Placards from antisemitic marches in London

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I had written this as a response to the other thread which was closed as it was overrun by antisemitic d**ks. As I'm sure this one will be too. They can't allow us to share the truth of what is being said and done in our own home towns and cities.

Look at these images. No, they are not in the minority or unusual. Here are just a few of many, many overtly antisemitic placards from Saturday's protest in London. (And a bonus one from 2021, which the lovely John McDonnell also spoke at.)

This is MY HOME. I am Jewish. My family fled pogroms in Eastern Europe and Nazis in Germany. Those family members who didn't flee were murdered for being Jews. And here we fucking are again. In London. And people defending it.

This is NOTHING TO DO WITH ISRAEL. These are Jew-haters, the faces of hate, the faces of anger and mockery, openly calling for Jews, for me, my family, my children, my parents, to be murdered, in my home city.

And people are defending it. How the fuck do you think we feel?

Why do so many people seem to think that because of what's going on in Gaza no one is allowed to be worried about anti-Semitism in the UK?

@structural
I 100% agree that anti-Semitism is wrong and should be called out. Not disputing that. What I am disputing is labelling marches against Israel's actions in Gaza as an "anti-Semitic marches" (as in the title of this thread).

Why not have peace marches why pro Palestine? Stop the war not we support Palestine

Among "but Hamas ..." and "But the babies ..." that's the inconvenient question which few want to answer, maybe because some appreciate partisanship more than peace

I'm also wary of labelling them antisemitic marches, but would you not agree there's a strong antisemitic 'presence' which is a) not being called out by people who otherwise claim that antisemitism should be called out when it arises, and b) is creating a hostile and frightening environment for the British Jewish community?

For instance, what do you make of this woman? Can you see why, in light of examples like this and the many instances referred to in this thread, OP is just scared about where all this is going to lead and so called them 'antisemitic marches'? Because at some point, if these instances of antisemitic placards, chants and threatening language become more common to the point of normalisation, I will be quite prepared to call them antisemitic marches too.

https://twitter.com/antisemitism/status/1723628811122573668

@andmeandmeandme

In that video I see a disagreement between some demonstrators and 2 women (it's not clear to me what they are discussing) and then it looks like another woman walks over and butts in with "death to Jews" and walks off. She doesn't look like a demonstrator though. Either way, what she said is deplorable hate speech and I can understand why Jewish people (and everyone else) would (and should) be upset.

As for the marches themselves, their message is about calling for a ceasefire and putting an end to Israel's disproportionate killing campaign that has resulted in the deaths of over 10000 people, 50% of them children, and which has left over 1.1 million people homeless.

As with any large gathering, there's always the possibility that some bad apples get into the mix. But labelling a march "anti-Semitic" because of some bad apples is really not accurate or fair.

For example, at the Notting Hill Carnival this year, the police made 308 arrests, there were at least 6 stabbings, and more than 50 police officers were assaulted. But we still regard the festival as an important event in British African Caribbean and British Indo-Caribbean culture, and as an important event in London. Should that entire event be condemned because of those bad apples?

Yeah, why are Jewish people focusing on people who say 'Death to Jews' or 'Hitler had the right idea', rather than the people not saying those things?

Why keep saying they are peace marches when they are Pro Palestine marches.
Peace marches yes totally support. But they aren't as the signs show they have picked a 'side' and proudly display Palestine flags and pro banners. It's divisive rather than uniting for peace for everyone.

Obviously we should just ignore the people that are shouting in the street for the death of our families or saying that we are all somehow responsible for a the actions of a country in the middle east.

We should also ignore the people that are using the deaths of our grandparents and great grandparents as a weapon against other Jewish people.

Ignore those that implied all Jewish or Israeli deaths to be ignored because of some genocidal Arab cause that has been around enabled by organisations that should know better.

No thanks

I'm so sorry for what you are going through.

I wonder how you would be received if you turned up with a 'free the hostages' or similar placard....?
Protesters also seem to forget (or not know) that Orthodox Jews being there is because they don't agree with the state of Israel. Not anything else.

I've seen videos of two different protesters on different days being attacked and their placards ripped up because they were criticising Hamas.

There are many Jews at the marches (some are Orthodox and many more are not). They are safe and welcome at the marches because as I said, these are not "anti-Semitic" marches (but no need to hate on Orthodox Jews, @Stomacharmeleon ).

As for your comment about freeing the hostages, Hamas made offers to do so multiple times, but Netanyahu rejected them:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/09/netanyahu-rejected-ceasefire-for-hostages-deal-in-gaza-sources-say

Which is why many people in Israel who care about the hostages are out demonstrating against Netanyahu.

*I wonder how you would be received if you turned up with a 'free the hostages' or similar placard....?

This is what I don’t understand. Why don’t the marches demand the release of the hostages? Surely that’s a step towards peace? And just a human response to innocent people being held hostage.

London, yesterday.

Yes there is a video from trafalgar Square of a Iranian man doing this. He got shouted at by pro protests and physically assaulted

Then from yesterdays march I saw one of another guy getting verbally abused and then surrounded by a group of men with their faces covered. It started to get physically but you couldn't see him after that because they had mobbed him.

X posted.

call his bluff then. Free the hostages and see what happens.

Because the majority of protesters:

Are not calling for peace

They believe Hamas are resistance fighters

They are calling for the distruction/dismantling of Israel
(A state with 9 million Jewish and Arab citizens)

A percentage of the protesters are only there because they want to shout hate about Jewish people in general. They don't give a flying F about Palestinians.

This is the brave Iranian man

@ChardonnaysBeastlyCat
Netanyahu won't stop because his hate for Palestinians is far greater than his concern for the hostages and their families. His government is full of terrorists such Zvi Sukkot (who was previously a member of the terror group 'The Revolt') and Bezalel Smotrich (Google them).

The Israelis have made clear their objective: “no food, no water, no electricity. We are dealing with human animals and we act accordingly” said Israel Defense Minster. And this is what we are seeing. We can take them at their word that this is an extermination campaign. No need to do mental gymnastics to try to portray this as anything else.

https://www.tiktok.com/@jewishnewsuk/video/7300296692648267040

One from yesterday

If Netanyahu will do the same thing whether the hostages are free or not then why not free them? What's the point of having them?

Again, how do you know that?

And if he's going to keep going even if the hostages are freed then what's the point of holding them? Release them, show humanity. Teach him a lesson in humanity.

X posted! Agree with you.

In that case why bother keeping the hostages

Why would they not just be realised if Israel government won't negotiate

Or perhaps it is the case that after such cases as when the Palestinian terrorists killed hostages at the Munich Olympics most governments have learnt to do the bare minimum of negotiations over hostages. It just puts more people in danger long term because terrorists think it is a good way to get what they want. Also in the case of Munich Olympics Jewish hostages were killed despite trying to negotiate.

@Trulywonderful
You can say that, and I can say that this thread is full of people who have a deep hatred of Palestinian Arabs and support their extermination from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Doesn't make it true.

However, it's certainly true of the current government of Israel.