What are the people "Marching" in London every Saturday realistically hoping to achieve?

[Flapjacker48]

It won't change UK government policy. It won't result in a ceasefire in Gaza. It won't magically resolve the situation in Palestine.

Same as all the other big marches - War in Iraq etc. Changed nothing.

so who were the British striking against?

Yep, all of the above. Hamas leaders are all dollar billionaires.

@localnotail I don't think Hamas, on the ground, are in a position to feed the Palestinians at the moment.

They could share the 6 months stockpile of food they have built up, or return the fuel they stole from the UN. They could also, at any time since 2005, have decided to spend their money on the Palestinian people instead of on rockets, tunnels and luxury condo's on the Med.

@Manadou polls today show that Starmer is the very opposite of ‘heading for trouble’ - those protests are, happily, not the majority of the British population, who have sympathy with both Palestinians and Israelis. Over 60 of the population either sympathise either with both sides or don’t know enough. And then approx 19% of people strongly support Israel and the same percentage support the Palestinians. And I’m guessing that of that 19% of Palestine supporters, a good number of them wouldn’t be seen dead on those marches because of how unpleasant the anti-Jewish rhetoric has become.

I’m not Keir’s biggest fan but on this issue he is much more closely aligned with the British population than Corbyn was. Even the protesting MPs realise this and if they feel strongly enough, they can always resign. Which notably none of them have.

@cathyj77

Even the protesting MPs realise this and if they feel strongly enough, they can always resign. Which notably none of them have.

That is a very good point.

Well its clearly a humanitarian crisis there, no doubt about that. But the situation was dire even before this war started.

Also, Hamas are reported to have supplies in the tunnels but they are only using them for themselves, not for women and kids. They are also not allowing the tunnels to be used as bomb shelters for anyone who is not a Hamas member.

I bet a proportion of the people on these marches are Socialist Worker, Workers Party and other Corbynites, who were never going to vote for a Starmer led Centre Left Labour party anyway. All they are doing is giving ammunition to the Daily Mail in their last ditch desperate attempt to avoid a Labour government. Useful idiots not only to Hamas but to the Right Wing in the UK.

There are no banners condemning Hamas in these marches, and Hamas are the ones who breached the previous ceasefire by committing their unspeakable atrocities on 7 October

Hideously noticeable isn't it?

Even among those who care nothing about 7/10 you'd think there'd be opposition because of the appalling circumstances Hamas have visited upon their own, but no - anti jewish people Israel is the only show in town

I don't know if posts like this should be reported? I know quite a few people who have been to Gaza. No throats have been slit. The locals by all accounts were a generous, welcoming, friendly bunch proud of their culture and happy to have others come see what they have to offer.

I'm not sure if this is ignorance or racism on display? I'll report it to mumsnet and let them decide.

It seems the op and some others are confused why so many people are so opposed to the actions of Israel but not by some of the other third world countries. People fear because of Israel’s history of oppression and recent actions and genocidal rhetoric that Israel wants to get Hamas but also wants to exact revenge on the Palestinian people (whether they are in Gaza, Israel or the West Bank). I don’t think it is so hard to see the difference unless you are deliberately being goady. Hence I’m not engaging on this derailing discussion anymore. I and other posters have explained it quite clearly and the only ones who aren’t ‘getting’ it either don’t want to or get it completely but are so consumed by their hatred of Palestinians right now they just don’t care.

I was asking the poster who mentioned Iran-backed terrorists so I'll wait for them to clarify what they meant, thanks.

Clearly not everyone who went to Gaza had the same experience.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13088630

@ChilliPanda like a lot of places which support Hamas - Iran for example?

Protest lets the world know what you are thinking or feeling. Look at this link to Orthodox Jews protesting against Israel- no one would know about this if it weren't for their protest

twitter.com/TorahJudaism/status/1716454234449657919

Just like we could talk about the people Israel have killed? It wouldn't be right to suggest that Israelis would slit people throats or run them over with a bulldozer in an instant though would it?

Exactly this...

They could also release the Israeli hostages, stop firing rockets into Israel and call for a ceasefire. They aren't doing any of those things. because they couldn't care less about Palestinians.

What, if you go to Israel you get run over by a bulldozer, kidnapped and killed? That's why its such a popular holiday destination for millions of people every year? And what about this guy actually being a pro-Palestinian activist?

Also, people going to Gaza and enjoying holidays there kind of goes against it being described as an "open air prison".

I do understand that some of the marchers want to show the world they care. Personally, if I were a civilian in Gaza, I would rather they showed this care by sending their tube fare money to the Red Cross, rather than marching alongside a bunch of fanatics and anti-semites, who will probably help to set back the cause of a Palestinian state another decade or two.

i am honestly out of sympathy with people who claim the marches are ‘mainly’ made up of good kind people. Those people every weekend have the opportunity to hold signs expressing the nuance of their feelings. Where are all those kindly signs? The support for a two-state solution? Etc

Unfortunately there is billions of aid waiting to get in to Gaza but that doesn’t make a difference when Israel wants to starve them and torture them and doesn’t ‘allow’ enough help for civilians in with the pretense of it might get to Hamas when the UN have evidence repeatedly that it doesn’t.

Mumsnet have decided that the post you are defending was hate speech so I'm going to leave it there.