Why does Palestine bring out such strong feelings?

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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.

Can you please point out where I said anything less than 100% support for the Israeli govt is antisemitism and tried to shut down any criticism? I can't see where I did that in my post.

That poster used Holocaust inversion, which is antisemitic. Btw, it's also an antisemitic trope to accuse Jewish people of 'crying antisemitism' to shut down criticism or debate. It's perfectly possible to criticise the Israeli government and express support for the Palestinians without using antisemitic tropes but a large number of people just don't seem to be able to manage it.

I'm aware that millions of people marched against the Iraq war because I was one of them.

No it isn't.

Because it's not a war, it's a genocide that our government is complicit in

Our government isn't aiding the other perpetrators of violence you mentioned so protesting and showing such support won't have the same impact because the government already 'agrees' that those conflicts are wrong.

Whereas we live in a country that caused the original problem with Israel and continues to support it in a genocidal mission against Palestinians. It's important to demonstrate that the voting public disagree with genocide and think our government should stop arming Israel and supporting it politically.

Again, what you’re saying here is “If people liked Jews more, they would be fine with the wholesale slaughter of children”. Which is a monstrous, not to mention a genuinely anti-Semitic, argument.

Funded by whom?

Isn't it because Israel is a modern democracy? The outrages taking place in Africa are between sectarian factions, not modern nation states.

in the west of Scotland it’s an extension of our already sectarian views and my enemy’s enemy is my friend

so the Celtic/catholic side affiliate with Palestine and the Rangers/Protestants with Israel

It's very interesting to me how this has taken hold and spread via social media etc. it's everywhere.
I was out earlier and there's an independent children's book shop with a massive Palestinian flag in the window, and a display of books about Palestine and Gaza. It was obvious from the imagery, the titles and the authors what the slant was. Posters were up at bus stops etc advertising the next march, and there were stickers and flags everywhere, even on the door of the phone shop where I bought a charger. I've really not witnessed such a social phenomenon.

Yes, I've seen that in NI as well.

For me it isn’t anti-semitism. I’d be equally appalled if Jewish children were being slaughtered in their thousands. I think it’s a combination of awareness( through both the mainstream media and social media) and what appeared to be the specific targeting of civilians, children , health care workers and journalists by the Israeli forces. I appreciate that there are and have been similar atrocities throughout the world and unfortunately racism continues to play a role in how our media informs us of them and therefore the public awareness. I wish it wasn’t so and personally I do try to keep informed. The targeted genocide of any people of any ethnicity is utterly abhorrent and unjustifiable. The world does seem like a very cruel place at the moment - Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, parts of Nigeria to name but a few. And the feeling of utter helplessness at the ineptitude and lack of moral fibre of our world leaders is terrifying

And yet two years ago Jewish children were slaughtered in their thousands. Which is the day people went out to march to demonstrate their support for… Palestine.

Is it because it's seen as "against Muslims "?
We have three Muslim members of staff who have been vocal about their outrage but when Oct 7th happened they didn't mention that.
The ties of islam are extremely strong and hard to understand if your like me a lapsed Christian.

Yeah I don't like the Saudis very much, either!
I probably like Israel marginally better than Saudis, but there's not a lot in it.
It's not like I'm out protesting against any of these actors.
Saudis have their own powerbase, basically their immense wealth from oil on their own territory. Israeli has no natural resources AFAIK. Few olive trees?

Because Israel was colonised by mostly ex-Europeans, and runs under democratic model, I perceive a cultural affinity for most Europeans: Israelis are almost "our people" and there are higher hopes for high standard of morals exhibited by "our people" than more obviously not-European-origin people (like Saudis or whoever is killing each other in Congo this week). Expectations about what we think Israel "should" be capable of, human rights policies I mean, are higher than for Saudi/Afghan/DRC.

To me it's because the perpetrators of the mass murders are sophisticated educated people, and have support in western civilisation. I honestly never thought I would live to see the complicity from people and counties that usually support human rights and liberty. To me, Israel and its support is literally the most terrifying threat that I have ever encountered. Not because of any religious or ethnic reason but because the wrongdoing is being justified. It doesn't matter what you call it, killing innocent civilians is against all moral codes that i grew up with, but now apparently its not anymore. So anything could happen and no one is safe.

Every other war, genocide and infringement of human rights goes against my moral code. Also that of most people.

I think it provokes such strong reactions as our government seem to wholeheartedly support Israel, and Israel seem to be slaughtering thousands of civilians and breaking international law.

It just goes against everything good and proper us British have ingrained in them.

The British have sold arms to the Saudis for the bombing of Yemen. Have you seen pictures of those children?

THIS

I think people should read this again and again.

As a Muslim yes I have connection with Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa mosque. And as a Muslim I do not hate or dislike Jews! It's absolutely ludicrous as they are considered people of the book! Whereas a lot of Jewish people don't like Muslims period!

We hate the settler colonial mentality, that God is on the side of the zionists. No we live as human beings along side each other in peace.

This shalt not kill!

Wow, another “trope” that everyone is guilty of. There are so many that it’s impossible to discuss this conflict without hitting at least one. I’ve been shut down by Israeli family members so many times when having even the most general conversation about this conflict. Antisemitism IS being used to shut down debate and not just by Jewish people - by anyone who supports Israel unequivocally.

for the whatabouters

I have some lovely muslim friends but pretty much every muslim I know is really weird about Jews, really really deep seated anti-semitism. Mehdi Hassan wrote about this and the muslim worlds love of conspiracy theories. They will say something pretty anti-semitic and it’s taken as a given that we all know what the Jews are like. They don’t see it as anti-semitic, they see it just as the truth. I don’t have any friends like that anymore, racism is racism imo.

The left wing have this weird fondness for Islam in particular. I think it comes from an anti colonialist bent which is a bit mad, I had a tunisian friend who would happily talk about the arab slave trade and arab colonialism and imperialism. But she was an atheist and also saw how arabian culture/language and religion basically erased indigenous culture, language and religion. Probably the most successful imperialist project in the history of mankind imo. I think some people will support anything the see as anti-western.

Theres also that idea that sports is a proxy for war, it makes people feel alive and gives some meaning to their lives if they can obsess over something they have zero control over, they choose a team and then devote all their emotional energy to it.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mehdi-hasan/conspiracy-theories-islam_b_5770576.html

Yes.

Why?

The thread is asking about Palestine?

Shame that Israel doesn't allow independent journalists into Gaza to verify or discredit those "fake videos" for themselves then, isn't it?

Or maybe compare to Sudan? Which seems to be of virtually no interest to the internet warriors
The war in Sudan

If you have trouble believing that the same men and women appearing in differing roles across many videos may be an indication of fakeness, or that images and videos have been proven to be from different conflicts/ children with medical conditions, then I doubt any evidence would change your mind that Hamas is more trustworthy than Israel.