Why does Palestine bring out such strong feelings?

[Saveusename]

I really don’t want this to become about individuals’ feelings about the conflict. There are plenty of threads for that.

I am interested in why Palestine provokes such a strong feelings about civilian in Britain. We didn’t see weekly marches and such intense, passionate feelings regarding any other conflicts over in, say, the past ten years (Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Congo, Somalia, and, of course, Ukraine). These all involve thousands of civilian casualties caused by conflict.

What is it about Palestine in particular that causes British people to feel so passionately about it?

Someone said to me today that, for them, it was the most pressing political issue. They have never even mentioned any of the other conflicts above. It got me thinking about it. If you care greatly about what happens in Palestine, why Palestine and not the other conflicts?

Please don’t come on and say you care about them all. It might be true but there is no doubt that the reaction to what’s happening in Palestine in Britain is much greater than the rest, which barely cause a murmur.

The necessary notification to police of protests was made on Oct 7th. The protests were planned on the very day that Israelis were slaughtered by Hamas. And the anti-Israel marching and shouting went ahead, no change of mind, no decency.

@Saveusename because there are an awful lot of antisemites sadly. Many, many dreadful things are happening in the world but these people obsess over only one. The only one which involves Jews is the only one they appear to care about.

If we could put all men on Alcatraz for 5 years, the world would become a place of peace. There would be no more war.

And air strikes started on Gaza. This was actually a very small protest anyway. Quite insignificant.

It took another week for the numbers to grow. Do you think it took till November for the hundreds and thousands of people taking part to remember they hated Jewish people? Do you genuinely believe It had nothing to do with the death, maiming and seige on a civilian population?

Yes, I do genuinely believe that. Because it’s so obvious.

Campaigns against Israel have been going on for decades. These latest protests aren’t springing up in some sort of spontaneous way through humanitarian concern. They’re a focus for, an emboldening of, open antisemitism. They’re an excuse to pursue ever more noisily Europe’s oldest hatred.

Gee, I guess some of us just have a downer on genocide.

Go figure. 🤔

What I'm saying is that a request for a hate march against Israel was put to police as the massacre was occurring and before any retaliation from Israel.

Which rather suggests that the marches are anti semetic to any right thinking person.

The British marches are the only ones I know about. I don't monitor marches in other countries because I'm not a Gaza obsessive. I'm just concerned about British Jews being intimidated in my country.

only when they involve Jews though and an excuse to wave flags, shout antisemitic insults and intimidate the Jewish population

Why did a few hundred join on Oct 9th. While one hundred thousand were marching in November?

Each week more and more of the anti semites were really getting into it. Nice day out with like-minded people. They won't want to stop.

That is fair enough. I don’t think Jews in any country should be intimidated.

Air strikes in Gaza started on the same day. A couple of hundred took part in the march on the 9th. A sharp contrast with the hundreds of thousands that marched once it became clear that it could be genocide. Now we have seen millions of people across the world protesting. And Israel’s allies have turned from support to condemnation.

But you don’t think that this has anything to do with the way the war was conducted?

It wasn’t a few hundred. It was thousands on 9 Oct.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/09/thousands-attend-protests-and-vigils-in-london-over-israel-hamas-war

The marches got bigger because they were planned and publicised further in advance. And as a pp’s said, the protests have gathered momentum among like-minded anti-Israel zealots.

It was apparently a few hundred who joined the specific protest you talked about on the 9th. That’s according to Wikipedia.

that article you linked is adding together pro Palestinian protests and the Israeli vigil attendees.

But regardless it is undeniable that the movement of people calling for a ceasefire grew over time. Significantly grew to over half a million later that year.

It is also worth noting that the protests reflect public opinion. The majority of the British public now feel that Israeli actions in Gaza were not justified.

That’s the latest you gov poll.

I find that very worrying. The antisemite protestors are successfully hoodwinking public opinion with their falsehoods about ‘genocide’.

For some reason people think BBC etc are unbiased. I haven't had a TV licence so haven't seen any of these scenes etc and care alot more about the Christians in Nigeria and other countries being persecuted by Muslims and Communists. But the constant pictures from Gaza and not these other places which are ignored are bound to have an effect especially as the BBC etc never exposing the history etc. The same way as I got really upset about Kosovo in the late 90s as I'd seen it on the news. You need to be asking why the media focus on Gaza so much.

It is about anti semitism. There isn’t another more palatable explanation.

Well it sounds like you live under a rock because there has been tons of criticism coming from both sides saying that the BBC is biased.

Why would you care about which people are dying based on their religion.

Ffs why do you think Muslims are so concerned about Gaza? Of course I'm going to be concerned about fellow Christians being persecuted (as well as the fact that alot more Christians are being killed than Gazans) and it is shameful that the Church of England aren't highlighting more and imo persecuted Christians should be prioritised in our asylum system.

I think the way the war was conducted is no different from any other war where the sides are hugely mismatched (Hamas knew this when they started it). But because this involves Jews, some people like to go on hate marches in support of Gaza rather than any other people experiencing real genocide going on in the world. It's pretty obvious.

I think Israel have made huge efforts to avoid civilian casualties hampered by Hamas hiding with civilians and not allowing them to shelter in the tunnels.

But ultimately it's a conflict that is happening outside the UK in another continent. What I do worry about is this country. AsnI mentioned. So the hate marches need to stop. They've made their point a long time ago.

You don't live in the UK.

But nobody thinks that Israel has tried to avoid civilian death. Not even their most staunch supporters (countries I’m talking about) The death rate of civilians is higher than other modern wars. Child amputees are the highest per capita in the world and the blocking of aid and the sheer destruction has collectively punished the entire population. And all of this has been supported by the West.

I personally think that because Israel has so flagrantly broken international law and because they did so for so long with little condemnation from the West and with the full support of the US, that it will fundamentally change how other wars are fought in future.

So what if I don’t live in the UK, I can still read and understand the you gov poll.

You’ve said this several times now:

“I think Israel have made huge efforts to avoid civilian casualties”

What evidence do you have of this?

The ratio of combatant to civilian deaths in this conflict has been heavily disproportionate, with an alarmingly high number of civilian casualties.

If BOTH sides think the BBC is biased...then?

Then what? Both sides think they are biased to the other side.

I personally think they have done a good job.