Do you think the Palestinian protests should be restricted?

[Yriovd]

With talk of the potential police powers, what do you think?

YABU - no restrictions, allow them to go ahead every week as they currently do.

YANBU - restrict them so they’re allowed less frequently, or ban them altogether.

Oh go away with your nonsense

I posted links to videos earlier in the thread.

I'm sure that's very inconvenient for you.

Because the UK and other western countries need to stop arming and supporting Israel, and only public protest can achieve that.

Hi, I just did a bit of digging to remind myself as it was two years ago and I think it was this one: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/20/ireland-palestine-ceasefire-gaza

Apologies, it was a diplomat rather than a TD, and he was quoted in the article rather than writing it. But I was a bit confused as I remembered his quote going much further than it does here. Then I spotted the footnote to say that it had been amended at a later date “for editorial reasons.” Funny, that. The original quote was picked up here: https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/366081/is-ireland-pro-palestine-because-it-has-so-few-jews/ and elsewhere.

"the pro-Palestine marches was openly antisemitic in tone and saw some 300-odd arrests"

Yes many of them pensioners and many disabled people , peacefully holding signs against the horrific genocide being perpetrated by Israel. Many Jewish people also protest against the mass slaughter for which Starmer's government provide weapons and intelligence.

x.com/seicilop/status/1974812636089823375/photo/1

No, they were arrested for supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation.

They deemed being arrested for selfies more important than allowing police to protect Jewish spaces after a terrorist attack.

It's sickening enough that the powerful people in this world have taken no action to stop an ongoing genocide without now asking the civilians to keep their mouth shut too. It's bad enough that we'll have to explain to our children and grandchildren how we all knew about it and didn't do anything to stop it. At least by going on a peaceful protest people feel their voice is somewhat heard, even if they are powerless. The violent or extremist element can be dealt with but the police same as at any large event.

I just wanted to repeat this post because it's spot on. I can honestly say 100% of Irish people I know support the Palestinian people and zero that I know support Hamas. We remember not so long ago how it felt to have a terrorist group acting in our name and we experienced the judgment and racism that followed. Many people have likened the Israelis actions post the Hamas attacks as the equivalent of mass murder of Irish people following the Omagh bomb or earlier terrorist attacks. Obviously it's a much much larger scale but it's the same analogy.

As for Ireland being anti Jewish I honestly don't know but I know I never met a Jew here in the 80s or 90s. I also never met an Indian or Nigerian or Jamaican or Swedish or Brazilian. Because Ireland had no immigration whatsoever and had a mass emigration problem. Why, because it was unbelievably poor and miserable, that's what happens when a country still destitute from famine and years of (often brutal) colonialism has to build itself up from fighting for independence and the civil war. It takes time and a couple for generations. No one wanted to be here, there was nothing for them. I think its very over simplified to say a country is prejudiced against a race based on the fact that they don't live here.

I think that's where you start.
People must have a right to protest. It's when the same people protest about the same topic over and over again in the same places.
Just stop oil were the same, disruptive and repetitive.

Having said that those repeating anti Jewish hatred should be imprisoned and banned from future protests.

Oh absolutely, I wouldn’t see the size of the Jewish population as indicative of anything much. But extrapolating from that tiny population to say that the absence of a sizeable Irish Jewish community “has given us a freer hand to take a more principled position”, as a former Irish diplomat to Ramallah did, is problematic to say the least.

Arrests after police officers hit with sledgehammer https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mnnje4wlro

This is who the pensioners etc are supporting

"They deemed being arrested for selfies more important than allowing police to protect Jewish spaces after a terrorist attack."

I don't think the blind man and others in wheel chairs were really concerned about selfies. Jewish people were on the protest- were they just there for selfies too ? It was a peaceful sit down protest against the Genocide. Why is the MSM conflating a terrorist act in Manchester with a peaceful protest? Once again shows us that Palestinian lives are worth less than others. Netanyahu had no intention of pausing the genocide for the day.

We can do both. Neither is mutually exclusive
We can also boycott Israeli goods.

People are doing lots of different things and what they chose to do is their choice

Agree

RTFT
and look at the arrest sheets

You are incredibly out of date with this incorrect and inflammatory piece of news.

The arrests are a publicity stunt deliberately designed to waste police time. What else do you think they are for?

Deliberately wasting police time in the aftermath of a terrorist attack is disgusting.

And people are conflating the protests with the murder of Jews probably because people march calling for the murder of Jews at the protests.

Nope, the pensioners who are being arrested for supporting Palestine Action are supporting the group who did the sledgehammer attack.

RTFT and the thread on the attack

No one was charged with attacking anyone with a sledgehammer

The local Bristol paper reported incorrectly and others picked it up before anyone was charged with anything

The charge sheets show this very clearly

The reporting is wrong
Ive already sited this updated information.

This is what I've seen too. Awful behaviour.

I'm Jewish and my husband and I have been on two Gaza marches each and will be going next Saturday for certain. They must absolutely not be banned, and especially not 'on behalf' of Jews - it will associate us with restricting freedom of speech and it's a dangerous route towards restricting more.

We have attended openly as Jews and never seen threatening behaviour or heard threatening words towards Jewish people. I gather some has occurred, I'm not going to prented there hasn't been a single incident, and they should be shut down by other attendees and the police - but in proportion to the vast numbers peacefully and respectfully attending, they a tiny minority and not a reason to stop the marches on something so important.

The guy was charged with aggravated burglary using as sledgehammer as an offensive weapon, and he was also charged with grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm. Offensive weapons are weapons used to injure, not smash stuff up.

And a police officer ended up in hospital.

You're not going to be able to paint this as a heroic act.

Yes, and if the police were concerned about their time being wasted, maybe they could have made a decision not to arrest peaceful protestors so they could give their time to other things. That decision would also have given the protest much less attention, which is what the authorities would want.

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Nine people appeared in a London court on Friday to deny offences including burglary, criminal damage, violent disorder and hitting a police officer with a sledgehammer, over an incident at a warehouse linked to Israeli defence firm Elbit.
The nine, who prosecutors have said were activists from the protest organisation Palestine Action, are accused of smashing their way into the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, in August.

At a previous hearing, prosecutors said a repurposed prison van was used to smash through fencing before some of the group damaged items in the warehouse using sledgehammers.
Four men and five women, aged between 20 and 51, appeared by video link on Friday at London's Old Bailey Court. All nine pleaded not guilty to aggravated burglary and causing criminal damage which has been estimated at 1 million pounds.
Seven of them also denied a charge of violent disorder, while one, Simon Corner, pleaded not guilty to a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, for allegedly striking a police officer with a sledgehammer.
Another nine people also charged with offences over the incident appeared at Friday's hearing but did not enter pleas.
The first trial involving eight of the defendants is due to start in November, with the others appearing at two subsequent trials. A hearing will also be held to determine whether the cases should be treated as a terrorism matter.

Trials not taken place yet but charged as above. Reuters

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Nine people appeared in a London court on Friday to deny offences including burglary, criminal damage, violent disorder and hitting a police officer with a sledgehammer, over an incident at a warehouse linked to Israeli defence firm Elbit.
The nine, who prosecutors have said were activists from the protest organisation Palestine Action, are accused of smashing their way into the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, in August.

At a previous hearing, prosecutors said a repurposed prison van was used to smash through fencing before some of the group damaged items in the warehouse using sledgehammers.
Four men and five women, aged between 20 and 51, appeared by video link on Friday at London's Old Bailey Court. All nine pleaded not guilty to aggravated burglary and causing criminal damage which has been estimated at 1 million pounds.
Seven of them also denied a charge of violent disorder, while one, Simon Corner, pleaded not guilty to a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, for allegedly striking a police officer with a sledgehammer.
Another nine people also charged with offences over the incident appeared at Friday's hearing but did not enter pleas.
The first trial involving eight of the defendants is due to start in November, with the others appearing at two subsequent trials. A hearing will also be held to determine whether the cases should be treated as a terrorism matter.

Trials not taken place yet but charged as above. Reuters

The protestors are not the good guys here.

They think they are, but they aren't. They're already supporting a group who put a police officer in hospital and who have a training manual and a list of targets including other RAF bases. Would you like those attacks on the RAF bases to go ahead? That's what 'I support Palestine Action' means.

A guy who was arrested for supporting Palestine Action came on MN and said that the planes that were attacked were used to refuel Israeli bombers. This isn't true. How stupid can you get, being arrested and not even having done basic research first?