Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

Thats my take too. I was unimpressed with JH twitter comments AND the pro-Palestine protesters. Both had behaviour that inflamed a situation or caused problems.

Its a feminist meeting. Surely the default is therefore to be all wanting to stop violence and abuse in society because ultimately its always women that come off worse in these situation no matter which side they are on?

Aja's request is reasonable.

Dear @FiLiA_charity,

I have decided that I would very much like an explanation as to why myself and my partner were banned from entering your conference on Sunday the 12th.

If you have any regard for the truth, you will respond to me and make it clear that it was not us who were involved in any of the violence that took place at your event.

The statements you have released so far were so vague that I cannot, in good conscience, help but believe that you intended people to think you were referring to me or to Lippy.

This has caused unnecessary speculation and I believe it is your responsibility to clarify the matter publicly.

I am glad that you have reported the violence to the police. I assume they will be contacting witnesses for statements, and I fully support you in this process.

Hopefully, the violent thugs you allowed into your premises will eventually learn how to conduct themselves without resorting to intimidation and aggression.

x.com/AjaTheEmpress/status/1977667483667472835?t=m8vPnZ43PzcIM64V09wewQ&s=19

I sincerely hope Filia are going to make a very clear statement following the police investigation. People's names are being thrown around on X.

So, I payed a lot of money to come here from Germany to @FiLiA_charity to be confronted with cancelling of important voices of the women‘s movement, harassment of jewish women and of women who support them, support for islamistic radicalism and oppression … and finally one of the most fiercest and courageous fighters for women and girls and my friend being thrown out of the event, while helping the security.
x.com/ronalyze/status/1977301801201262669?t=m8vPnZ43PzcIM64V09wewQ&s=19

Everything Ianadelgrey says.

There were plenty of Jewish women at the conference, many who will go next year (disclaimer - I know some). Stop trying to speak for others.

together we will build next year‘s conference

Just not for Jewish women.

Are you insane? Running a charity isn’t a Mickey Mouse enterprise, to retain charity status they must do due diligence. They either didn’t do any due diligence, as the speakers support of hamass were very clear online, which is mismanagement, or they knew about their views, which is more serious and brings the charity into disrepute at best. I think we can all agree a stated aim of filia is not to support terrorism.

At the very least they need to self report to the Charity Commission and provide all communication they had with the terrorist ‘lovers’ (their word, not mine). If they promoted CEO invited them because of their support of hamass, as claimed by one of the two Americans, then she needs to step down and distance herself from the charity.

I do feel a bit bad for FILIA here as many of these actions were not planned officially by them? I imagine that the disco will simply be cancelled or heavily policed next year, which is a shame.

There was a real passion for knitting 'packers' for little girls a few years back. You know, so that they can pretend they have penises. No group is immune from the madness. Loads of patterns on ravelry.

Could they have been incognito TRAs?

Most of the antisemitism was coming from the speakers so unless they were playing the long game...

Yes, indeed, Jean Hatchet did try to snatch/did snatch Palestinian flags from some of the women on the stage and yes, indeed it flared things up, as she intended it to.

It's clear that those who were trying to make the conference all about Palestine weren't really interested in the conference's main focus, which is women's rights. The conflict isn't about women's rights. Women have been harmed, of course, on both sides, but that's not what they're fighting about. I'd say in general ALL extreme religion tends to be bad for women, so buying into the framing of what is ultimately a male religious fight seems really odd.

I find it utterly bizarre they were allowed to deflect from and overshadow the main purpose of the conference like this. Could they have been incognito TRAs?

Filia was in the category of 'something I might do one day'.

Was.

FILIA was not, and is not, a safe space for Jewish women

Sadly, from the Jewish women I’ve spoken to, this is indeed the case. They won’t be attending again - and as an ally, neither will I.

That passed me by entirely, possibly because I crochet more than knit these days. How ridiculous.

There were plenty of rainbows and pride themed merchandise at Ally Pally and a few transwomen and GNC men. Great to see actually, because fabric is fabric however you want to cut and fit it to your body, and crafts should be accessible to everyone.

oooh have you come late to knitting then? missed the knitting wars of 6-7yrs ago? it was brutal.

colonialisation, cultural appropriation, you name the buzz word and it was there. Here's a glimpse. People lost livelihoods.

https://www.reddit.com/r/knitting/comments/af5wig/a_discussion_on_privilege_and_imbalance_in_the/

Jean H, who was there just as a normal attendee not as security or a Filia representative, has said on Twitter that she took it upon herself to remove Palestinian flags and scarves from those dancing on the stage. In my opinion that is not a very tactful nor respectful way to deal with things and would certainly not deescalate the situation.

I’ve never attended FiLiA and by the sound of it, I’m unlikely to. I’ve been on the organisation committee of large events, and you really have to nail down the scope and taboo topics. If you have speakers and/or attendees who are known for their tendency to go off-piste then you have to risk assess and put potential mitigations in place (e.g. a signal for cutting the mike or having trusted minders assigned to de-escalate any situations). A strategy for dealing with strongly expressed opinions that may get equally strong responses.

Fighting at the disco FFS. Every single person involved in that situation from the flag wavers onwards should have a word with themselves. Grown women acting like teenagers and plastering themselves all over social media to get their version in first. I don’t want to hear who started it, a plague on both your houses.

On a different note, I also attended an event this weekend attended by thousands of middle aged women (and a few men), all positively encouraging each other, learning new skills at classes, listening to speakers and being excited to talk to the well known experts in the area. Knit&Stitch at Ally Pally, utterly fab and no politics.

well the women who felt unwelcome this year are unlikely to come next because it coincides with the start of Yom Kippur. Imagine if FILIA booked it to coincide with the start of Eid?

I'm not Jewish but by paying attention to what was being said in various little groups around stands, and by sitting around talking to people, I personally witnessed two incidents of antisemitic hate speech. One stall holder claiming that Jew were "weaponising" the rapes of Oct 7th to make Hamas look evil(!) the other an attendee who confided in me that she thought the Israelis had orchestrated the massacre in order to invade Gaza.

FILIA was not, and is not, a safe space for Jewish women sadly. It could be - if it actually were a feminist space, but it's not a feminist space whilever it provides a welcoming home for rape apologists. It's actually not much to ask.

I guess that any event organized while the women who came with the intention of causing trouble were still present ran a risk of Jewish women being subjected to more abuse.

I hope FiLiA reaches out to the women who felt unwelcome with an invitation to take a platform next time. There’s a possibility that the rift, which was deliberately incited by a few bad actors, may still be healed and I hope it will be.

I’m glad that there were women who still found the conference healing. It would be great if they didn’t minimize others’ more negative experiences.

I don't think either of them brought flags to the disco? Certainly wasn't them waving them.

JCJ is a very angry person who sniffs around for arguments.
Jean H loves a scrap

It was sad that they had to bring male security into the female disco
but bringing a flag to a disco is just mental

Julia Long was on GB News last night talking about the rampant antisemitism that was present throughout the conference.

https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/1977460512146522325?t=bc7iCe_ERS3Td8d92DzIqA&s=09

It’s really inappropriate and it feels like the organisers dealt with these issues very poorly and not impartially. Jones and Masoud should also have been kicked out for “troublemaking”. And no I wasn’t there, I’m not sure it’s for me or people like me. I support the idea of it wholly, and I completely condemn the attacks on it by TRAs. But really, FFS.

An apology to the organisation but not an apology to the attendees who may have had their experience at Filia tainted, or even ruined, by their actions.