AIBU to compare pro-Palestine and Tommy Robinson-led protests? Both involve hatred antisemitism or racism and both end up in trouble. Two cheeks of the same ass as I've heard on here before!

[HeyHoHenryHippy]

Pro-Palestine and Tommy Robinson-led protests this Saturday with yet again thousands of officers having to spend the day controling these protests. Surely there is a better way. Static protest or once a month for Gaza? I think Tommy's lot isn't weekly like the Gaza lot.

Antisemitism is a major problem and general racism also up. Armoured vehicles are needed now with the first time in 15 years to use them. Terror incidents have risen yet what have either of these 'protests' achieved apart from further divisions!

Stick them in separate areas and tell them to stand with their various placards and keep them there. They ave their virtue signalling and hate fuelled moments but stop annoying the rest of us and keep the costs down - it's costing millions of pounds.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15816041/Met-Police-call-armoured-cars-London-braces-day-pro-Palestine-Tommy-Robinson-led-protests.html

Getting really sick of this blatant astroturfing now. This was a far better site when it was people beefing about cakes/wasps etc, it's absolutely rotten these days

I've genuinely never seen pro pal outside of Mumsnet. If you don't think Palestinians deserve respect, there are less disingenuous ways to say that 🙏

Agreed. There's a politics subnormal, after all.

It was fine when you'd get the odd political thread, but have become relentless.

Can you explain what Zionism means though?

So you genuinely don't think that Tommy Robinson shares views with Hitler? The reality is is that there are bigoted people on both sides, but I'd say the average person on the Robinson march will be far more racist and antisemitic than the average pro Palestine marcher. Protesting a genocide means you believe never again, not just never again for Jews.

Also, Tommy Robinson doesn't give a fuck about Jews he's using them to further his anti Islam agenda. I'm sure he would probably strongly sympathise with Nazis.

@Firetreev most definitely he posed for a picture/selfie last year in front of a London bus number 88.
88 has significance with the extreme far right it's HH=Heil Hitler that was no coincidence .

For those unsure of Tommy Robinson's opinion on Hitler, here is Tommy Robinson deliberately advertising a Unite the Kingdom March with an 88 bus in the background. 88, in racist speak, means 'Heil Hitler'. Tommy Robinson will be well aware of this even if you aren't.

It's nothing to do with respect it's just an abbreviation. Pro Pal has no negative connotations and is not used to describe Palestinians at all.

It is used to describe those (I think the phrase originated on the Conflict in the Middle East board) who argue from the Palestinian side rather than those who argue in support of Israel (pro Israel).

The reality is Tommy doesn't go the whole hog with his beliefs, it's just dog whistles. He'll happily use Jews and people of colour who are foolish enough to believe him to pretend that he's not racist. It gives him a level of cover. If that grifter and Russian shill got anywhere near power anyone who isn't a white 'Christian' in this country would be fucked. I put Christian in quotation marks, as most of these people use Christianity as a cover for their bigotry and hatred. They're not Christians and have clearly never read a Bible, as they would realise just how reprehensible their beliefs and actions are to their God.

I wonder who you are behind your name.

Did uou not read the reports of marching past synagogues! Did you not read the concerns of thd police and the Jewish community? Are those concerns not important because 'gaza'?

@noblegiraffe thanks for posting that pic.

But why not write the full word? Are you abbreviating Israel, or other countries? If not, why not?

Predictive text should make it a lot quicker to type

Tommy Robinson has also recently discovered Christianity because it means he can use Crusade imagery when talking about fighting Muslims.

Cross-posted with you, we were clearly thinking the same thing!

It's extremely dangerous for you to redefine Zionist to mean 'most evil person in the world'. Please stop it.

The extreme far right used Viking warrior imagery in the 90s as the defenders to keep Europe white.
The stuff they used over the decades gets recycled.

Being friendly to Israelis isn’t actually a crime y’know. I love how people accuse people of being a zionist as if it’s the same as being a nonce or something. Zionist just means you believe Israel has the right to exist.

I support the creation of a Palestinian state and I also recognise Israels right to exist. Thats not an unusual position. The alternative is the dissolution of an entire nation, and to me thats an extremist position vs believing a state that does exist has a perfect right to carry on existing.

I don’t approve of either groups tbh. If you have to keep asking people to not route their protests in a way that is clearly harassment of Jews then you are dealing with anti semites. Tommy Robinson is clearly anti-islam, which is a perfectly fine and legal, he’s just not allowed to harass muslims and if he does he needs to be sent home too.

I type on my laptop not phone and don't use predictive text.

Why not write the full word? Because when I have got into big debates on the CITME board, I could be writing the word Palestinian dozens of times a day every day for weeks on end.

I never abbreviate the word when talking about actual Palestinians, only use it to describe those who are arguing from the Palestinian perspective (pro Pals has become a useful abbreviation widely used on that board and there is no easy way of abbreviating pro Israel supporters).

Plus it has no negative connotations to describe a pro Palestinian supporter as a pro Pal - what exactly is supposed to be offensive about that?

Indeed.

Why so difficult for both to hold standing static protests!

Still get their freedom of speech, but not freedom to cause fear for others. Perhaps they like causing fear. Two cheeks of the same ass.

Even if I agree that plenty of Jews attend the marches (I’d say more like a handful) that doesn’t really matter.

plenty of white peoples attend the Tommy Robinson marches but as a white person they still offend me.

plenty of white people attend KKK meetings but I am also offended by those.

so whatever other Jewish people are doing, I can still be offended and frightened by the hateful slogans, attitudes, experiences and outcome of the endless marches calling for the death of me and my children. I can still be hurt that so many people voted in the Green Party and I can still be worried about my family’s future safety in the UK.

So is ‘Zios’ offensive too?

Yes I would absolutely support this, people have the right to protest whatever they want regardless of whether I agree with them or not.

Protests are increasingly weaponised as a means by which to target people. You can’t criticise Tommy Robinson without also acknowledging that following Jews around to protest isn’t problematic.

God I’m sick of this shit. All of it.

Agree. This seems a realistic solution.

If you are making the claim that these Marches walk past synagogues, I want you to show me proof - show me a route map of one of the Marches that has walked past a synagogue.

Back in the 1980s, it was widely known that the violence at football matches and unruly protests was led by a fairly small number of agitators. It was never clear why they did it, they may all have had reasons or perhaps most were just power-crazed arseholes.

Because the 'unruliness' in today's marches is so similar, it looks like the same thing may be happening. The police will know who they are, if so, but that doesn't mean they can stop them. I feel sorry for the cops - agitators can so quickly release outraged videos giving a completely twisted version of police actions. They can't answer back except in the most measured terms, and measured terms don't go viral.