How do prevent the rise of anti Semitic feeling in the UK?

[mids2019]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12705139/Jewish-ambassador-says-London-feels-safe-Israel-jihad-ideology-exploded-capitals-streets.html

Will the continuous marches in London lead to an environment where anti semitism becomes acceptable? There has been a massive rise in hate crime against Jews and surely in the UK we have a duty to prevent any platform which may lead to unjustified hatred of a group in the UK?

I feel we should feel pride we have a diverse society with a while range of ethnicities and religions but we should always act to encourage social cohesion by not allowing events that could contain messages of hate.

Although the support of the Palestinian people is absolutely reasonable in terms of free speech in a democratic society and it is reasonable to comment on the actions of the Israeli state at times the marches in a lot of major British cities have the danger of including terrorist apologists.

Firstly I love the "Hi Muslim here", I am so going to steal that and make it "Hi Jew here".

Secondly thank you much appreciated.

@Trulywonderful I love that you love it. I just had to comment, I've always been an avid reader of Mumsnet - never had an account until today. The way Muslims are discussed as if we are some kind of monolith agitates me.

Yes people keep doing that with Jews too, really annoying and offensive

We done you for joining us with your own opinion on things. The more level heads we get the better. Madness happening all over at the moment

See you about honey

I think the organisers cancelling the planned protests in London this weekend may be a good gesture for not only reducing the risk of anti Semitic sentiment filtering through but being respectful towards a day of remembrance at the heart of the nation.

I think there are some really good points of any race or ethnicity being anti Semitic and obviously hopefully there is a minority in any racial or religious group that have these tendencies. However I think some fear that it is harder for the police to target Islamic anti semitism due to sensitivities of being perceived Islamophobic and especially given obviously the majority of Palestinians are Muslims. One police adviser suggested that any support of Israel's military action should at the moment be currently be perceived as Islamophobic so it shows there is a current of anti Israeli state feeling present which may bleed into more general anti semitism.

Someone on another thread pointed out that 20000 Yemeni civilians had died during the war with Saudi Arabia with perhaps 200 000 dead from famine and there were no mass protests in the UK. The poster did question why we have such virulent large scale anti war protests for this conflict and I would say it may be because of the race and religion of one of the combatant nations which in itself is a cause for concern. (We haven't as I recall had mass protests about wars between any two Muslim majority counties in the middle East of which there have been several).

+1

Someone on another thread pointed out that 20000 Yemeni civilians had died during the war with Saudi Arabia with perhaps 200 000 dead from famine and there were no mass protests in the UK. The poster did question why we have such virulent large scale anti war protests for this conflict and I would say it may be because of the race and religion of one of the combatant nations which in itself is a cause for concern. (We haven't as I recall had mass protests about wars between any two Muslim majority counties in the middle East of which there have been severalr)

Unless your intention is to confirm that Israels action in Gaza is extreme, the war in Yemen is not a good comparator

In Yemen 20,000 died over a TEN YEAR period not THIRTY DAYS
Scaled up losses in Gaza would be over a million across a similar period of time

Losses due to famine in Gaza are yet to be seen

@mids2019

.

It is quite strange as everyone discussed 9/11 but in 2023 there seems a distinct lack of discussion about this conflict in my circles. I think IRL there is fear of saying "the wrong thing' and acknowledging October 7th is defining yourself as on a particular side of the conflict and therefore anti Palestinian.

This is absolutely true. I have never known such a huge event be so little mentioned among my circle of friends and family. I am as guilty as they are for fearing to discover that people I know are anti semitic .

9/11 was just something we had to talk about. Well, I was in the US at the time, so it happened to us. I don't know what it was like for people elsewhere.

I think we're all a bit numb to terrorist attacks, now. And we're sort of used to violence in that area. (It had to be explained to me that this was the worst attack since the Holocaust.) Whereas 9/11 was unprecedented and even Pearl Harbour wasn't actually in the US at the time. And there was no expectation that the person you were talking to would think that it was deserved or whatever.

I was dismayed and shocked by the initial news. Then dismayed and shocked by reactions of some people to it.

And yeah I think we're all afraid of saying the wrong thing. I mean, look how heated these discussions here get.

I agree. I have always supported Israel so have no problem saying so but if you watch left wing people eg the BBC "have I got news for you" programme people like Ian Hislop and others simply cannot talk about it much because it divides the left so much.

The Hamas terrorists organisers of the London marches who seem to be provided with council houses in Barnet is all coming out now https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/06/former-hamas-chief-behind-pro-palestine-armistice-day-march/

@Xenia what reason does he live here?

So he can hang out with Jeremy Corbyn and con people into giving to Hamas funding charities probably

I looked that up, and strangely all the different newspaper articles name different people as the organiser. That's odd.

Each march has been organised by various groups of people. Some have helped organised more than one march etc. He is the main organiser of this one from what I have read. However different groups have organised their own people to go etc.

Some of the people that have organised these marches have a know history of Jew hate, literally Jew hate not just Israeli. It has all been reported if you Google who the organisers of the different marches are. Of course there are legitimate organisers too. However letting know Jew haters be part of the organisation muds the water.

@Trulywonderful ok I will try again. What right does he have to live here?

Presumably he is classed as a refugee or has a work visa or something. Maybe he was born here, a lot of Hamas are not born Gazens. No idea the legal reason he is allowed to live here.

However if he is pumping out hate against any group of citizens he shouldn't be allowed to stay. Plus obviously considering his track record it does make you question why the authorities would allow him into the UK/back to the UK

@Trulywonderful If that's true, their history is disgusting. However, always consider the source- the Mail and the Telegraph in the main. Im not seeing those claims in the wider media. I am seeing every effort made by government to stop the protests. Not that I would attend those protests myself. They are too far away for a start, but I support people's rights to do so.

I have a good number of friends from Jewish backgrounds, and they are not all supportive of the position Israel is taking. And frankly, the Israeli opinion polls are not all positive, either.

Muhammad Kathem Sawalha- I don't know his legal status - he may be more British than I am and have lived here since the 1500s. it looks like he is Mohammad Kathem Rashid Maruf Sawalha
The UK has chosen to make plaes like London retirement destinations for leaders of our enemies, Iran too, never mind Russian oligarchs and others. It can become a problem in the UK when we have people from two sides here eg Hong Kong dissents (on our side) plus communism supporting Chinese (never mind China opening in effect police stations around the world to badger or destroy dissidents here).

Wiki says:
"Mohammad Kathem Rashid Maruf Sawalha (born 21 July 1961), also known by the name Abu Obada, is a former leader of Hamas in the West Bank. He is the president of British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and currently resides in London.[1] He is accused of supervising the allocation and supply of large amounts of money to Hamas operatives, an allegation that led to his being named in a 2004 U.S. indictment against Hamas operative Muhammad Salah.
In addition to his work with Hamas and BMI, Sawalha is a frequent guest on the Al-Hiwar television station, and is affiliated with numerous Palestinian and Islamic charities. He has had a hand in organizing several of the flotillas and land convoys attempting to reach the Gaza Strip, through which he has transferred financial aid. Sawalha helped found the Muslim Association of Britain.
Activities in BritainHe was a founder of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), and ran it from 1999 to 2007. Later he served as chairman of the British Muslim Initiative.[2] He was described on a Palestinian website as head of the International Committee to Lift the Siege on the Gaza Strip.[3] In 2009 he reportedly was named deputy chairman of the Popular Committee in Support of the Palestinian People. He also signed the 2009 Istanbul Declaration affirming the Palestinian peoples right to resist the illegal Israeli occupation of their land.[4]
Sawalha has been involved in organizing flotillas and land convoys to the Gaza Strip while in Britain.[5][6][7] Additionally, a BBC program alleged that he had directed funds both for Hamas' armed and missionary wings.[8] "

The Labour Party when in power gave UK passports to the leaders of Hamas, they also bought their council houses. This is one of the most disgraceful things I have read, it was in the Sunday Times. Another reason never to vote Labour

Hmm. Sounds like anti Labour smears to me. We all know perfectly well that the Tories and their ilk are capable of plenty of that.

I mean the Home Secretary is even arguing with the met police about that March. Amongst other things she has turned her attention towards this week.

I mean, I wouldn't trust a Tory these days with a single thing. In the past, I'd say less so, but definitely not now they have shown themselves as a bunch of crooks, liars and smear artists.

Unfortunately you only have to do a Google search on him and some of the other organisers of these marches. A fair few have very iffy backgrounds when it comes to talking about Jew or anything Jewish. Then you have that bloke that was part of Hamas.

I very much support the right to protest and free speech. It is just difficult to understand why people don't kick these types out of the organisation of protests. Also why only call out Israel and why not shout about the hostages on these marches. It is just too one sides to look anything like a peace march really. Plus in general if the Corbyn brothers are there or giving speeches you know something is a little rotten.

Ah I see now. This was in advance of Suella Braverman's argument against the police.

Let people protest.

I agree there needs to be more interfaith. I was in an organization that sort of 'intermediated' between conflicting groups or those that have historical high tensions, and have done so both in the UK and Israel. I have to say that it was the Jewish groups in both places who were very dismissive and displayed a lot of blatant hatred towards the Muslim group. Atheist/liberal ones were OK but orthodox ones refused to engage and reminded me of a poster on here who thinks that Arab babies are terrorists because it's in their DNA 🤔. Some Jewish schools in Hackney are being completely downgraded by Ofsted as they are completely refusing to even talk about other faiths.
ETA: Chabad were the exception, they were open to the idea of meeting and we're lovely.

Why don’t you coordinate a peace march then, if you’re interested and don’t like the current set-up, or find it too one-sided?

I personally see most people attending these marches as wanting a ceasefire. I can’t understand all these people complaining and trying to shut down the protest without even trying to organise an alternative.

No march at all is not a good alternative.

Think you are totally missing the point

Probably on purpose because it doesn't fit your agenda to admit that many of the organisers of protests are known Hamas associates or known Jew haters

Frankly it says a lot about peoples posts when they won't admit this is an issue