March against antisemitism on Sunday

[SharonEllis]

1.30 pm Royal Courts of Justice to Parliament Square

@Stomacharmeleon are you sure you tagged the right person..I wrote nothing about being embarrassed.

I pasted it from the eventbrite listing into my google diary and then from there to here. I think eventbrite listings disappear after the event.

Just before that quote it opened with this:

QOUTE

Week after week, central London has become a no-go zone for Jews.

UNQUOTE

which I found curious to say the least. I am in central London round and about 5 to 7 days a week and tend to think that I would have noticed if that was the case.

Immediately after my initial quote, it said this:

QUOTE
It is a sad truth that Jews do not feel safe in our capital city.

Britain is a country known for its tolerance and decency. The people of this country, along with leading politicians from the major political parties, stand with the Jewish community in this difficult time.

March with us in solidarity.

Frequently asked questions

Why do I need to register?

Will there be a police presence?

UNQUOTE

The "frequently asked questions" have further pull down info, can't be pulled down in my plain text quote of course - but in any case that was just housekeeping info.

@Bells3032 no and I apologise.
My fat fingers are a pain and I should have checked before I posted. I did report it.

Quote
Week after week, central London has become a no- go zone for Jews.

What would you have noticed in order to disagree with that comment? Why undermine how people feel. There is already posts on the news and online of people being verbally abused on the way home yesterday.

Antisemitism has risen by over 1000% and you haven't noticed it?

Just out of 'curiosity' why save something to your google diary if you weren't attending. As you are in London several times a week.

I think if London was a no go zone for any group of Londoners it would be pretty obvious to the most drugged of observers. That statement struck me as over the top to say the least. As did, to be honest, the "reporting" of the Palestine marches.

I did "go" to the march effectively as an observer as I was in town.

one advantage of being in London is that you can see many things for yourself - very enlightening when you see so much dodgy reporting/shit-stirring by various parties.

i save/bookmark lots of things.

I trust that has at least satisfied you that that is how the organisers promoted the march.

whether that promo is still around I have no idea.

This thread is in its own way the most revealing of all that have been started about the attack on Israel.

There are only about 250,000 Jews in the UK, top whack. Yet there are needling questions about whether 60,000 or 100,000 marchers attended. Some marchers will not have been Jewish, obviously, but it’s still a remarkable display of disgust at the vilification of a tiny minority of British people.

‘There are other semites than Jews’. Give me strength. We all know what antisemitism means.

As for the Israeli flags, it’s the Star of David and shows affinity with the only Jewish state in the world: what flags do you expect on a march opposing Jew hatred? The French flag? The Japanese flag? The Iranian flag?

So all those Jews who say they feel scared in London are just overdramatic?

Quick retype, as promised, of my earlier post which went I know not where. No I wasn't referring to some A4 thing. A far bigger than A4 thing just behind one of the "across the road" banners. I didn't see the thing you refer to. If there was a poster, however home-made/hand-crafted, equating the BBC with Hamas I think the organisers should have politely had it removed. A disgraceful thing to say and throws petrol on an already terrible situation. Hardly helps a move towards a peaceful resolution. The kindest thing one could say about such a poster, and being very kind, is that it was juvenile.

I personally saw no trouble on the march, nothing truly offensive. But then I didn't on the Palestine marches I saw either.

The organizers are right though, aren’t they? We have all seen the footage of appalling banners, appalling statements, appalling statements and positions from those who attend and speak. And people who don’t hold these views are prepared to march alongside them.

I strongly suspect they would not knowingly march alongside those making similar statements about an atrocity of any other racial group.

I haven’t heard the organizers strongly calling out these statements or making it clear they are not tolerated and no one who has made such comments will be welcome at the march.

i don’t really hear people on here calling this out either. Instead I hear a lot of minimizing and justifying. And simply pretence that all this is not happening. If there were statements that ‘yes it is problematic that these people are coming on our marches and here is what is being done to stamp that out’, but instead I just hear loads of denial and that is not reassuring

And that speaks volumes.

Absolutely extraordinary. There is footage of Jews being harassed. There is lots of footage of large crowds shouting antisemitic things, calling for the destruction of Israel, saying, jews are in favour of genocide. There is the testimony of students being harassed on campuses. If Jews tell us they do not feel safe then you take it upon yourself to disbelieve them? The Community Security Trust and CAS has plenty of data. I suggest doing some research.

This thread has been derailed by a few posters with their tiresome faux confusion and nitpicking. I see you.

Yeah ignore it - there are none so blind as those who cannot see

It is tiresome isn’t it when people want to clarify whether a march was either double or half the size of what people say it was. Someone is lying. I think many people are fed up of lies (no matter from which side).

Size wouldn’t matter so much if the march was really intended to be peaceful and supportive, and I agree in that case it would be mean-spirited to quibble. But again, there are some views on this thread from posters who attended as to whether there was a pro-war element to it.

Counting numbers of constantly moving people in central London over a period of several hours is never going to be an exact science.

Why does it make a difference to you what the numbers were? Do you think it's some kind of conspiracy?

Some people must be completely consumed by resentment and hate - seriously, who thinks a March against racism is anything other than something that should be supported and who then bothers to obsess over the numbers that were there.
Bottom line - it was a lot - the good news is there are a large proportion of the British population who want to support their Jewish communities

It was peaceful, friendly, thoughtful at times. It was a march to show solidarity with British jews who have suffered an increase in antisemtism. All well documented. There was a clear call for peace and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians from Hamas. And for the hostages to be returned. Beyond that 105,000 people will have had different views on many different topics.

@ WhileMyDishwasherGentlyWeeps
As for the Israeli flags, it’s the Star of David and shows affinity with the only Jewish state in the world: what flags do you expect on a march opposing Jew hatred? The French flag? The Japanese flag? The Iranian flag?

Banners and placards with the Star of David?
Fine, it's the emblem of Judaism, and that's what the march was about.

But the Israeli flag represents something far more violent than the Jewish faith and that flag brings Judaism into disrepute.
Do you really want to show affinity with a state behaving how it is at the moment?

@ Comedycook
Counting numbers of constantly moving people in central London over a period of several hours is never going to be an exact science.

At flipping last, someone who understands my post.

I'm British. I have an affinity with the UK. This doesn't mean I necessarily agree with everything the UK government does. I'm also Jewish. I support the right of Israel to exist. I don't necessarily agree with everything the Israeli government does.

It's really not that difficult to understand.

I don't actually.

I believe counting numbers is difficult hence the varying reports. You seem to be inferring that there is some sort of conspiracy surrounding the numbers reported?

What a load of nonsense.

Israel is a state recognised by the whole world except for some headbangers. Of the non-Muslim states that don’t recognise Israel you’re in the company of Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela.

Israel is the single Jewish state. Nearly all Jews outside Israel associate with and support the existence of Israel because it is the Jewish state and homeland.

Israel is not a pariah state like Russia, Iran or North Korea. It is a modern, open, liberal democracy. The attempts in the west at shunning Israel are essentially racist in motive.

If you think that affinity with Israel is warmongering you are showing your dislike of Jews and Jewish perspectives.

Comedy cook
I believe counting numbers is difficult hence the varying reports. You seem to be inferring that there is some sort of conspiracy surrounding the numbers reported?

You're seeing things that don't exist. I have neither implied nor stated conspiracy.

Go back and read my earlier posts where I explain about the precision with the counting. In addition to precision, I also alluded to range.

So why do you care about the numbers attending and why do you keep talking about it?

I'm going to stick my head above the parapet here and say that actually yes, for me it really is difficult to understand. Israel have killed 1 in 200 children in Gaza, they have injured 1 in 100 in 50 days. Now imagine the UK killing 1 in 200 French children in 50 days and people wrapping themselves in the Union Jack and shrugging saying well, I don't necessarily agree with everything the UK does 🤷🏻‍♀️. This isn't disagreeing with inheritance tax changes or their policy on carbon emissions, this is mass slaughter and whether you intend to or not if you choose to wrap yourself in the flag of a foreign country currently engaged in mass slaughter people will assume you are making a statement on their current actions.

I'm nobodies moral compass, people can do what they want and what they feel good about but you can't control other people's reaction or feelings about you choose to do. Some people will form negative opinions about people that choose to surround themselves with the flag of a foreign country currently accused of war crimes and who are actively engaged in killing 1 in 200 of their neighbours children. You can't control that, people are entitled to their opinion, just like the many threads here about 'hate marches' and the opinions people have about them.

I live in Israel. Do you know what most Israelis dream of? We dream of peace. It has just been made abundantly clear to us that that cannot happen while Hamas rule Gaza. Our biggest peace activists in the kibbutzim, who worked for peace with Gaza, were butchered. and yet if you would take the time to listen to testimony of survivors of these atrocities, and surviving relatives, and relatives of hostages, they do not desire revenge, they still ache for peace. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0EdkFrLCVp/?igshid=ZDE1MWVjZGVmZQ==
I do not wish for revenge, or ‘an eye for an eye’, I want peace, I want to live without threat of terror attacks and rocket fire. That cannot happen while Hamas rule Gaza. The Palestinian people themselves will never be free while Hamas rule Gaza. I want the Palestinian people to thrive, to become our neighbours, our allies, but that can never happen under Hamas.
This is not a war that Israel wants or has any appetite for, it’s a war that they’ve been forced into.
so no, when I wave an Israeli flag, I am not pro war, I am, and always have been, pro peace. I do not celebrate a single Palestinian death, and am shattered by the loss and tragedy on all sides. But until Hamas are eradicated, there can be no peace.