A day-long sit-in took place on Abingdon Market Place yesterday under the banner ‘This Genocide Must End.’
Protesters beat pans and hung small knitted baby cardigans. A note beside them claimed that holding a funeral every day for each child reportedly killed in Gaza during the current war would take more than 52 years. Organisers said the display was intended to keep attention on the civilian toll, especially children. A police officer spoke with demonstrators earlier in the day.
Children’s agency UNICEF has repeatedly urged all parties to stop the violence and protect civilians, warning that Gaza’s one million children face catastrophic conditions, including severe food insecurity and malnutrition.
If Hamas surrendered, like several of the other Arab nations wish them to do, and release all the hostages they took from lsrael on 7th Oct, then there would be peace as lsrael has said it would stop fighting.
I doubt that the Palestinians trust Netenyahu, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich etc to keep their word. If the hostages are returned there’s absolutely no guarantee that the Israelis will end the fighting. Perfectly likely that the oppresion and genocide would continue unabated.
Hammas is a terrorist organization who rule Gaza with an iron fist. Get rid of Hammas, so people in Gaza can have more freedom. Countrys around the world have donated billions to Gaza, over the decades, half is pocketed by the terrorist and the other half spent on weapons. There are Arabs who live in lsrael as full citizens and are approx 20% of the population. They have the same healthcare, better schools and more benefits if unemployed than in many other Arab countries. They are allowed passports and can come and go as they please. They also have MPs, who sit in the Knesset. Mosques and Churches are state protected (ever heard of a Synagogue in Palastine.) So l wonder, Tim, if they trust Netenyahu, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich etc.
If Hammas rule Gaza with an iron fist, how would you describe rule by IDF? The situation has been tense and pretty much lawless for decades because a vociferous minority of Israelis want all the Palestinians OUT, and are prepared to pursue perpetrate a genocide to get it. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have explicitly said as much repeatedly and in public.
The political predecessor to Hammas was the Palestinian Authority who were routinely dispowered and undermined by Knesset. Unable to govern effectively they lost an election and the resulting power vacuum was filled, inevitably, by Hammas.
If Israel doesn’t want Hammas, they need to stop supporting them and create a space for reasonable Palestinian statehood. Everything they have done for the past 20 years has led to this humanitarian catastrophe which affects both sides.
Can you remind me how many Israelis protested against Netenyahu at the weekend?
Come on Tim, how can you say Israel is supporting Hamas after they killed 1200 Israelis and took all those hostages?
Israel undermined reasonable and peaceful Palestinian representation and appears to be surprised when a more radical and violent organisation replaces it. It’s arguable that ‘support’ is too strong a description but the outcome is the same and Israel have the fight that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have always wanted, because the power balance is so uneven.
If you went to the funeral of a Gazan child once a day, every day, it would take 52 years. That’s the scale of innocent deaths that have to be taken into account.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewy88jle0eo
Why do people like you, Tim, invariably hold lsrael to civilised standards which neighbouring countries seldom match. You protest about what Jews do to Musilms but l don’t hear of any protests about, for example, the on going civil war in Yemen. From 2014-2021 there were 377,000+ direct and indirect deaths (150,000 people killed in violence) in Yemen, UN figures. Also, 85,000 Yemeni children died from starvation 2015-2018, Save the Children figures. Could it be no one seems intested when Musilms kill each other. No one should be killing, Jew or Muslim, but lsrael still has the right to defend it self. As for the BBC, they seem to be (in my opinion) pro Hamas and anti semetic.
Classic distraction argument and irrelevant whataboutery.
The situation in Palestine/Israel is complex and convoluted enough without dragging Yemen into it.
It isn’t distraction or whataboutery. l was pointing out that as soon as lsrael defends it self people like you, Tim, jump on the bandwagon and start criticing that fact but none of you seem to want to stop, or protest about, the fighting in places like Yemen. If it’s lsrael doing something to defend itself it must be wrong according to your argument. I suspect most of those who critices lsrael are either latent or outright antisemetic.
The current Israeli government is headed by a PM who relies on far right religious parties to stay in power; if Netanyahu loses power he will lose his immunity from prosecution and will likely go to jail.
The Israeli government have deliberately conflated any criticism of their actions with anti semitism.
To be clear:
You can criticise thisIsraeli government and be pro the state of Israel and you are not antisemitic if you dare criticise the Israeli government.
One of Israel’s best parliamentary advocate is Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP and Father of the House. In May he strongly criticised Hamas but went on to say “it is unacceptable to starve a whole people” and went on to say that many friends of Israel worldwide “are asking this moral question: when is genicide not genocide.” Sir Edward, on the Tory right, is hardly a liberal lefty…I concur with him as a friend of Israel and am outraged when people try to shut down any debate by conflating any criticism of this awful, incompetent far right Israeli government with somehow being antisemitic. Those who pursue this lazy lazy line should be ashamed of themselves.
I have taken part in local vigils for the Israeli hostages, where i was spat at by pro-Palestinian suppoerters, and rallies for Palestinian victime where i was shouted at by pro-Israeli supporters. I did not see any of the same faces at both events.
It is hard but possible to stand with victims on both sides of this sad war. But when victims on one side are met with outrage and victims on the other are met with a shrug, then division is widened, not healed.
Couldn’t agree more, speaking as someone who was punched in the face by a supporter of Netenyahu who was wearing a star of David.
Are you saying, Freddy, that if lsrael had a left wing government they would have done nothing after 7th Oct?
I don’t like the far right or the far left, but unfortunatley that is, for the time being the right wing, the government lsrael has. I don’t think it is lazy lazy to say that many people, on the right and left, are latent or outright anti semetic, because they are. By the way, l’m not Jewish l consider myself Christian. This will be my last post on this subject, as it is time to let Abingdon blog get back to being Abingdon blog.
“Organisers”: And who were the organisers? Did they have to apply to the Council for permission to protest? Why did the policeman speak to the protesters – anything to do with Palestine Action? Were there just 5 protesters there all day, or were more people involved?
The organisers were people very concerned about the situation in Gaza and nothing to do with Palestine Action, why do you ask? And no they didn’t ask for permission, they don’t need to. The right to proclaim and protest is freedom of expersion and free speech, anyone trying to administratively or violently obstruct free speech needs to check their privelige.
There were between 20 – 30 people in the Market Square at the end of the event at 7pm.