Open letter: Mothers Appeal To Mumsnet CEO Justine Roberts

[IwantToRetire]

Mumsnet is a powerhouse, and your advocacy for the protection of women and children carries real political weight. With every Prime Minister since David Cameron fielding your questions, it’s clear that when you speak, policymakers listen. No mother would turn away from the suffering of a child -and the children of Gaza are still suffering needlessly. Together as mothers, we can help.

While many parents may not feel confident enough to speak out themselves, your leadership now would galvanise them to demand tangible actions to get life saving supplies into Gaza and create safe conditions for women to give birth, giving those mothers and babies a chance at life. We cannot leave them alone in the New Year.

From https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XJv6qEHsa8XAQHfc_wjzUvNTqI2uCrvU0k45uk8H-UM/edit?tab=t.0

Irrespective of what they are asking, why aren't the asking politicians. Why are they asking Justine Roberts to do it for them.
https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/cultural-heavyweights-call-for-action-to-help-mothers-in-gaza-after-aid-ban

Cant find anything about this on mumsnet, not sure which forum it would be in. Or is it a pritvate matter. Nothing to do with mumsnet itself?

Oh, she has done, and it's working out so well...

Ah. I see!

You are missing the point.

If they want "mumsnet" to support their campaign they need to either ask for a guest post, or as others keep saying, sign up to MN and go on as many of the forums as they like as argue their case with the real mumsnet ie those who post.

Justine Roberts is of course important, and a sucessful woman. But having created an online forum does NOT make her entitled to speak on behalf of any of us.

If they want the power of mumsnet they need to convince the (primarily) women who make mumsnet important.

JR does not tell us how to think, does not tell us who we should or shouldn't support.

The very opposite. She has created an online forum that allows a whole range of attitudes.

This request from the campaigners just illustrates how stupid celebrities are, and / or gullible to think that celebrityness is what is the convincing part of an arguement.

They insult the intelligence and ability of individual women to form their own opinions to have even suggested what they have.

And worse still forced JR to have to publicly say or do something about their ill conceived stunt.

I agree with this.

100%.

They could have approached Justine privately and checked with her what kind of campaigning activity is permissible on Mumsnet under the terms and conditions of Mumsnet use.

They could then have asked her for suggestions about how best to use the site facilities, and she could have explained to them about polls, the petitions board, where best for them to post the template for an open letter to Keir Starmer/Foreign Secretary/ whoever for Mumsnetters to add their signatures to, and any other possibilities the site software and structure provides.

If appropriate, they or Justine could then have issued a press release(s) saying " actors seek women's support for Gaza aid via Mumsnet" or some such suitable wording, and later , "x% of Mumsnetters polled support Gaza aid/ X number of Mumsnetters sign letter to PM" ( or whatever).

In other words, concrete, specific actions carried out by them, with Justine's blessing, and backed by numbers of individual Mumsnetters who have actually been consulted. Not publicly twisting Justine's arm to say that "Mumsnet" is on their side.

Just came back to say this got me all fired up again.

I gave up on the idea of posting a public letter somewhere online as I could end up outing myself.

So have gone back to my original idea and posted something on site stuff.

Written as usual in a rush, but hope it conveys what seems to be really bad judgement by these women.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5474234-why-justine-roberts-should-not-give-in-to-demanding-celebraties

This letter is all about, dead children, dead women and an on going genocide. The majority of mums on here have all made excuses why they shouldn't sign it. These are the same sort of mums that would have excused Nazis and they are 'raising' the next generation, shame on you. Dead children under any circumstances is wrong, children are innocent, doesn't matter where they come from or what they look like.

It about dead women and children in a specific area. What about all all the other dead women and children in the other wars going on right now - do they not matter to these women?

I can't work out whether you are being deliberately obtuse or just can't grasp the point?

It doesn't really matter what the topic of the letter is, it's fundamentally problematic to write an open letter like that and address it to an individual (Justine) who has no personal influence over the situation. The correct addressee for the letter was either the prime minister or the foreign Secretary.

I think it's pretty much unprecedented to write a letter like that and send it to the press when it is addressed to somebody with a no actual influence over the situation it refers to.

That's the issue here

So its about Sudan? No thought not. Frankly I am tired of the only focus being on Gaza, where there is now a fragile ceasefire. The world knows about Gaza, and its appalling, but I don’t think a letter to Justine is going to solve it frankly. Why is there no outrage about the appalling situation in Sudan? Do people not care about the dead children and actual genocide there? If its genocide and dead children that you care about then lift your eyes from Gaza fir 5 minutes and look elsewhere in the world.

Maybe she's more concerned about these women and children because it's British tax payers money that is un-aliving them. We send copious amounts of money to Israel along with weapons for them to use to kill these women and children.

Then an open letter to either the foreign Secretary the prime minister or the chancellor of the exchequer would have been an absolutely reasonable thing to write and publish

So its not about dead women and children, its about Israel? Sigh. Of course it is. It always is. Dead women and children in Sudan don’t matter therefore. This is about politics not about supporting vulnerable people affected by genocide. And the obsession with Gaza over all other horrific situations tells its own story.

'These are the same sort of mums that would have excused Nazis' makes it pretty clear, tbh. It's just an attempt to smear.

Shame on you for mindlessly using Nazi analogies in such a way. The fact that you have done so points to the actual reason why most people have an issue with somone's personal political crusade being forced upon a whole forum; being manipulative ( but also naive) in thinking that simply mentioning the suffering of women and children would win them brownie points, and that no-body would see the under-lying intent.

The continual references to Nazis and concentration camps, is not only shameful but embarrassing. It is also totally mindless in the adoption cliched tropes which show no signs of actually understanding what the history of nazism and the concentration camps were predicated upon.

This is the politics of the 'group think' social media age totally devoid of critical thought or awareness of historical contexts - in which everyone believes they have to have a strongly held view on everything.

Based on your comment you would see someone on mum's net who was defending Ukraine against Russian aggression as a 'political crusader'. Hmm

If there was ever a comment which has a lot of words but didn't actually have a message or say anything meaningful.... This would be it!

It's risible, as well as deeply offensive. The people of Gaza, as well as all the victims of Nazi atrocities, deserve more respect.

My meaning was clear. The use of lazy, adopted nazi analogies is shameful as well as invalid - based upon a lack of understanding of history and of what Nazism was actually about.

Mumsnet is a wide ranging a diverse forum. Nobody can speak for everybody. The letter was a manipulative attempt to corral everyone, including the site owner, into adopting a personal political crusade against a very particular 'enemy'; using highly contested and emotive language - designed to provoke.

Dead children under any circumstances is wrong

So tell Hamas to stop murdering children then.

Say their names:
Abigail Edan, Agam Goldstein-Almog, Aisha Zyadna, Aline Kafshiter, Alma Or, Ariel Bibas, Aviv Asher, Dafna Elyakim, Eitan Kafshiter, Eitan Yahalomi, Ella Elyakim, Emily Hand, Erez Calderon, Gal Goldstein-Almog, Gali Tarshansky, Hila Rotem, Kfir Bibas, Lior Tarshansky, Mila Cohen, Nave Shoham, Noam Avigdori, Noam Or, Noya Dan, Ohad Munder, Or Yaakov, Raz Asher, Sahar Calderon, Tal Goldstein-Almog, Uriya Brodetz, Yahel Shoham, Yagil Yaakov, Yuval Brodetz, and Yuval Engel.

This didn't start on October 7th. Israel was 'created' by the British. Britain decided hmmm where can we send Jews after the Germans murdered 6 million of them and realised maybe we shouldn't have done that. Maybe instead of Jews being moved to Palestine they should have been given Germany. The history of how this conflict started is so important but it's quite clear you started your history lesson on October 7th because that's what suits you. Like I said in my original post dead children whether Israeli or Palestinian is unacceptable. I can accept it shouldn't happen on both sides but you obviously only have an issue with one side. Learn more for the sake of your own kids.

learn more

Palestine has never existed as a sovereign Arab state.

The British Mandate of Palestine was a British administration that gained control of the Land of Israel after the Ottoman Empire's fall in 1917.

Jews lived in the Holy Land for centuries, including under Ottoman rule when they formed Jerusalem's majority.

Before 1909, Tel Aviv was desert land legally purchased by Jews, who transformed it into a prosperous city. No Arabs were displaced.

And antisemitism didn’t begin or end with the Holocaust.