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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How is this 'protest'? Helen Mirren targetted

216 replies

Blueredyellowgreen · 28/05/2026 12:19

A 'protestor' called Dame Helen Mirren an 'evil Zionist Bitch'. How does this actually help 'palestine'? AIBU

YANBU - this isn't protest and doesn't help palestine

YABU - this is protest and is ok

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15854799/Dame-Helen-Mirren-evil-Zionist-pro-Palestine.html

Moment Dame Helen Mirren is called an 'evil Zionist b****' in London

The video, first posted by an anonymous account Anti-Fascist Action UK, shows the Oscar-winning actress being approached as she walked in London with her husband.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15854799/Dame-Helen-Mirren-evil-Zionist-pro-Palestine.html

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
MandyMotherOfBrian · 28/05/2026 15:34

SwatTheTwit · 28/05/2026 15:01

So do you know for a fact the offender was under the impression she was Jewish or simply that she is a zionist? Last time I checked those are different things.

Wot?

Why would I have to know, for a fact? I was answering your first comment.
YOU stated how could someone be antisemitic if the victim isn't Jewish.
I told you how.

I make no comment on this offender and his motivations, or Helen Mirren and her beliefs.

Last time I checked those are different things
Well, they are, until people start using them as a dog whistle.....

balabusta · 28/05/2026 15:34

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 15:31

See post at 14.30 (an hour ago) for my take on this and then use ecosia or Google or whatever to check governmental discourse and individual politicians for examples.

If I give you an example you will pick at something else.

This is like when my sister would say to me 'Oh I know the answer but I'm just not telling you' when she was 10

Reader, she didnt really know the answer.

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 15:35

Israel/Palestine is also the cradle of Abrahamic religions and the holy places of Christians and Muslims are being destroyed or misappropriated or turned into museums. We have a direct stake if we are from those backgrounds.

Thought experiment: if a genuinely historically persecuted pagan minority existed in the Netherlands or Scandinavia and arrived in Britain and claimed the Cotswolds with Chinese or Russian backing on the basis of ancestral links and a religion most of us do not follow, how would we feel?

And would our boys be resistance heroes?

EmeraldShamrock000 · 28/05/2026 15:35

I’m surprised that anyone feels that this was a reasonable attempt to protest.
Fair play to Helen keeping her cool.

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 15:36

balabusta · 28/05/2026 15:34

This is like when my sister would say to me 'Oh I know the answer but I'm just not telling you' when she was 10

Reader, she didnt really know the answer.

I do know the answer...in this discussion, some people want to distract and exhaust their interlocutor, is the answer.

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 15:40

balabusta · 28/05/2026 14:49

Yes, you do indeed. Not jsut what youre fed by tiktok and what's cool.

BTW, there's plenty of footage out there. From Congo, Sudan. From the Rohingya genocide too as well as others. Most people have phones and Internet of some sort these days. Its just you dont see it because the algorithms are pushed by engagement and we all know which country drives engagement.
Self fulfilling prophecy where youre passively happy to be manipulated as to what you actually see and get 'driven mad' by

PS no, 'most' people do not have phones and internet, where it matters.

GeneralPeter · 28/05/2026 15:40

SwatTheTwit · 28/05/2026 12:55

She’s not Jewish, so I’m confused why anyone is saying this was an antisemitic attack on her?

Calling her a bitch is wrong of course, calling her a zionist is just stating a fact?

This is semantics. In the Deep South, the KKK harassed or murdered white civil rights activists. Would you really be confused if someone called those racist attacks?

Racist attack = attack motivated by racism, no? Antisemitic attack = attack motivated by antisemitism.

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 15:43

GeneralPeter · 28/05/2026 15:40

This is semantics. In the Deep South, the KKK harassed or murdered white civil rights activists. Would you really be confused if someone called those racist attacks?

Racist attack = attack motivated by racism, no? Antisemitic attack = attack motivated by antisemitism.

No. Are you American?
Definitely no.
They would be white supremacist attacks. Not racist attacks. As American white allies know.

Trackstar · 28/05/2026 15:48

Helen Mirren talking about how she saw people being ethnically cleansed but it was still a 'magical time' went pretty viral there a few weeks ago. Obviously lots of people find that kind of thinking pretty odious but it's pretty odious to yell at people and call them a bitch too, it doesn't help anyone.

SpringIsCome · 28/05/2026 15:49

Helen campaigned to keep Israel in the Eurovision this year even after the UN report on genocide

Explainer: How many Palestinians has Israel's Gaza offensive killed? | Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-has-israels-gaza-offensive-killed-2025-10-07/

GeneralPeter · 28/05/2026 16:01

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 15:43

No. Are you American?
Definitely no.
They would be white supremacist attacks. Not racist attacks. As American white allies know.

You are saying you would definitely be confused by someone calling them racist attacks? I think either you are trying hard not to understand or your bar for becoming confused is very low indeed.

SwatTheTwit · 28/05/2026 16:02

GeneralPeter · 28/05/2026 15:40

This is semantics. In the Deep South, the KKK harassed or murdered white civil rights activists. Would you really be confused if someone called those racist attacks?

Racist attack = attack motivated by racism, no? Antisemitic attack = attack motivated by antisemitism.

But antizionism ≠ antisemitism, so….

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 16:03

GeneralPeter · 28/05/2026 16:01

You are saying you would definitely be confused by someone calling them racist attacks? I think either you are trying hard not to understand or your bar for becoming confused is very low indeed.

Yes, General. I would be confused as to whether they were stupid or mischievous. But give them the benefit of the doubt. Thanks, General.

noblegiraffe · 28/05/2026 16:05

SwatTheTwit · 28/05/2026 16:02

But antizionism ≠ antisemitism, so….

There seem to be an awful lot of people who don't know what Zionism means (they think it means supports Netanyahu, which it doesn't) and use it as a codeword for Jew in antisemitic ways like 'Zionists control the government'.

balabusta · 28/05/2026 16:12

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 15:40

PS no, 'most' people do not have phones and internet, where it matters.

Actually they do. As i said, of some sort. Might not be their own but there is some kind of access. Given that we were told that Gaza before 7/10 was a concentration camp/warsaw ghetto, one would assume phone ownership/Internet access to be the same as Sudan, Congo or Myanmar.
And in any case there is plenty of footage out there. Just doesn't get past the social media algorithms and engagement. No ones actually interested.

balabusta · 28/05/2026 16:13

noblegiraffe · 28/05/2026 16:05

There seem to be an awful lot of people who don't know what Zionism means (they think it means supports Netanyahu, which it doesn't) and use it as a codeword for Jew in antisemitic ways like 'Zionists control the government'.

Of course. Total ignorance.

GeneralPeter · 28/05/2026 16:16

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 16:03

Yes, General. I would be confused as to whether they were stupid or mischievous. But give them the benefit of the doubt. Thanks, General.

If you are being sincere then you are indeed extremely easily confused in a way that must be quite debilitating. "Racist attack = one motivated by racism" is a perfectly comprehensible, defensible and common conception of the term.

balabusta · 28/05/2026 16:17

Trackstar · 28/05/2026 15:48

Helen Mirren talking about how she saw people being ethnically cleansed but it was still a 'magical time' went pretty viral there a few weeks ago. Obviously lots of people find that kind of thinking pretty odious but it's pretty odious to yell at people and call them a bitch too, it doesn't help anyone.

They weren't ethnically cleansed. I know the area of Jerusalem she is talking about. People were evicted to create the plaza in front of the western wall and they were Arab but that's becuase all the Jews in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Jerusalem where it was had been ethnically cleansed themselves 19 years previously. They weren't expelled and went to live in other parts of Jerusalem.
I imagine it wasn't nice but hardly the most egregious of acts. People are evicted by governments for many reasons all the time.

balabusta · 28/05/2026 16:20

SpringIsCome · 28/05/2026 15:49

Helen campaigned to keep Israel in the Eurovision this year even after the UN report on genocide

Explainer: How many Palestinians has Israel's Gaza offensive killed? | Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-has-israels-gaza-offensive-killed-2025-10-07/

Edited

There has been no official determination of genocide. Thats the icc, icj or an international ad hoc tribunal. Everything is opinion.

And she has good reason for supporting Israel remaining in euro vision which is not racist or supporting violence in any way You may not agree with but shes entitled to her opinion without being misogynistically abused in the street.

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 16:27

balabusta · 28/05/2026 16:12

Actually they do. As i said, of some sort. Might not be their own but there is some kind of access. Given that we were told that Gaza before 7/10 was a concentration camp/warsaw ghetto, one would assume phone ownership/Internet access to be the same as Sudan, Congo or Myanmar.
And in any case there is plenty of footage out there. Just doesn't get past the social media algorithms and engagement. No ones actually interested.

No no.
Digital divide: https://social.desa.un.org/sdn/29-billion-people-still-offline
[2.9 billion]

Gaza: see Ilan Pappé and others. Another example:
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/life-gaza-and-after-war-doctors-story

Praise be to the memory and legacy of the Warsaw Ghetto. May their spirits bring wisdom.

balabusta · 28/05/2026 16:27

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 15:35

Israel/Palestine is also the cradle of Abrahamic religions and the holy places of Christians and Muslims are being destroyed or misappropriated or turned into museums. We have a direct stake if we are from those backgrounds.

Thought experiment: if a genuinely historically persecuted pagan minority existed in the Netherlands or Scandinavia and arrived in Britain and claimed the Cotswolds with Chinese or Russian backing on the basis of ancestral links and a religion most of us do not follow, how would we feel?

And would our boys be resistance heroes?

Yeah, except none of this is happening. Israel is the Jewish people's ancestral homeland from where they were forcibly expelled. Jews have always longed and prayed to return to zion.

The Arabs have many times been offered a compromise state and refused. They didnt want to share or recognise competing claims.

You can support Palestinians rights without mocking and deriding Jewish claims to the land. The tragedy is both israelis and Palestinians have a right to self determination and to live in that land and the only reasonable way is compromise.

BTW fun fact. When Jordan ruled Jerusalem from 1948-1967 (and didnt establish a Palestinian state in west bank btw) not only did they expel every single Jew, they also forbade Jews praying at the western wall. In fact, any foreigner visiting that site had to prove they weren't Jewish,.it was that important to them. Did you know that? If not, you're welcome.

bloooooberry · 28/05/2026 16:28

Twisterlollies · 28/05/2026 15:08

Because the Palestine mob are, underneath the Amazon Keffiyehs and blue hair, some of the worst most vile misogynists I’ve ever encountered. The rage and contempt that seethes in them for women is palpable, and if they get a whiff of a woman who doesn’t completely and unquestioningly agree with them, it’s like they go absolutely insane with anger and the most awful slurs come pouring out.

What a strange post. Maybe educate yourself rather than getting your news from Facebook.

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 16:28

GeneralPeter · 28/05/2026 16:16

If you are being sincere then you are indeed extremely easily confused in a way that must be quite debilitating. "Racist attack = one motivated by racism" is a perfectly comprehensible, defensible and common conception of the term.

Edited

Perhaps you can start a thread about the American South, General.

ThisBirdOnThatRoof · 28/05/2026 16:30

bloooooberry · 28/05/2026 16:28

What a strange post. Maybe educate yourself rather than getting your news from Facebook.

I have seen so many nonwomen and nonJews and nonJewish women...must inform them of the new non- status next time I see a march. \s

bloooooberry · 28/05/2026 16:30

GeneralPeter · 28/05/2026 15:40

This is semantics. In the Deep South, the KKK harassed or murdered white civil rights activists. Would you really be confused if someone called those racist attacks?

Racist attack = attack motivated by racism, no? Antisemitic attack = attack motivated by antisemitism.

They wouldn't be racist attacks, just like antizionism isn't antisemitism. 'Semantics' matter!