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.

also posters and banners that say “cease fire”.
why is it hard to believe that the majority of the human race has moral standards that can never justify the killing of children

Theres hundreds of* *people going on those marches. I don’t see how you can really argue they are ALL acting in good faith or that they are ALL antisemitic.

I would imagine there are many many different motivations and attitudes, not a hive mind like the Borg.

And I haven’t seen anyone here denying the horror of what is happening to Palestinian children. I would never go on a Pro-Israel march that minimised the suffering of Palestinians, just as I wouldn’t go on these marches because they minimise (or outright deny) what is being done to Israelis, often with a healthy dose of anti-semitism thrown in.

it is an option to choose not to ally yourself with either side you know, if you feel they’re both behaving badly?

Or you could organise a march for peace on both sides, including the return of the hostages? Do you believe in the existence of them?

You don’t know what Zionism is and you don’t get to redefine Zionism according to your own biased ideology. Stop tokenizing Jews. Neteuri Karta are a tiny fringe group of loons, they do not represent or uphold Jewish values.

Esma - love your 10.25 post. There is much evidence that Iranian agents are active in the UK stirring things up. Their agenda is abhorrent but many, many naive fools are trooping along too. I can only assume the atmosphere is infectious to explain why people are shouting hateful slogans calling for the eradication of the state of Israel.

it gives people an excuse to stand with crowds and shout antisemitic abuse and get away with it. Even be applauded and cheered for it.

It's fantastic that we live in a country where we can protest and have freedom of speech. Lots of people are uniting together for one cause which is for a ceasefire.

All those people who matched for Iraq won't also feel bad that they were supporting the death of innocent civilians. People will look back at this and think the same.

because it helps to highlight the illegal war crimes and collective punishment going on.

OP it allows us to show our support for and solidarity with Palestinians and continue to demand a ceasefire, in the absence of our government or opposition doing either. I’ve also written to my MP.
I tell you what is less effective than going on a protest, doing nothing whatsoever. So we will keep marching.

Exactly this. I’m not Jewish but the chanting of the mobs on the tube sent shivers down my spine. It’s intimidation pure and simple.

All those people who matched for Iraq won't also feel bad that they were supporting the death of innocent civilians. People will look back at this and think the same.

I marched to try to stop the Iraq War because I believed there was a chance that public opinion could make a difference to the actions our own government was planning to take. I don't feel an ounce of satisfaction over it looking back because it didn't achieve anything.

Pro-Palestine marchers in the UK haven't a hope of altering the actions of a foreign country's government. But they are helping to boost the confidence of antisemites and make Jewish Brits feel unsafe and frightened in our cities. So well done you!

Good for you. 👏

Imagine nobody protested. It would give our own govt even more confidence that they can do whatever they want on foreign policy regardless of the consequences, no matter how sinister.

We have no idea how much worse our own foreign policy could be on this if people weren't protesting.

At least if our govt can see us protesting they know there's a significant proportion who don't support their current action. They at least know they don't have carte blanche to make things even more difficult for Palestinians.

Completely agree with this!

Just to say I also agree with you@EsmaCannonball. It’s deeply worrying and depressing.

Which is why there are so many Jewish people in attendance, I suppose?

It’s always the mouthpieces for the deeply racist Israeli far-right that feel the need to call people showing empathy for 4,000 dead children and babies in 4 weeks “idiots.”

Stop conflating Palestinians with Hamas.

Stop conflating those who are against their oppression, murder, torture and ethnic cleansing as “terrorist sympathisers.”

It’s beyond lazy and a deliberately blinkered view.

It just pisses a lot of people off when they can't get about because of idiots sitting in roads. Just stop Oil or supporting Palestine and their corrupt government it's just pointless.

"It just pisses a lot of people off when they can't get about because of idiots sitting in roads. Just stop Oil or supporting Palestine and their corrupt government it's just pointless."

Pointless... except for all the reasons cited on this thread already.

It pisses a lot of people off when children are killed because of war crimes and collective punishments.

Send a loud and clear messsge to Israel!

Millions of people are taking a stand and have finally woken up.

It's insidious the amount of power, greed and hatred that western governments have put into it.

Not in our name.

No-one here is conflating Palestinians with Hamas, but it would help hugely to avoid this 'conflation' if people on the marches weren't parroting Hamas slogans, aims and chants.

Those of you who have been on the marches - do you support a two-state solution? If so, why not say so on your sign, or in one of the chants?

It might help Jews currently too scared to go anywhere near their cities on a Saturday realise that this is just about criticism of the Israeli government, rather than anything more sinister...

People like to pretend the crowds don't support Hamas but then when it's caught on film they have no response.

@areyouhavinglaugh Can you explain what you mean by 'greed' here? What do Western governments have to gain from supporting Israel, from a 'greed' point of view?

Tarring thousands with the idea they support Hamas is ridiculous. Sad that a tiny fraction of the people at these things do such stupid things, but pretending everyone is... nope. Ridiculous. You can't tar everyone with the same brush.

The number of Jewish people reported at the marches goes up every time it’s mentioned. I’m confused, how did you all know they were Jewish? Did they carry signs identifying them as such? Did they all just announce themselves?
Don’t count JVP, they’re a deeply problematic organisation with a large number of non-Jewish members, who regularly platform antisemites.

A pro-western ally in a strategic position in the middle east. Funds from pressure groups etc etc. Someone to sell bombs to.