclear-armed state somehow render the massacre of over 1,000 people free from consequence? No. And I haven’t seen anyone here say that.

Look at you… desperately trying to twist my point: that there’s a power and structural difference between Hamas and the IDF- into a claim that I’m excusing Hamas.

What people have repeatedly pointed out is that the response has been catastrophically disproportionate.

Over 17,000 children have been killed since.
Israel has manufactured a famine, bombed aid convoys, flattened entire neighbourhoods, and repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure. These are war crimes.

The distinction between a state military and a militant group matters precisely because states are bound by international law, and the IDF is not operating in a vacuum. Accountability matters.

If that distinction doesn’t seem important to you- maybe ask why the laws of war exist in the first place?

It’s not justified, it’s not accidental, and in my opinion, it’s kind of racist (I’m not accusing anyone on this thread of racism) - really paternalistic and colonial thinking.

Hamas are superb propagandists, I will give them that.

Read the Kneecap thread. You might remember it. If not, PM me x

You said:

one side has F-35 jets and a nuclear arsenal- and the other has starving civilians and no army?

That is absolutely insinuating that Hamas are essentially harmless in comparison.

Also, Israel having nuclear capabilities has no bearing on this at all. They would never be used anywhere, let alone in Gaza.

It’s important to recognise the difference between a state’s official military- which operates under internationally recognised laws and accountability- and a non-state militant group like Hamas.

Important, how?

What is the importance of it?

Does that somehow render the massacre of over 1,000 people by hand in a single day free from consequence?

I don’t understand the relevance of your conment in the context.

Wow that’s an utterly simplistic view- ignoring decades of occupation, displacement, and blockade fueling this conflict.

Ok no evidence so just repeating what I posted.
Good luck.

Yes, airport security is tight worldwide because airports and airplanes are high-profile targets for various terrorist groups globally- not just from one country or group.

The link you shared literally highlights that threats come from many extremist organizations with different motives 🤷‍♀️