Iraq is big and under USUK occupation. Palestine is small and under Israeli occupation. Hmm. Which one shall we protest against... the one that our country is not occupying of course!
Making Israel the focus of our protests makes it easier for us to live with the continued UK and US occupation of Iraq. Accusing Israel of commiting genocide makes it easier for us to deal with the one million Iraqis murdered by the US and UK coalition since 2003.
Can we have a discussion about this? The government is still involved in an illegal and genocidal war of occupation against the Iraqi people. Millions of refugees. At least a million dead. Shouldn't we focus on this before criticising other countries for their behaviour?
Can we have a discussion about this? The government is still involved in an illegal and genocidal war of occupation against the Iraqi people. Millions of refugees. At least a million dead. Shouldn't we focus on this before criticising other countries for their behaviour?
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Now I have seen it all...
16.04.2008 02:35
Now it's a case of Israel/Palestine being a distraction from Iraq! Now, the opening paragraph of the OP was:
"Iraq is big and under USUK occupation. Palestine is small and under Israeli occupation. Hmm. Which one shall we protest against... the one that our country is not occupying of course!"
Now, since Israel is supported though funding and the supply of armaments by the US, and to a lesser extent (in comparison with the US), the UK, the US/UK have just as much responsiblity for the occupation of Palestine as Israel do, after all, if we were to pull the plug on funding of the Israeli regime, they would soon be forced to find ways of dealing with the attacks by Hamas/Islamic Jihad/etc which DON'T involve blowing up anyone and anything that surrounds them while collectively punishing the Palestinans as a whole.
Oh, and incidentally, a lot of the movement has been happily protesting about social injustices in Iraq, Palestine, Tibet, and anywhere else where the powerless have been suffering, and will continue to do so until that suffering is no more.
not impressed
wow!
16.04.2008 06:34
most iraq protests have included palestine and vice versa anyway, something to do with protestors being aware i think.
also what have we got to do with it? well let's start at the
protestor
For the love of god!
16.04.2008 13:56
THE CAUSES ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.
YOUR CAMPAIGN DOES NOT LOSE OUT BECAUSE CAMPAIGNS EXIST FOR OTHER ISSUES.
HUMAN RIGHTS PROTESTS ARE NOT A FUCKING ZERO-SUM GAME.
MonkeyBot 5000
to add to the other comments...
16.04.2008 15:49
daansaaf
Hmmm.
17.04.2008 15:44
I'm uncomfortable with the relentless focus on Israel and the promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories, i.e. "Zionists" are responsible for 9/11, the Iraq war, and so forth. It is really quite creepy.
The "protests" against Israel are a disturbing development, and I for one am not happy to identify with Hezbollah and Hamas, whether their cause is just or not they are against every I stand for as a human being - equality, democracy, women's rights. Also I have heard of Jews being put right off the Iraq war protests because of this. Is this really the direction we want to go down, or should the anti-war movemnt be more inclusive?
Also, isn't it a bit racist to single out a particular country for protest and demonisation? This newswire seems to feature far more Israel stuff than anything else, and this is a conflict we are not directly involved in, unlike Iraq. Why is there such a focus on Israel? We've caused suffering and harm on an order of magnitude greater than anythign Israel has done, and Iraq never attacked us.
I hope there's a real debate about this. The anti-war movement seems to be commidifying protest and the peopel who are buying seem to be anti-semitic racists.
Iraq War protestor