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.

If you pop sky news on they're showing the footage of the incident between the police and the man who wanted to cross the march. They're also showing and discussing the chanting of marchers that was also recorded. This is pretty good evidence of antisemitism and no I don't think all are antisemitic but there is a large enough number of them even if this is a minority, it is a significant number of people. In terms of hamas supporters- truthfully I don't know enough to make comment on that so I haven't.

Again if the protests are peaceful, if the protests aren't antisemitic, if the protests don't intimidate or scare why could the man featured on most news outlets not cross the march? Why is the right to protest in this manner more important than the rights of some British nationals?

Why can't these protests be made a different way? If peace is so important why not show that?

I'm not Jewish by the way- I just don't like the precedent that this is setting for the future.

I don't condone islamophobia by the way.

Did you post regularly about how awful Islamophobia is after there was a surge post 9/11, 7/7, the London bombings etc? About how dreadful it was that Muslim women were getting abused whilst taking their kids to school etc? No, didn’t think so.

I have seen many posters (not directed specially at you btw) who rightly denounce antisemitism whilst pop up on other threads sharing their dodgy views about immigration, gollywogs etc.

It is clear that there are many people who only care about one kind of prejudice instead of being angry about them all. The hypocrisy is glaring.

If you go and look on the Muslim Mumsnet board I did actually comment on the recent islamophobic attack on women which was in the news this week.

I'll wait for your apology

Why would you expect an apology? She said do you post ‘regularly’.

So how regularly does it have to be until deemed acceptable?

I wasn't on Mumsnet on 9/11 or 7/7 by the way.

How often do I have to say I condemn Hamas before that is accepted? I’ve lost count now.

Once

If you say something once you've said it...I don't need to necessarily hear it again.

Good. I hope everybody takes this same approach.

@Mags48

"I’ve repeatedly asked for evidence of sweeping and frankly dangerous generalisation made on this board such as all protestors are anti-Semitic and Hamas supporters."

So my point on this is that I find it very odd that out of the hundreds of thousands of protesters on these marches, there is nobody protesting against Hamas. I have received some valid explanations such as "I'm there to protest against the UK Gov" or that I'm looking after my children or that "why should I have to justify to anyone that I don't support Hamas".

Whilst these explanations do indeed explain some protesters motives there are still alot of other protesters.

This led me to conclude that the other reasons for not openly condemning Hamas on the march are:
That they are scared of being attacked by others protesters if they do so
They actually sympathise or support Hamas or don't care
They don't know who Hamas is.

Personally, like yourself, I also condemn the actions of Hamas and also the loss of innocent civilian lives but after seeing that Iranian man get attacked for having a banner stating Hamas are terrorists there is absolutely no way I would attend or be near a protest march with a poster condemning Hamas for fear that I would also be attacked.

What's more in my opinion many others who also condemn Hamas and their actions would also be too scared to publicly display this on a placard / banner.

I was talking about the terrorist attacks of 9/11 etc. There was no public outpouring of shock against the Islamophobia then. Nobody marching. Nobody gave a shit. It was all expected.

No that's not all you said.

As I said, I wasn't even on Mumsnet then.

Unless you want me now twenty plus years later to condemn islamophobia from 2001 in order to prove I'm not a hypocrite?

But like I said on my post on the recent incident, I don't think anyone should be abused or attacked and I really resent your earlier post about me.

@1dayatatime I find your logic quite the jump. If people have 1 sign they are most likely going to use a general slogan “ceasefire now” “free Palestine” or write something they consider to be important “stop dropping bombs” “stop the genocide” etc.

That doesn’t mean all of those people support Hamas! Nor does it mean that they don’t want the hostages to be released. It means they have 1 sign and have chosen what it important to them to express.

@CherryCoaster I was more concerned with the thousands of innocent people killed to be honest. In fact, I was disgusted that after the Charlie Hebdo murders, the guns hadn't even cooled before the main story on several news channels seemed to be the backlash to the Muslim community. I'm sorry that people have suffered abuse due to the actions of others, but I'm not sorry that personally. my main attention has been towards the people who have been killed, and how we punish the perpetrators and try to stop it happening again.

Yes thought so. Thanks for the honesty. You won’t be alone with your Islamophobic thoughts.

But if one or two of the thousands of protesters held up signs condemning Hamas and asking for the release of hostages don’t you think it would restore the trust of the Jewish community who still feel the horror and grief of the October 7th attacks? I think it would be a gesture that shows the marchers care about all the victims and would make it very difficult for anyone to object to the march .

You really devalue that term by banding it about for anything that you disagree with. Stating that my thoughts are with thousands of innocent people killed going about their daily, lawful innocent business, their families who have lost a mother, a father, a brother, sister or child, and how we go about destroying the perpetrators, and don't immediately turn to "the backlash" is not Islamophobic.

You really devalue that term by banding it about for anything that you disagree with.

I agree. I hope you feel the same about the term ‘antisemitic’ which has been overused beyond belief and used to silence those concerned about the massacre in Gaza. Both words need to be used with caution don’t you think?

Is he the son of a Hamas leader?

That's what I claimed.

Is that a fact?

You make lots of comments, I stated a fact.

So is he the son of a Hamas leader , as he claimed?

The evidence is there for those who listen to the chants

Yes, taking a stance against the Israeli government is not Anti-Semitism. What is Anti-Semitism is holding Israel to higher standards than other nations, ignoring other ills in the world to fixate on Israel, associating nazi imagery with the star of David and advocating for the removal of Jews from the land of Israel (river to the sea)

Exactly.

The chants are awful, disgusting.

The marches are horrible and don't shine out as the beakon of morality that some people seem to think they are.

Just to be clear I want the marches to stop.

I agree. Let’s keep using it for those appropriate acts of prejudice.