Pro-Palestinian or Pro-Hamas?

A good friend asked me to go along to pro-Palestine rally in Glasgow recently, but I declined even though we've shared a broadly similar political outlook for years.

For me there's a lot ugly Jew-hate involved these events - with people using the Palestinian issue as political cover instead of holding Hamas to account for its hostage taking and indefensible attacks on innocent civilians in Israel.

Read what Deborah Ross has to say - she raises some important points.

Where’s the march for me? A pro-Palestine, pro-Israel one, please

By Deborah Ross - The Times

Another day, another protest. Pro-Palestinian, mostly. They’re happening all over the world — Greece, Madrid, Morocco, Pakistan, a “die-in” at Harvard University — and there seems to be one in London every two minutes and one in Glasgow the other day, held outside an M&S, which seems bad taste, at minimum.

I know people who have been on these marches, some of whom are young relatives. I have said to them: “Is there a march for me? I can march. Didn’t I march to reclaim the night way back, much good it did? Where is the pro-Palestine, pro-Israel march? Tell me when there is a pro-Palestine, pro-Israel march and I’ll be there, marching, waving both flags. I won’t find it a tall order.”

I have also said: “You are related to me and I love you very much but what worries me is that you have become a useful idiot.” From memory, I think I stopped myself saying: “You need to educate yourself.” Still, there have been some quite awkward dinners. At least three to date. In terms of awkward dinners, it’s a bit like Brexit, all over again. But even more intractable. Bet you didn’t think that was possible.

I am trying to work out what I would want to say to anyone who has been on one of these protests. I’m working it out as I go along so bear with, bear with. What I think I want to say is: if you are saying you want Palestine to be an independent state coexisting alongside Israel, then aren’t you pro-Palestine, pro-Israel? And if you are pro-Palestine and pro-Israel, why are you marching for Palestine?

Why aren’t you awaiting the kind of protest I could go on? That is, the kind that wishes to end this cycle of death? But if you want Palestine instead of Israel, tell me: do you have room in your house for seven million Jews? Could you convert your loft?

You can’t expect Nigel Farage to see them all off at Dover. He’s a busy man. He may be otherwise occupied in the Australian jungle eating godawful things. (Hope, pray, fingers crossed.) Have you, in short, educated yourself sufficiently to understand the implications of “Free Palestine!” when you are not crying “Free Israel!” too? Could you build an extension out back? Park a camper van in your drive? It would have to be big. Is that possible?

A pro-Palestinian demonstration in Glasgow - SPLASH NEWS AND PICTURES

I refuse to choose a side but why am I so alone? Why is it such a lonely business? Why is there so much pressure to go one way or the other? Why is Keir Starmer getting it in the neck for trying to adopt a balanced view?

When I wrote on this subject a few weeks ago saying, in effect, that being anti-Hamas doesn’t make you anti-Palestinian, there were those on social media who took to sending me photographs of dead Palestinian children. Of course I found them horrifying. Why wouldn’t I? And of course I’ll never erase them from my mind. How could I? And yet I couldn’t have been plainer. No Israeli life is worth more than a Palestinian one, I said. I care as much for Palestinian children as for Israeli children, I said. And yet that’s somehow not enough. It’s: “Pick me, pick me, pick me! Look at this, pick me!”

I will look, as anything else would be cowardice, but I won’t pick, or retaliate with photographs of dead Jewish children. To pick a side, in this instance, would not only mean a collapse in empathy for the other side, but would also be calling for their annihilation.

That’s what it would have to mean, as neither will tolerate the sovereignty of the other. The Palestinians have a dream, the Israelis have a dream and, alas, it’s the same dream — Israel is often called “the over-promised land” for a reason — so surely, given such circumstances, everyone should be doing their utmost to help both dreams live peacefully side by side? As hard as that has proved, and as hard as it will continue to prove? (It’s not worked … yet.) That fella who draped himself in a Palestinian flag and released live mice into McDonald’s (Birmingham) on the grounds that “McDonald’s supports Israel”, that’s helpful in what way exactly?

There have been pro-Israel protests too — it’s always good to have a choice of protests to not go on — but the pro-Palestinian ones do seem to far outnumber them. There have been four times the views of TikTok posts using the hashtag #standwithPalestine compared with #standwithIsrael in the past two weeks and according to TikTok’s data 87 per cent of the audience for #standwithPalestine are under 35.

I don’t know how much can be read into this, given TikTok is a young person’s game, but from the photographs of the protests, and my experience, the demographic does seem skewed towards the younger end.

I wonder if they’ve fallen for a kind of David v Goliath narrative because they naturally sympathise with the “underdog” who has been “colonised” and must now prevail against the giant. It is seductive, and compelling, but only if you’ve failed to understand the enormous complexities involved — both sides are victims and perpetrators — and the fraught histories involved.

Could you call Israel a “colonising” nation? Maybe but unlike, say, with the British or French or Portuguese, there is no Britain or France or Portugal, no other country that Jews might call their own. And that has to be up there. Unless you do have space for a really big camper van on your drive.

It is a moral mess. Jews: “Never again.” Palestinians: “Hello, it’s happening again.” Jews: “If it’s happening again it’s because: never again.” How do you even start to unpick all that? You can’t. It’s not possible. The only hope is a peace agreement that would allow both to flourish alongside each other, which hasn’t worked (yet), but which we must all believe is still possible. Meanwhile, I long for a march I can go on. I hate feeling left out like this.