What did you do during the genocide in Gaza?

[ssd]

This is a brilliant article.

This will be taught in schools one day and our grandkids will ask us but what did you do when you knew this was happening?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/22/israel-gaza-genocide

Exactly. Virtue signalling and posting on MN will change nothing. Also it is incredibly naive for people in the west to view things in such a binary way. Good or bad, Aggressor or victim. This is an incredibly complex situation that has been going on for decades and most of us can't even begin to understand how history, religion and culture have intertwined in a way that makes all of this very difficult to unpick. War is messy. Civilians die. We need to be careful about acting as the world's policeman when we have a chequered history ourselves.

Some wonderful innovations in Rwanda

www.wired.com/story/drones-have-transformed-blood-delivery-in-rwanda/

You can also be racist against ethnic groups: and we might be able to agree that Palestinians can be considered an ethnic group with a shared identity.

the reasons your comments are racist is that you are painting a whole group as unable to think for themselves, you are taking away their individuality and their humanity really. If you stop seeing people as fully human then it’s easier to ignore their suffering.

I think that’s why people find many of your comments shocking and racist.

Netanyahu actually promoted Hamas precisely because they were terrorists with roots in Islamist extremism !

He and his scaffold Smotrich needed that so that a power in control of Palestinians would never be internationally recognised as part of a two state solution. He also actively and energetically promoted Hamas in Gaza so it could not be unified with The West Bank under the Palestinian authority.

Netanyahu is a snake-like, lying criminal.

Whereas the leadership of hamas and the Palestinian authority are choirboys.

I spoke to all friends, family and colleagues that would listen. I attended marches and solidarity events. I have foregone all presents since the start of the genocide and asked loved ones to make a contribution to one of two charities and made sizeable donations myself.

I feel like I’ve not done enough and the whole tragedy has affected me greatly 😢 I just can’t believe the world is watching this.

@quantumbutterfly that’s an interesting question. I think social movements are about justice, human rights and making things better for everyone and that’s the distinguishing factor. The pro Palestinian protests/movement has been muddy at times as there is without a doubt an element within it that is anti Jewish people.

However I think many more people are motivated by a sense of justice and a want for peace than by hate. At the moment, people/governments are motivated by wanting to feed people. As Netanyahu said himself the world won’t tolerate images of mass starvation.

I wrote to my MP. She didn't bother to even acknowledge my communication.
I donated money for food aid to Gaza. Don't know whether it actually helped.
I've said prayers (Christian) for the people trapped in Gaza. Only God knows what the ultimate outcome will be, but I know He will judge Israel just as he judges all of us. To show mercy to one's enemies and to work towards peace with justice and humility is what we're commanded to do.

I think that's the ideal of how social movements start and why they attract a following amongst good people, when they reach a certain size there are bad actors that realise they can be weaponised.
As a student I joked that the way to control people was to start a religion, then my classmate told me about L Ron Hubbard.

@odras I would also say that justice means different things to different people as the story of Solomon and the two mothers shows. Societies are most successful if they share the same idea of what justice is and that can have quite varied cultural differences.

I learnt how to spell Noa Argamani, Arbel Yehud, Yuval Raphael and Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

6 names, just 6 that are now in ' history ' for the wrong reasons. 3 survivors, 3 murdered.

I now know where Nir Oz and Re'im are.

594 days
58 people
bring them home

I boycotted, marched, shared info, challenged zionists.

Appreciated the many anti-genocide, anti zionist Jews out on the protests.

Changed so much of what I purchased given connections to Israel.

Cancelled amazon prime.

Took child to protests, met with holocaust descendents. Got my child to speak to them to learn about the Holocaust, and experience of Jews. The holocaust descendent talked about how he is from Jaffa and how his family were given a house belonging to Palestinians and how it was left with people leaving in a hurry I.e. plates left out etc. How his parents refused to change it because they wanted Palestinian refugees to return and how he unlearned propaganda

Read and researched history

Learnt how zionists are brainwashed from a young age to believe that Arabs and Palestinians hate them

Really great book by Avi Shlaim, a Jewish historian - memoirs of an arab Jew

Was numb as a result of the genocide for ages

Reflected on the amazing resilience and character of Palestinian people. Despite the genocide and depraved actions of the IDF, I hardly ever hear hate. They call upon God to give them strength. The men are gentle, looking after children and digging with their bare hands to take out people from under the rubble. The medical and health care workers despite all the pain and lack of supplies and the danger refuse to leave their patients behind

I learnt how Israelis have administrative detention where they keep children in prisons and any Palestinian they want to without reason and justification, constantly extending their stay, abusing, torturing, raping prisoners

The list goes on

I don't know how people sleep at night

They should but our country was a huge part of creating this mess and they sell arms to Israel. So we are part of the problem.

I wrote to my MP expressing my disgust at the international community not pushing for a ceasefire on both sides.

I followed as many ‘on the ground’ journalists on platforms like Instagram as I could to try and not shy away from the atrocities of war and to educate myself about what is actually happening.

I donated small amounts of money.

I did not share any anti-Semitic posts on any platforms or make any disgusting comments about zionists/jews. It’s ok to feel heart broken for all innocent people across both Israel and Gaza. Both Ariel Bibas and Hind Rajab deserved to grow up in peace and safety.

Interesting, do you consider Mosab Hassan Yousef as racist to his own people? His autobiography (published in 2010) kind of flew under the radar until he started speaking out about the current conflict and he has been vilified and threatened by people who have never even stepped foot in the region or grew up in the ideology that he was born into.

This is a religious war anyway with the land used as excuse to justify terrorism. Funny how that has escaped most people’s notice

I have never said Palestinians are unable to think for themselves, quite the opposite. It seems to be the pro-Palestinians who have the view that they had no agency in deciding to elect and support a terrorist government whose sole aim is to annihilate their much stronger militarily force wise neighbours.

We have lots of ‘most Gazans are under 18 so they didn’t vote for Hamas’ but their parents and grandparents did. Surely it was their responsibility to think of what kind of a life they wanted their children to grow up in? Teaching them to throw rocks and petrol bombs at a military force, and try to stab Israelis, is not really protecting them is it?

The indoctrination of hate against the Jewish people was on display for all to see in the live streaming of the atrocities committed on Oct 7th, and further simple research (which I hadn’t been interested enough to do before that) evidences it has been going on for decades.

The Palestinians would simply wanted to get on with creating their own thriving State and economy (like Israel did) had a choice in whether they engaged in that or thought for themselves using the critical thinking skills that they possess like everyone else, they are ‘occupied’ after all with international NGO’s monitoring what was going on so don’t tell me that if there was a will to live in peace and prosperity alongside Israel, instead of electing and supporting a government who wanted the complete opposite, they wouldn’t have had the world’s support in doing so long before now.

The Ask an Israeli/Ask a Palestinian series on YouTube, is eye opening in itself, in getting public opinions from both sides.

Please try to respond to anything I’ve said that’s not factually accurate rather than throw racism allegations at me if you want to have a grown up debate.

The ex Israeli undercover agent Mosab? The one who has made comments such as:

"If I have to choose between 1.6 billion Muslims and a cow, I will choose the cow."

"I have zero respect for any individual who identifies as a Muslim."

Are you trying to ask people if he is racist? And attempting to portray him as a credible source of information considering his hate speech? That's very concerning.

@BreezyBertha most of what you say is factually inaccurate. Your points have been refuted many times on this board so I won’t expend energy on doing it again.

You use your beliefs to say to yourself that that Palestinian people are inherently different to you, inherently dangerous and that even if children are suffering and dying, it is justified because they are tainted.

There are many different views on these boards. But many people here who are pro Israel have expressed sadness for the loss of innocent life or concerns about the military strategy because most people believe that every life matters. Your views are very extreme and you seem blind to that fact.

There are many different views on these boards. But many people here who are pro Israel have expressed sadness for the loss of innocent life or concerns about the military strategy because most people believe that every life matters. Your views are very extreme and you seem blind to that fact.

I feel the same way, I don't think Bertha would say these views out loud in real life as people would be repulsed and also concerned that there is an element of extremist radicalisation. I have spoken to a couple of people in real life who consider themselves zionists and I don't think I have ever come across such hateful rhetoric. I really hope Bertha realises what a disservice she is doing to her cause but I think that is hoping in vain.

Well said. 💯

Let’s be honest. If prayer helped, the Palestinians wouldn’t be in this mess.

Prayer doesn’t help & neither does debating the war on Mumsnet. People can do these things if they enjoy doing them but it doesn’t help anyone.

@Rollofrockandsand I’m sorry you have encountered antisemitism. It is awful. Sadly, the Israeli state is whipping it up around the world both by their actions in Palestine and the West Bank, but also by repeatedly saying that anyone objecting to Israel’s actions is antisemitic. This doesn’t make antisemitism forgiveable though. I hope you and yours remain safe.

So offensive to suggest antisemitism is Israel's fault.

Learnt how zionists are brainwashed from a young age to believe that Arabs and Palestinians hate them

I'm a Zionist and certainly wasn't brainwashed, thank you very fucking much.

Indeed. Taking child to protests...wonder how old the child is and what they saw, and how much they really understood.
Get them young (like Daniela Weiss apparently).

@UsernamesAreTaken Yes in 1948 and as i wasn’t asked about who to support with arms I am not part of the problem; and I don’t feel any sense of shame or guilt, nor should anyone.
It’s absolutely awful to see Gaza razed to the ground again, it’s awful to see kids suffering.
It’s also awful to see Hamas et al are not really giving a crap about its people.
Thankfully there are good humanitarian workers who are willing to help because their government won’t.