In wanting Mumsnet to help Judi Dench and Joanna Lumley

[GiantBranch]

Last week, Israel banned 37 international aid organisations from operating in the strip, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Medicine Sans Frontieres (MSF). MSF delivers one in three of Gaza’s babies, and experts warn that immediate action must be taken to prevent a catastrophe.

It has prompted more than 100 leading members of the arts, including Dames Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Joanna Lumley, Sienna Miller, Suranne Jones and singer Paloma Faith, to sign a letter urging popular online platform Mumsnet to join them in demanding urgent government action ensuring maternity care is accessible in Gaza.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-israel-baby-birth-judi-dench-letter-b2896981.html

Horrifying. YANBU, I don’t know how anyone could disagree.

More detail here

www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/cultural-heavyweights-call-for-action-to-help-mothers-in-gaza-after-aid-ban

“The letter, organised by theatre director Cressida Brown and actor Juliet Stevenson CBE, said that the restrictions announced by Israel on 30 December are “catastrophic” for pregnant Palestinian women who are giving birth in “unimaginable conditions”.

At the same time, it highlights that four brand-new Mobile Maternity Clinics, each costing £75,000, and MSF, which had been responsible for delivering a third of all babies in Gaza, are being refused entry to the area.

You'd think, but it's coming in from a fair amount of derision from the good women of FWR:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5472254-open-letter-mothers-appeal-to-mumsnet-ceo-justine-roberts

Wanting action on maternity aid of all things.... "Rude" and "cheeky fuckery" apparently.

God, you'd think those bank balances united would have a better impact on maternity care in Gaza than hen-pecking a website to lobby the government with this project.

wow , will take a look but why would anyone disagree?

When the good people in the arts sector start standing up for women, women's rights and single sex spaces, then I might support a cause they fervently believe in. But I would want to see far more than just words. And it is a cheek.

You'd have thought they'd have learnt their lesson after supporting Alaa Abd el-Fattah so enthusiastically.

Don’t think the causes are linked but your choice

should we not help fellow mothers, we all know how tough pregnancy and birth is?

It’s truly horrifying that an apparently civilised country would ban internationally renowned aid and medical agencies when it is the only support an entire population has access to. This is on top of the press having been completely banned already.

Why aren’t more people asking what they have to hide? Why do they feel the need to silence the voices of independent organisations? And when we already have enough evidence from them of brutal inhumanity from the IDF, why are still so quiet?

We don't know that they're not giving money as well as their time.

All the money in the world won't help if the agencies can't get in.

Don’t think the causes are linked but your choice
The link is entitled public 'celebrities' thinking that i care about what they think.
I don't

It’s there in the OP. Aid agencies are not being allowed to operate. Why are you anti a campaign to get maternity care to women?

Israel banned 37 international aid organisations from operating in the strip, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Medicine Sans Frontieres (MSF).

But it is not about the celebrities it is about pregnant fellow women in a dire situation needing help

Honestly I think for some it’s about wanting people to forget what Israel is doing and not caring about the women and babies of Gaza, however it’s wrapped up as disdain for celebrities or some other tangent.

If you want to have a campaign, don't use celebrities to push it.
People are sick and tired of them

Its pathetic if mn doesn't support this.
But after seeing how the CITME board was moderated, im not surprised if they dont support it.

The organisations had their licenses revoked for refusing to hand over the names of their workers within Gaza. Aid agencies in that area have a real issue with Hamas infiltration and I know this because I used to work in Aid and I’ve seen it.

It’s not an unreasonable demand but the NGOs refused. 23 other aid agencies have complied and will continue to work in the area. There will also continue to be heavy support from the UN and the international community. The 37 aid agencies could have prevented this.

I don't get why the finger is being pointed at mumsnet rather than politicians. Really odd way of going about things.

Are they going to ask netmums to do the same too?

There are no fingers being pointed. They are asking MN to weigh in, not accusing MN of anything.

Mumsnet is a) primarily a website for parents, mainly mothers, so for people who are perfectly placed to understand how atrocious the conditions for pregnant women or post partum women must be in Gaza, and b) well-known in the UK as a political weathervane, frequently canvassed by politicians.

So if you wanted to get some action going for mothers suffering in an unimaginably awful way, then Mumsnet is probably one of the first places you'd go in the UK to start the lobbying.

A lot of very well respected NGOs have been banned, they said they had security concerns for their staff due to the number already killed in Gaza.
also were not willing to agree not to testify against Israel in the ICC /ICJ which is something that was being demanded but that discussion has been done.
This is about helping pregnant women surely something we can all support

i bloody hate Joanna Lumley

Hopefully is it still running?