Protest Greek island.

[PaxAeterna]

I initially thought that they have been stopped from entering by the Greek authorities but it seems the ship itself made a call to move on. The protest itself was peaceful with no violence reported.

Have mixed thoughts about this one: I don’t really like people protesting at people who ultimately can’t do anything about the situation. On the other hand making life uncomfortable for Israeli tourists inadvertently puts pressure on the Israeli government.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/22/israeli-cruise-rerouted-after-aegean-islanders-protest-gaza-war

@PeonyPatch
May I ask, are you Western?

@PeonyPatch or have you spent time in the middle east?

I have yes. I don’t know why my background is relevant. It feels a bit personal.

Only asking because I was going to make a point about how it’s easy as Westerners to not really understand how different culturally and socially life is in the Middle East. But I realised, I shouldn’t assume you’re Western.

You say you have spent time in the Middle East. I assume then that you are Western?
If you have spent a significant amount of time in the middle east and immersed yourself in the culture, then I would expect you to have an understanding of how life in the Middle East runs hotter than in the West, louder, more direct, more emotionally charged. As I said before - Patriotism isn’t a choice, it’s survival.
Politics are personal, not polite. What might seem “aggressive” to Westerners is often just everyday life - one often shaped by conflict, tight communities, and the constant pressure to defend identity and existence.

Why do you think "protest" random citizens from a country is any different to "protesting" random citizens from a religion? Explain what the difference is?

(although this is yet another bs deflection as we all knows Jews who are not Israeli are being similarly targeted all over the world)

You're doing it again - pretending the issue is just that you're too virtuous for others to handle.

Let’s be honest: I assume you’d agree that “hurt feelings” matter less than child rape, honour killings, teenagers hanged for listening to music, girls burned alive or sold as sex slaves at age 8, women stoned to death for adultery, civilians beheaded, children forced into militias, minorities massacred in their homes, and communities crushed under religious totalitarianism.

So tell me - why aren’t you protesting outside mosques? Harassing Muslim tourists? Targeting Muslim students or smashing up their shops? Surely, if you believe that stopping evil justifies making innocent people feel “uncomfortable,” you’d be doing that. Or is it that you do understand it’s wrong to target civilians based on identity? That collective blame is racism?

The National Front also thought their marches were righteous. So did the EDL. Their banners said things like “Sharia Law = Barbaric” and “Islam Out of Britain.” And when challenged, they gave the same excuses: “We’re just trying to stop grooming gangs.” Sound familiar?

They were racists because they targeted people for who they were - not what they’d done. And that’s exactly what you’re doing now. Maybe with less lager and a few more degrees between you, but racism cuts across class and culture. Calling yourselves “activists” doesn’t change the fact that your behaviour is deliberately making Israelis - and let’s be honest, Jews - feel unsafe, unwelcome, and afraid to show their identity.

If that's what you are trying to achieve, then bravo, be proud of yourselves. But you’re not helping Gaza. Not one person. What you are doing is helping Hamas prolong the war they started. They thrive off this hatred. Every time you smear Jews and Israelis collectively, they gain. You are handing them exactly what they want.

While this post is addressed to you, I am speaking collectively to everyone who participates in all this.

What do you think your endgame is? Two years of this and you have achieved absolutely nothing. So I wonder what you really think will happen here. If you are mean enough to them, the Jews will abandon Israel? Renounce their identity, history and home? All you’re doing is proving to them that they do need to protect themselves - from people like you.

If I were Jewish I'd be making the move to Israel for sure right now, because the UK and Europe hasn't changed much from the 1930s. Strip away the slogans, the activism cosplay, and the performative morality, and what’s left is the same old hate - just rebranded. Those doing this are just the EDL in better clothes.

Well said @Voxon

@voxon first Protest is different to harassment. I don’t think anyone should be harassed.

I don’t think protesting at Jewish people/jewish places in other countries is fair or valid. A British Jew has literally got nothing to do with Netanyahu or the Israeli government. It is plainly wrong.

A sign saying Jews out of Britian is absolutely completely awful and should not be tolerated and it cannot be compared to a stop the genocide sigh which ultimately directed at the Israeli government.

What do you think your endgame is? Two years of this and you have achieved absolutely nothing. So I wonder what you really think will happen here. If you are mean enough to them, the Jews will abandon Israel? Renounce their identity, history and home? All you’re doing is proving to them that they do need to protect themselves - from people like you.

Who are you talking about?

"What do you think your endgame is? Two years of this and you have achieved absolutely nothing. So I wonder what you really think will happen here. If you are mean enough to them, the Jews will abandon Israel? Renounce their identity, history and home? All you’re doing is proving to them that they do need to protect themselves - from people like you."

In all my time on this board I have never seen a post that Jewish people should leave Israel. Talk about a strawman argument.
I have seen many that suggest Palestinians should leave the area. Is that equally unacceptable to you?
@Voxon

Very interestingly in this country really bad things have happened to ex Hong Kongers who have spoken out against China and been protesting peacefully. Not really related to the thread as such

I’m currently island hopping around the Cyclades (where the ship didn’t stop, and the anti-Israel sentiment is huge.

Thank you for writing this post and making my point in a far more articulate manner than I achieved.

It is. But I don't spend my weekends harassing Palestinians.

Not a huge amount of Palestinians on cruise ships around the Greek Isles but good to know .

There's around 60,000 Palestinians in the UK, and around 3.9 million Muslims - will you be harassing them to return the hostages? Or, if you're planning a holiday, almost 7,000 arrived to the Greek Isles last year.

Of course you wouldn't do that, because that would be deeply offensive and indeed...racist.

And the vast majority of the Islamic world and therefore Muslims want to see the end of Israel. Not just land taken back that Israel has stolen, the actual end of an Israeli state.

What about peaceful protest in Islamic areas or outside Mosques to say thats not ok, that belief is not ok?

There's no such thing as a peaceful protest if it's targeting people based on their identity.

I would disagree

But @PeonyPatch did you not know it's ok to bomb starve and shoot people based on their identity but protesting against them based on their identity is just that step too far...

No. It is not okay to protest people based on their religion, racial, sexual or national identity. That is called bigotry. No matter how you twist it.

Is it ok to stave and bomb then based on their nationality then?

Killing them is fine though.

Good to know.

Correct

@PaxAeterna and @martymcfly24

If you were to find out any person you are "protesting" had killed or starved anyone, then have at it.

However, targeting random Israelis and Jews around the world for “protest” is racist because you’re not holding individuals accountable - you’re attacking people based on ethnicity or nationality.

The crowd doing this are not doing something noble.

They're harassing a 12-year-old kid in a Jewish school, chasing a woman down the street for wearing a Star of David, or vandalising a bagel shop in London.

What exactly does that achieve? You think Netanyahu’s checking Twitter and thinking, “Oh no, someone spray-painted ‘Free Palestine’ on a synagogue in Toronto, better rethink my military strategy”? No - you're just making life hell for some ordinary person who has zero influence over any government.

If you scream at a Chinese person on the street because you don’t like what the CCP is doing, you’re a racist.

If you attack a Muslim because of something done in Pakistan or Iran, you’re an Islamophobe.

And if you corner some random Israelis over what’s happening in Gaza, you’re an antisemite.

It’s not “just protest.” It’s targeted hostility against an ethnic group that’s already been demonised, scapegoated, expelled, and murdered for centuries.

And far from being benign, you are actively causing harm. I have no control over what the Israeli government does. You have none either. But what you do have control over is your own actions.

I've listened to this kind of racist crap for two years now and watched people justify their disgraceful behaviour over and over again. This morning a video is going around of a podcast where a group of young people admired hitler and opined that the Jews should think carefully about what they did to deserve the Holocaust.

The incremental steps of justifying and normalising bigoted behaviour always leads here, and anyone defending it is actively part of it.

There is a war in Gaza right now. People are suffering and dying. That is what happens in wars. Protest the war all you like - just have the moral clarity to do it at the Israeli embassy or outside parliament.

Stay away from synagogues. Leave Jewish kids alone. Stop harassing holiday makers or trying to punish Jews around the world. It isn't hard. We've morally navigated dozens of wars and conflicts in this country without targeting random citizens but where Jews are concerned people's brains seem to switch to lunatic.

I don't buy the performative morality for a minute. I think people who engage in these behaviors are caught up in lust of it all. They weren't embarrassed in the 1930s. They were proud. They felt moral about it and they used identical rationalisation to the ones I'm hearing today.

It makes me thoroughly embarrassed to be British that people still think the rules of morality, equality and justice apply to everyone...except Jews.