Do people fully support Palestine?

[Dawk]

I read this article and the scales fell from my eyes a bit: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/amid-the-ceasefire-wrangling-how-popular-is-hamas-in-gaza-now

I hadn’t realised that a majority of Gazans want a conservative Islamist state and the complete destruction of Israel to create an Islamic state covering the whole country (from the river to the sea I guess). They also support violence and even the sacrifice of their own lives.

I am appalled by the destruction and loss of life in Gaza, but having read this article I can’t understand why support for Palestine isn’t more caveated. Why are people waving flags and supporting Gaza so unconditionally? When you look at the polling described in the article it seems fairly clear that many/most don’t actually want peace unless it follows the complete destruction of Israel.

For me it’s a bit like supporting Iran. I would never wave the Iranian flag around because of what the country stands for. In this case I am horrified by the scale of destruction wrought by the IDF so support Palestine completely in that respect but I’d never wave the flag or chant the slogans.

If you consider yourself ‘pro-Palestine’, what do you think of the ideology described in the article?

I think we can guarantee that!

user593 · 12/02/2025 00:46

They also have their lived experience. Israel has been ignoring international resolutions and mistreating Palestinians for decades. It’s very well documented. That has undoubtedly contributed to the situation we are now in. It didn’t happen in a vacuum.

This. Their land was stolen and generations have grown up in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Those remaining in Gaza have effectively been under house arrest.

It’s hardly surprising that hatred has blossomed in such circumstances.

So agree!

I think that most people in the uk do support the Palestinians. I don’t think that I personally have ever met anyone who supported the Hamas attack or the taking of hostages, but I think what was then rained down on Palestine was unthinkable and most people wholeheartedly condemn Israel’s bombing of Gaza. The loss of life, particularly among children is horrific.

What a ridiculous comment. How would people under house arrest build all those tunnels. Israel withdrew from gaza and left Hamas to it. People in gaza were not under house arrest.

I think that most people in the uk do support the Palestinians.

I think you may be in a bubble.

I don't know anyone that supports Palestine.

I don't know anyone that was shocked at the results of the people's vote in eurovision either. I do remember how indignant a minority online were though.

You don't know anyone who supports the right of the Palestinian population to exist? Who has donated to or wished well to the humanitarian efforts to provide food, shelter and healthcare to innocent people there? Who cares at all about the fact that Palestinian children are being killed and having their limbs blown off?

Supporting the right of Palestinians to live in peace (including without occupation and the commission by others of acts which may well constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, as described by multiple experts in such matters), providing aid to a besieged civilian population and advocating for a peaceful resolution, is not equivalent to supporting Hamas. Supporting Palestine's right to exist is not the same as supporting the atrocities of October 7th.

If you genuinely don't know anyone who supports the right of Palestinian people to live in peace in Palestine, then I suspect your experience is being drawn from either a very small sampling pool or (and?) a Reform/Brexit/UKIP stronghold where there do seem to be quite different perspectives on matters such as human rights and humanitarian principles, depending upon the perceived ethnicity or faith of different groups. Nationally distributed surveys and information collated from across the UK indicate that the majority of respondents do actually think Palestinians (not Hamas!) should have the right to live in their own land without the levels of killing and destruction that have been witnessed, and that a ceasefire and peace process are important.

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/uk-attitudes-toward-conflict-israel-and-gaza

There are polls you can check regarding the position of UK public.

Just because you don't know anyone doesn't mean that others are living in a bubble. YouGov tracker that tracks where most peoples sympathies in the UK lie with between Israel and Palestine, still shows the majority lies with the Palestinians. So some people might be living in a bubble but it's certainly not those who support the people of Palestine.

No they weren't. But they are under a blockade by land air and sea.

It really baffles me why pro Israelis continuously deny this obvious fact. It comes across as so delusional.

Who is denying the blockade? A blockade is not house arrest.

And yet all those machines needed to build that extensive tunnel network got through a 'blockade'. Delusional.

This is absolutely typical of the anti-Israel movement's technique of escalating to emotionally loaded words which mean something totally different.

So a blockade to stop terrorists from bringing in weapons is re-imagined as 'house arrest'.

A 141 square mile area (about half the size of Singapore) with a fully functioning society including schools, hospitals, restaurants etc - and its own government - is re-imagined as an open-air prison. The pictures of Gaza before the war show it wasn't.

'War' isn't a powerful enough word - by people who haven't experienced one - so it must be upgraded to Genocide, despite Israel giving warnings and time for evacuations before bombing.

And everyone starts shouting about 'Ethnic cleansing' when Trump says that he'd be up for owning Gaza and rebuilding it - just as he proposed buying Greenland and Canada becoming part of the US - with no more detail or probability of it actually happening than those.

It's denied here all the time. When you said Israel withdrew and left Hamas to it I assumed you believed that that's actually what happened because you didn't mention the ongoing interference in the area from Israel via the blockade.

@sharonellis this is what I'm talking about.

Israel did withdraw and leave the Gazans to run their own society.

They also put in place blockades to stop them from importing weapons or other materials which they had repeatedly shown they would use to attack Israel with.

Not that confusing.

I'm not confused. Some Israel supporters around here are though.

I have always supported Israel. I have never understood the support of some in the UK for the other side. I don't think the two sides will ever agree - but there it is.

You're not making any sense. How does a blockade work when Hamas imported heavy machinery, tools and weapons so easily. That's why I called your comment delusional.

You most definitely are confused. It's a waste of time 'debating' with you.

The blockade impacted everything from healthcare supplies to food to educational resources.

People were not free to leave by land, sea or air, due to travel and security restrictions. People who left could not be sure they would be able to return.

Many of the people saying that what is happening in Gaza looks like war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing are people with experience and qualifications to make such assessments.

Trump's comments about owning Gaza, buying Canada and Greenland, are all despicable.

What does supporting Israel mean to you?

Or supporting Palestine?

You might notice that I'm not debating with you. You're making comments at me that I'm ignoring and I'm going to go back to doing that now. Thanks.

The blockade prior to 7 October could not have been effective Scirocco. The tunnels were built using machinery that somehow got into Gaza along with armaments to use against Israel.