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Getting some classic #pbfreespeech this evening. The weakest set of principles known on the internet.

Protesting against what is going on in Gaza is not glorifying violence - it's the exact opposite. It does not equate to expressing glee at the murders that happened today.

If there are people calling for the death of Jews, or celebrating what happened today, they should be banged up like those who called for the same after Southport.* I'm personally uneasy about any protest happening today given events; we know that some members of the Jewish community find them intimidating. They should have been postponed to tomorrow.

But I would never presume to deny people's right to free assembly, whatever my personal feelings. If we allow a terrorist attack like the one today to lead us to abandon our principles in this way then the Islamist extremists have succeeded in subverting our democracy.

*Note that the police don't often arrest people straight away other than ringleaders - we may find that some individuals are lifted the morning like what happened after the far-right march in London.

You say that but have a Jewish wife and three half Jewish children then tell me that the Gaza flag wavers glorifying Hamas and calling for the eradication of Jews worldwide is just free speech. These thugs are on our streets encouraging acts like the one we saw today, they're out there waving the flags of Hezbollah, Hamas and even ISIS sometimes. They are supporting terrorists and they are celebrating the deaths of innocent people tonight, chanting "from the river to the sea" which is code for "kill all Jews".

We're allowing this kind of extremism against Jews to be normalised in this country with zero consequences, except to the innocent people who get murdered by the terrorists who are inspired to acts of violence by the mob. My wife hasn't been to the temple for almost 6 months, our third child has yet to be taken there either. This is exactly why, there is a huge amount of fear among the British Jewish community and it's time to bring these Gaza thugs to book.

Well, Hezbollah Hamas and ISIS are all terrorist organisations so waving their flags is illegal. Arrests should happen.

Who is calling for the eradication of Jews worldwide?

"From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" is arguably not a call for genocide. The Jewish occupation of Palestine is unfortunately yet another 19th/20th century colonial conflict that has yet to be worked out.

Don't be ridiculous. Yes it is a call for the slaughter of Jews as Hamas has made clear. Hamas has expressly urged its followers to kill Jews everywhere in the world, wherever they can be found. Israel was the homeland of the Jews long before the Palestinians even existed. Israel is not a colonial venture but a legally constituted state created by the UN. It has as much right to exist as Pakistan and Jordan which are also the result of colonialism, if you want to go down that route. If you want a colonial empire to blame, the various Arab, Ottoman and Persian empires are just as much to blame for the messes in that part of the world.

On a day when Jews praying on their most important holy day are murdered, common decency should have demanded a moment's thought for the Jewish community, not the waving of flags of those who are and have been gleeful at the murder of Jews.

Freedom of speech is the right to offend.

Yes if people were marching/driving through Finchley chanting for Jews to be killed, they should have been prosecuted. If not, the CPS should be required to say why. They are our servants.

Palestine was not a (particularly) Jewish homeland between the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the First Aliyah. The settlement was mostly Western colonialism taking advantage of Ottoman weakness.

Yes Israel has the right to exist, but the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is effectively a colonial war that needs to be settled.

Jews are not colonialists in Israel. If anything, they are more like the First Nation. And the atrocity today is why so many Jews, wherever they live, feel the need to have a homeland of their own because they cannot trust us to keep them safe, not to turn on them. I am ashamed that this should be so.

Getting some classic #pbfreespeech this evening. The weakest set of principles known on the internet.

Protesting against what is going on in Gaza is not glorifying violence - it's the exact opposite. It does not equate to expressing glee at the murders that happened today.

If there are people calling for the death of Jews, or celebrating what happened today, they should be banged up like those who called for the same after Southport.* I'm personally uneasy about any protest happening today given events; we know that some members of the Jewish community find them intimidating. They should have been postponed to tomorrow.

But I would never presume to deny people's right to free assembly, whatever my personal feelings. If we allow a terrorist attack like the one today to lead us to abandon our principles in this way then the Islamist extremists have succeeded in subverting our democracy.

*Note that the police don't often arrest people straight away other than ringleaders - we may find that some individuals are lifted the morning like what happened after the far-right march in London.

You say that but have a Jewish wife and three half Jewish children then tell me that the Gaza flag wavers glorifying Hamas and calling for the eradication of Jews worldwide is just free speech. These thugs are on our streets encouraging acts like the one we saw today, they're out there waving the flags of Hezbollah, Hamas and even ISIS sometimes. They are supporting terrorists and they are celebrating the deaths of innocent people tonight, chanting "from the river to the sea" which is code for "kill all Jews".

We're allowing this kind of extremism against Jews to be normalised in this country with zero consequences, except to the innocent people who get murdered by the terrorists who are inspired to acts of violence by the mob. My wife hasn't been to the temple for almost 6 months, our third child has yet to be taken there either. This is exactly why, there is a huge amount of fear among the British Jewish community and it's time to bring these Gaza thugs to book.

Well, Hezbollah Hamas and ISIS are all terrorist organisations so waving their flags is illegal. Arrests should happen.

Who is calling for the eradication of Jews worldwide?

"From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" is arguably not a call for genocide. The Jewish occupation of Palestine is unfortunately yet another 19th/20th century colonial conflict that has yet to be worked out.

Don't be ridiculous. Yes it is a call for the slaughter of Jews as Hamas has made clear. Hamas has expressly urged its followers to kill Jews everywhere in the world, wherever they can be found. Israel was the homeland of the Jews long before the Palestinians even existed. Israel is not a colonial venture but a legally constituted state created by the UN. It has as much right to exist as Pakistan and Jordan which are also the result of colonialism, if you want to go down that route. If you want a colonial empire to blame, the various Arab, Ottoman and Persian empires are just as much to blame for the messes in that part of the world.

On a day when Jews praying on their most important holy day are murdered, common decency should have demanded a moment's thought for the Jewish community, not the waving of flags of those who are and have been gleeful at the murder of Jews.

Getting some classic #pbfreespeech this evening. The weakest set of principles known on the internet.

Protesting against what is going on in Gaza is not glorifying violence - it's the exact opposite. It does not equate to expressing glee at the murders that happened today.

If there are people calling for the death of Jews, or celebrating what happened today, they should be banged up like those who called for the same after Southport.* I'm personally uneasy about any protest happening today given events; we know that some members of the Jewish community find them intimidating. They should have been postponed to tomorrow.

But I would never presume to deny people's right to free assembly, whatever my personal feelings. If we allow a terrorist attack like the one today to lead us to abandon our principles in this way then the Islamist extremists have succeeded in subverting our democracy.

*Note that the police don't often arrest people straight away other than ringleaders - we may find that some individuals are lifted the morning like what happened after the far-right march in London.

Getting some classic #pbfreespeech this evening. The weakest set of principles known on the internet.

Protesting against what is going on in Gaza is not glorifying violence - it's the exact opposite. It does not equate to expressing glee at the murders that happened today.

If there are people calling for the death of Jews, or celebrating what happened today, they should be banged up like those who called for the same after Southport.* I'm personally uneasy about any protest happening today given events; we know that some members of the Jewish community find them intimidating. They should have been postponed to tomorrow.

But I would never presume to deny people's right to free assembly, whatever my personal feelings. If we allow a terrorist attack like the one today to lead us to abandon our principles in this way then the Islamist extremists have succeeded in subverting our democracy.

*Note that the police don't often arrest people straight away other than ringleaders - we may find that some individuals are lifted the morning like what happened after the far-right march in London.

You say that but have a Jewish wife and three half Jewish children then tell me that the Gaza flag wavers glorifying Hamas and calling for the eradication of Jews worldwide is just free speech. These thugs are on our streets encouraging acts like the one we saw today, they're out there waving the flags of Hezbollah, Hamas and even ISIS sometimes. They are supporting terrorists and they are celebrating the deaths of innocent people tonight, chanting "from the river to the sea" which is code for "kill all Jews".

We're allowing this kind of extremism against Jews to be normalised in this country with zero consequences, except to the innocent people who get murdered by the terrorists who are inspired to acts of violence by the mob. My wife hasn't been to the temple for almost 6 months, our third child has yet to be taken there either. This is exactly why, there is a huge amount of fear among the British Jewish community and it's time to bring these Gaza thugs to book.

There is a gap between what most of those protesting are motivated by, and the perception of those motivations in the Jewish community.

There are millions of people protesting for Gaza across the world - hundreds of thousands in the UK. The vast majority do not advocate for the kind of violence you describe. A large proportion of the country think there is extensive ethnic cleansing, even genocide, happening and that is what motivates most of those who you see on the streets.

If we were to ban such protests as you suggest, that would mean the prohibition of almost all political protests. The far-right protest that happened a few weeks ago? That would be immediately banned because of the way it made some Muslims and non-white people feel. Is that the UK you want to live in?

And yet as Leon posted just now when these thugs do very clearly break the law and call for violence against Jews the state just lets it slide when it's Muslim perpetrators.

Anyway, I'm going to call it a night before I say something I regret, I'm extremely upset by this. Goodnight all.

You know who doesn't go around shooting people, stabbing people beheading people, and randomly massacring worshippers for the purposes of their religion? British Jews


Nor do they openly despise me, our country, its values. Nor are they a massive net fiscal drag on the economy. They are resourceful, hardworking, law abiding. British Jews. And they are the ones being attacked

There are roughly the same number of Jews in Britain as there were in 1900, about 250,000, whereas the number of Muslims was 1.6m in 2001, and 4m in 2021

No wonder Jews feel frightened

Every day the sanctuary of Israel feels more important. Who knows when I, a secular Brit with a Jewish mother, might need it…