To wonder why the Corbynite left is so obsessed with Palestine?

[Antigony]

To be clear - I don't agree with everything the Israeli government is doing.

But there are vast numbers of governments around the world who are doing terrible things. There's the Chinese government's treatment of the Uighur Muslims, the Australian government's offshore internment of asylum seekers for years driving some to suicide, the Saudi Arabian government's warmongering and bombing in Yemen, Maduro in Venezuela stopping food aid from reaching his starving people, the Iranian government hanging gay people etc.

Why have so many people on the British left seized on and fetishised this one injustice? Why do they all put Palestinian flags in their twitter bios and jump on every opportunity to criticise Israel, but don't do the same for these other countries?

But, OP, your post sounds a bit “whatabouttery”

I disagree.

Obviously, there are only so many causes an individual can advocate for. I wouldn't ask a lifelong campaigner for dogs' rights what they'd done about hamsters' rights. A certain individual having chosen to devote their time to campaigning for Palestine is fine.

But you would expect equal numbers of these left-wing activists to have chosen other marginalised people's rights to campaign for, be that women in Saudi Arabia, gay people in Iran, asylum seekers in Nauru etc. And the fact is, they haven't.

That's my point - why has the majority chosen this one cause? That's not "whataboutery".

@DGRossetti

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsions_and_exoduses_of_Jews

Why don't you have a read of this list of all the countries that Jewish people have been kicked out of?

Corbyn likes to consider himself an anti-imperialist. So anti US. US mates with Israel. Equals anti-Israeli. Same stupid bollocks reason for opposing EU.

Lucindille

Tx ...

I did know about the 1290 English expulsion ... and the terrible tragedy at York

A friend of mine told me her partner was attending a pro-Palestinian March in London. The same day she shared an animated pro - Palestinian cartoon film on her facebook page, where the characters were little pin figures. All the Palestinian figures were portrayed as sad sweet faced people being driven and killed by scowling, nasty faced Israeli soldiers. I wrote underneath " No mention of Hamas, or child suicide bombers........" Don't think it went down too well.

That's my point - why has the majority chosen this one cause

The whatabouttery, to me, comes from the fact that you’re naming lots of other things without actually acknowledging the link to the history of our empire. It’s a bit closer to home. Also it (was/is?) taught in GCSE history so I suspect a lot of people picked it up then.

Well what do you want people to say OP - oh well yes it’s becasue all left wing activists are virtue signalling woketards so feel free to ignore them.

I mean you’ve pretty much had your answer - it’s an issue which implicates the UK in a pretty fundamental way and it’s also a long estabilised campaign over a conflict that has lasted more than 60 years - it’s easy to get involved in because there are already organisations set up etc. It has a heavy presence on UK university campuses and I guess you could class it as ‘entry level’ activism. It is also an issue that is in the international domain - Ie. there have literally been international conferences trying to sort it out that British citizens can try to affect. Gay rights in Iran/ women driving Saudi Arabia is not up for debate and under international jurisdiction in the same way.

Also you don’t Know how many left wing folk are campaigning on other issues cos there’s no census done on this matter.

.......just as well to ask why so few others speak up for the Palestinian people.

To be clear - I don't agree with everything the Israeli government is doing

So what do you agree on them doing?

pingu great post.

Are you an ex labour MP with the initials LB?

“The Left’s Jewish Problem” by Dave Rich analyses this issue well.

My - admittedly Anglocentric and limited - understanding of Palestine is that way back when (just after WW2) the British kicked a load of Palestinians out of the land they had lived in for centuries to help create Israel. So "the Palestinian situation" - whatever it's rights and wrongs (probably a lot of wrongs sad) predates all the other issues the PP mentioned.

You need to read a bit of history, the british were in fact against the UN's idea of israel but the us being in war time debt to the USA strong armed us.

Even then, that is not showing the full nuance of the situation.

The far left have always been anti west, but in relation to Palestine is the idea that all the jews in israel came from the west or europe, and are some kind of colonialist settlers.

The majority came from or are descended from jews who were ethnically cleansed from arab states and have no where else to go.

They can go back to tunisia or yemen but they are literally refugees fleeing from actual persecution.

What these people wish to do is remove their last refuge.

I think it taps into the same sense of outage that people felt against the South African government during apartheid. The native people being forced to live second class lives by a largely immigrant/Western class who hold all the power. And it is our own governments that are supporting them in it.

There were plenty of other bad things happening during the 80s but Apartheid was the big ticket issue that got the most international attention.

I'm not equating these situations, but I think for most Pro Palestinian organisations it's how they view it.

Maduro in Venezuela stopping food aid from reaching his starving people,

Corbyn and some of his supporters approve of Maduro so no outrage from them about Venezuela.

It's because the UN took land that was occupied and known as Palestine and gave it to Jewish people as some sort of reparations for the Holocaust or biblical prophecy fulfilment.

The Jewish people then kicked all the non Jewish people off the land. People that had lived there for hundreds of years in family homes etc.

If that wasn't bad enough, the Jewish people keep claiming and taking more land. Look at what they were given and what they have today. They have doubled their size by military force and they keep claiming its "God's will".

It is unbelievable that this even happened and it's tragic that it has gotten to the point it is today with so many people ignorant of the facts surrounding the conflict and ongoing tensions.

I find Corbyn despicable. Though I do find it very anoying that you can't criticise Israel without being liable an antisemite though. For goodness sake one is a country the other a religious belief!

@LordPickle

It is unbelievable that this even happened and it's tragic that it has gotten to the point it is today with so many people ignorant of the facts surrounding the conflict and ongoing tensions.

Yeah it's unbelievable that people are so unaware of geopolitical issues and try and filter it into the IDPOL oppression stack.

The UN didn't take land and give it to Jewish people! The Jewish settlers fought a bloody war against British forces occupying Palestine in 1946/7. A lot of British blood was spilt. The unit later recognised the state of Israel.I'm not criticising the formation of Israel just correcting a post above!

Though I do find it very anoying that you can't criticise Israel without being liable an antisemite though. For goodness sake one is a country the other a religious belief!

You can criticize Israel, the problem is that a lot of the criticism is based on lack of geopolitical issues and think its a simple black and white situation, it also doesn't help that a lot of those who want to only criticise israel easily slip into 1930's nazi propaganda.

When you have people like Stormfront and David Duke supporting Corbyn in the last GE, it might have been a wake up call to the vocal woke left, but apparently its not considering they are up in arms about the ban on Hizbollah

@SciFiRules

Exactly, the British were pro Palestine and had officers in the Jordanian Army in the 1948 war as they knew it would leave the Palestinians in a shit state, it's something that is ignored on the left as it doesn't fit the narrative of Colonialist West, it also leaves out the Arab states have and still are ethnically cleansing Jews.

I'm not denying its a shit show though.

I condemn Israel for imprisoning people without trial in apauling conditions, helicopter gunship attacks in crowded streets and partaking in assassination. Is that 1930s propaganda?

In 1946 was a 100000 strong occupying force a sign of britain being pro Palestinian?

Is that 1930s propaganda?

It is when you think there is only one side doing bad shit in this situation yeah.

If you added something about the fundamentalist Shia militancy group funded by extremely socially conservative theocracy with an overall goal of driving the Jewish population of Israel as even a brief footnote it might have been better.

Still guilt by association is apparently a thing so you are on the same side as Stormfront and the like of David Duke and Ike so fair play to you.

Just
Are you trying to justify a recognised state behaving in the same way as a terrorist organisation because it faces terrorism? Israel deserves criticism for its behavior, I'm not suggesting they are not enduring apauling terrorist atrocities themselves.

Are you trying to justify a recognised state behaving in the same way as a terrorist organisation because it faces terrorism?

No I'm arguing in the theme of the OP, it's labour and the hard left having a problem with Hizbollah going onto the proscribed list.

You trying to paint it in a simple black and white terms is somewhat relevant to the OP