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

Some posters seem to be going to great lengths to find increasingly preposterous reasons for not supporting the letter. From coercive control to supporting terrorism. . Bonkers!

Nah, I just don’t support Hamas.

Are you suggesting that those actors do?

They don't think they do but by criticising Israel as enthusiastically as they do, they play right into the hands of Hamas.

Put pressure on the UK government to allow Hamas snipers to enter as part of MSF?

They’re stating some facts about the situation. Should anyone who shines a light on the plight of Gazans be labelled a terrorist? That’s pretty coercive.

No one is allowing Hamas snipers in, that is preposterous

No, MSF have access to the men of Afghanistan. Your erasure of the women denied healthcare is startlingly misogynist.

Some of us think that intervening without considering very carefully all the implications of doing so will actually make the situation worse. Sometimes, doing nothing is the most useful thing to do.

Will happily support any campaign aimed at improving the situation of Afghani women and girls. I am no fan of the Taliban or any religious extremists who cause the suffering of women and girls.
This thread is about a campaign which aims to improve the also dire situation of pregnant Palestinian women by simply asking the Uk government to ask Israel to reverse their ban on aid agencies which have to date provided these supports to pregnant Palestinian women.
the campaign aims to avoid an increase in bad outcomes and increased maternal and infant mortality which will occur should Israel proceed with banning respected experience it’s such as Medecins sans Frontiers

Yes let’s let these women die and suffer more, Really?

Thank you for that link to UK-Med. I had never heard of them before. I will send some money their way.

Aid charities have already provably been infiltrated by Hamas operatives. Those operatives do not help women and babies, they help Hamas.

Helping Hamas means more shells, more bombs, more drones, more collapsed buildings, more women and babies harmed. Not fewer.

Israel are actually doing Gazan women and babies a favour in the long run, by cutting off resources to Hamas. 85% of charities are still working in Gaza. I'm about to unfollow this thread because I'm sick of casting pearls before swine, and as soon as I have done so I will donate to UK-MED, who are amongst that 85% of charities.

Many men in Gaza probably follow Hamas' misogyny sadly and may not let their wives consent.

Moreover, people have had kids in wars all through the past.

As the Buddha said, if she see a man with n arrow in his arm, you don't ask who made the arrow, you try to pull it out.

Jesus also modelled helping people regardless of why they were in trouble

I'm sure they don't believe they are supporting Hamas, but they are, through ignorance of the facts.

The Facts^^
^^
Never let it be said that these people are troubled by a need to learn the facts before parading what they think the rest of us will see as their virtue. Because fact one is that the latest demand for lists of aid personnel only applies to those aid agencies which have previously refused to be vetted by the Israeli authorities, most of which have been subject to allegations that they have indeed been infiltrated by Hamas operatives. None of the major players have any issue with Israel’s entirely sensible and basic requirement.

Neither the World Food Programme (responsible for the vast majority of UN-funded aid entering Gaza), nor the Egyptian Red Crescent (the largest non-UN NGO operating in Gaza), nor World Central Kitchen, nor any of the many other aid agencies which have carried on working in Gaza have created a fuss about supplying Israel with the names of its personnel. They have all done so.

That’s because of fact two: that the sum total of the aid contribution put together by those agencies which have refused to cooperate with the Israelis amounts to less than one per cent of the aid delivered during the previous ceasefire. In other words, the loudest noise is being made by and on behalf of those with the least involvement on the ground, and which have the most involvement with the very problems around aid delivery that Israel is seeking to tackle.

Thanks for the information on UK-Med, looking them up now.

Isn't this specifically about maternity care charities? I agree they could be infiltrated by Hamas though.

That is deeply suspicious.

I strongly support aid to women there but not stuff done out of ignorance that ends up in Hamas' hands.

@TonTonMacoute you didn’t cite the source of your ‘facts’ but:

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the most prominent organisations affected by Israel’s registration decision, contested Israel’s claims.
An MSF press statement noted that the organization currently supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and assists one in three mothers during childbirth.
“In the last year, MSF teams have treated hundreds of thousands of patients and delivered hundreds of millions of litres of water,” said Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator for Gaza, in a 22 December statement. “In 2025 alone, we carried out almost 800,000 outpatient consultations and handled more than 100 000 trauma cases, and if we obtain registration, we plan to continue strengthening our activities in 2026.”
Describing the move as a “cynical and calculated attempt” at political control, MSF said that blocking its activities and those of other NGOs that refused to register their Palestinian staff would exact a “terrible cost” after Gaza’s health system has been decimated. Only about half of the enclave’s 36 hospitals are functioning, and those only partially.
Full article https://healthpolicy-watch.news/un-agencies-aid-groups-protest-israels-move-to-bar-many-ngos-from-gaza-as-winter-exacerbates-dire-conditions/

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5474234-why-justine-roberts-should-not-give-in-to-demanding-celebraties

You might think they're preposterous but plenty of us are concerned about the emotional blackmail language of the letter, that it was posted as an open letter rather than engaging with how Mumsnet works, and yes - that there is evidence that Hamas have used aid agencies as a cover for their activities in the past.

Plus no one has yet explained why they're still demanding Justine/ Mumsnet supports the letter writers in 'putting pressure' on the UK government when the UK government (and many other governments) have already, before the letter was published, condemned Israel's policy and asked for the banned agencies to be allowed to enter Gaza.

Possibly because the UK government has condemned many things but doesn’t follow up with action.

So why would Justine potentially getting involved make any difference?

I think @GiantBranch has answered that question many times now. Other posters on here too.

@Ellen2shoes It seems a logic fail to be making a big deal about a letter that Justine supposedly should be signing to demand urgent government action when you yourself acknowledge that UK government has condemned many things but doesn’t follow up with action.

Firstly, she doesn't have to do what you or the luvvies want her to do and it's weird that she is being targeted in this way. And secondly, it would almost definitely be pointless anyway.