To say the London Palestinian marches should be stopped

[KarmaCaramello]

They are weekly marches found to be organised by organisations with links to Hamas, and at least one ex Hamas member.

They are supporting a terrorist organisation that has just committed the deadliest day in Israel’s history. An Iranian dissident was arrested for holding a sign saying Hamas is Terrorist, despite the fact that they are a UK-designated terrorist organisation - because protestors assaulted him on seeing the sign.

If they were calling for peace and fewer casualties they would be condemning Hamas and calling for them to surrender.

AIBU to think this is deeply disturbing and has no place on the streets of London. Note - terrorist support is illegal and not protected speech.

He was very clearly asking to walk through the march. So is the march so intimidating that people are scared and staying away? Or they're so comfortable to walk through a crowd of thousands of people walking in the other direction when they could avoid the route? I wouldn't walk through any protest nevermind one I felt intimidated by. Who the hell wants to enter a large crowd when you're not even walking in the same flow and direction as everyone? Why is he going for a stroll specifically though the crowd with someone accompanying him filming on what doesn't look like a phone?

Again there are plenty of "visibly" Jewish people who feel very safe in the march.

So. In direct answer to your question OP. No, the marches should not be stopped. But they should not be allowed to continue in their current form. Arrests need to be made and protestors need to be dispersed when there is any hint of Intifada, Jihad, anti-Semitism, River to the sea, holocaust denial, Nazi symbolism, or intimidation of counter protestors.

As someone Jewish, the way I'm seeing non-Jews on here flippantly and provocatively discussing us is making me feel sick to my stomach. I really wish you could hear yourselves.

No it doesn't. Why are you bringing up something people say usually to excuse something racist they've just said? 🤨 It just means you can't keep saying "British Jews" are some kind of homogenous group who all feel the same way about the marches. By all means say some, but it's factually incorrect to say all Jewish people feel the same way about the protests considering the amount of Jewish groups taking part regularly.

It is so disgusting. I keep telling myself I should stop looking at these boards

What about the Jewish Voice for Peace?

@Mercurial123 What about them?? Your post has literally nothing to do with what I just said. I didn't mention Israel. I didn't mention Gaza. FFS.

And?

Who walks through a march though? at the risk of making a chicken joke... to get to the other side 😅 (sorry, couldn't help it)

If you're personally inconvenienced by the protests then good, that's how protests work. Be grateful you aren't trapped in Gaza

I would rate Jewish people being abused, being fearful to walk the streets and being told that they are ‘antagonising marchers’ by simply trying to cross a road in Aldwych whilst wearing a kippah a little bit more than a personal inconvenience.

Work it out.

I'm really not looking for ways to be seen as an acceptable Jew.

So he was stopped from walking through because being Jewish would put his safety at risk yet somehow he's the one at fault?

Yep...which is absolutely mystifying as according to many, there's absolutely loads of Jewish people on the march and absolutely no anti semitism.

Hmmmm

I don't believe him being Jewish would have put his safety at risk. I do think it looks like he was deliberately attempting to cross a police line and walk through a protest he admits to disagreeing with, with what looks like a professional camera tbh. I can imagine plenty of similar scenarios where the police aren't going to approve that because the intention is obvious.

So why did the police officer say he was at risk for being Jewish?

What happened to Peter Tatchell when he attended a march with a placard that suggested Hamas should release the hostages as well as Israel cease firing?

But the policeman clearly does and quite clearly states it.

"I don't want anybody antagonising anybody... and at the moment sir, you are quite openly Jewish. This is a pro-Palestinian march," one officer said.
"I am not accusing you of anything but I am worried about the reaction to your presence."
He later added: "There's a unit of people here now. You will be escorted out of this area so you can go about your business, go where you want freely or if you choose to remain here because you are causing a breach of peace, with all these other people, you will be arrested.
"Your presence here is antagonising a large group of people that we can't deal with all of them if they attack you... because your presence is antagonising them."

He is not waving an Israeli flag, he is not carrying any pro-Israel paraphernalia, he is just visibly Jewish. Yes, if he came into the march shouting pro-Israel slogans or whatever, I agree that would be provocative, but that is not what he is doing. It is his visible Jewishness that is putting him at risk according to the police.

That's why there are no placards condemning Hamas at the protests - either protesters are too scared to carry them in which case it's not a peaceful demonstration and people don't have the right to protest when it's against Hamas or despite the denials a large number of protesters are indeed sympathetic towards Hamas.

That's not ok. It's not ok when people discriminate against me for being "visibly Muslim" and it's not ok to discriminate against this man for being "visibly Jewish". Being "visibly your own faith or ethnicity" is not grounds for discrimination. If the man wasn't safe then officers should have supported him to safety and addressed the risks to him, not further obstructed him from going about his legitimate business. It looks from that quote like they even threatened to arrest him just for existing in the 'wrong place' - I've had that threat myself and it's never acceptable. I hope the man feels supported to make a complaint about that.

@Scirocco

It's a tough one because the police as they explained were not saying he had done anything wrong just that they were doing it for his own personal protection and that given the large numbers on the protest they could not protect him.

So what should they do - let him carry on in which case he would have been attacked- there were already protestors there threatening to do this and even to follow him around all day even if he did have police protection. Or prevent him from moving around in order to protect him.

This is all getting horribly divisive and dangerous in UK society for both Muslims and Jews.

I agree with @1dayatatime here. It was a pragmatic decision based on "where we are" rather than "where we would like to be". In an ideal world we'd have enough police to ensure those Jewish people could go about their legal business and arrest anyone who caused them trouble, and its sad the we didn't/can't do this, and is a terrible reflection of the true nature of these protests.

It looks from the quote like the officer may have threatened to arrest him though?

@Scirocco

I think the police were saying that if he stayed where he was and refused to move away then he would be arrested - he was already starting to attract a crowd of protesters and the police were concerned he would be attacked.

If he agreed to move away then he would be provided with an escort of police to get him out of the immediate area.

@1dayatatime Ah, thanks for clarifying.