The double standards of free speech on Palestine amid Israel’s war on Gaza

[Ohlalalalala]

On UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to Dima Khalidi, director of Palestine Legal, and Ilan Pappe, renowned author and professor of history at Exeter University, about the limits to free speech on the Israel-Gaza war.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/program/upfront/2023/10/27/the-double-standards-of-free-speech-on-palestine

As the war in Gaza continues, why is the West cracking down on free speech?
A battle is playing out in the realm of public opinion on Israel’s war on Gaza.

While demonstrations have taken place across the globe in solidarity with Palestinians, there have been campaigns to silence critics of Israel’s actions.

Commentators, academics and even common citizens have reported increasing threats and retaliation for expressing their views or voicing solidarity with the Palestinian people, often in countries that proclaim to uphold values of freedom of expression and democracy.

To say marching for Palestine is antisemitic is laughable when so so many of those taking part are Jewish themselves. Please stop that discourse.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/jewish-ceasefire-gaza-israel-foreign-office-palestine-hamas-b1117115.html#:~:text=Jewish%20activists%20gathered%20outside%20the,Jews%20opposed%20to%20Israeli%20occupation.

https://naamod.org.uk/
We are a movement of Jews in the UK seeking to end our community’s support for Israel's occupation and apartheid, and to mobilise it in the struggle for freedom, equality and justice for all Palestinians and Israelis

I feel the same. And I'm not going to say anything else because I'm not interested in debating with terrorist sympathisers, but you're definitely not alone here.

Agreed

>>To say marching for Palestine is antisemitic is laughable when so so many of those taking part are Jewish themselves. Please stop that discourse

agree - there is of course an entire thread on here asserting that from the off.

Also when a ceasefire is being saught I presume this a ceasefire for Israel only because I very much doubt Hamas are willing to abide by one. A ceasefire call I think for many is a call for Israel to halt hostilities and let Hamas win by continuing to exist which is quite frankly unacceptable. So many placards are implicitly wanting a reduction in land size of Israel or a cease in hostilities which only benefits terror.

Where are the placards demanding the release of hostages? Where are the placards demanding Egypt steps up to the plate with humanitarian assistance including receiving more sick and wounded? Where are the placards for the displaced Israelis having to move from border towns? Where are the placards remembering the victims of October 7th?

Where are the protests about Saudi or is it only Israel that is a 'bad actor' in the middle east?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi-led_intervention_in_the_Yemeni_civil_war

@SolomonEdGrundy .

It is the fact there have been multiple conflicts in the middle East but it is interesting this particular one has caused more concern than others?

@SolomonEdGrundy .

Of course civilian casualties are a concern but if Saudi Arabia for instance killed the same number of civilians would we have the same marches? Have we had marches about Assad's campaign in Aleppo including the use of chemical weapons?

The Saudis, like Russia are unassailable.

"Whataboutism
Tactic
Propaganda technique

Whataboutism or whataboutery (as in "what about…?") denotes in a pejorative sense a procedure in which a critical question or argument is not answered or discussed, but retorted with a critical counter-question which expresses a counter-accusation. From a logical and argumentative point of view it is considered a variant of the tu-quoque pattern (Latin 'you too', term for a counter-accusation), which is a subtype of the ad-hominem argument.[1][2][3][4]

The communication intent is often to distract from the content of a topic (red herring)."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

One of the modules taught in Hasbara school I presume🙄

Edited to mention the source.

Rude.

One of the modules taught in Hasbara school I presume

This is the latest soundbite I see. The absolute irony being that OP, who is now casually throwing this statement around, just tried to educate me, someone Jewish, on antisemitism.

Clearly MN is not a safe space for Jewish people anymore.

Physically safe unless you're doxxed, but mentally challenging.
Mumsnet is a microcosm, quite a gobby one though.

@etmoietmoietmoi I painted you as antisemite??? Me???

I was making a valid argument that one being Jewish doesn't necessarily mean one supports Israel, and that criticising Israel is not antisemitism. And I gave you several examples of Jewish people who are not pro Israel.

So stop being so rude and read properly before starting throwing accusations of antisemitism around.

There is a difference between criticising the actions of the Israeli state and calling for the abolition of Israel even implicitly (which is anti semitic). To some 'freedom' of the Palestinian people required the expulsion of Jews from their own country and this is certainly the view of Hamas and it's sickening call for repeats of the 7th.

So we have to be careful about free speech when it comes to comment about this conflict and any slogan or banner which implicitly mimics Hamas ideology needs to be banned. Overt anti semitism on the streets of London is simply not acceptable.

One day we can address the peace process that inevitably must come but the negotiations need to be with a governing body other than Hamas and we are seeing its removal currently. The two state solution needs to be discussed in terms of Israelis not being forced from their land and some sort of tolerant relationship needs to be extablshed.

🕊

Where are the terrorist sympathisers? I have not seen one post supporting Hamas. Did you report?

It's the lazy trope of supporting Palestinians = supporting Hamas 🙄

They need to try harder, it's getting so tedious.