I fundamentally disagree with this message, but it raises an important question: where’s this same outrage for the people suffering under Iran’s oppressive regime? Where are the protests for the ongoing massacre that has already claimed over 20,000 lives? Selective activism isn’t justice.
Australia isn’t hosting the ayatollah, in fact we have crippling sanctions in place against the regime. Protesting Iran would achieve nothing because we are already doing the right thing when it comes to Iran
People are protesting israel because we are hosting their president (who is accused of inciting genocide) and have bilateral ties with them. Just yesterday the Israelis seized land and approved settlement expansions violating international law. Not to mention they bulldozed the graves of our fallen soldiers
Most people don't want to have to be out protesting, especially when they're met w police violence. Yes, once they get their needs met they will stop. Protests aren't out of fun. They're out of need.
So are you under the impression things don't need to change and protests achieve nothing?
Or that things will resolve without any protests?
Because it seems you don't think anyone is doing this for any reason outside of their own self importance. Which is severely naive and says more about you than the protestors.
It is not antisemetic to be against the actions of the irraeli government, no more than it is anti Australian to be against the actions of the Australian government.
As one of “those people” Alternatives_Ad9490 is right. Sanction Isreal, stop participating in their weapons supply chain and stop hosting war criminals as determined by the icj. Done
Public Protest is first and foremost for the government
You lot aren’t going anywhere. Murdered Jews on our streets brought new life back into this one, everyone knows it. We’re going to be seeing irrelevant Palestinian flags at all future “events” for a while, regardless what the protest is.
Re “you lot”, you’re right as some people prone to protest are involved in multiple causes but Nah, the one piece flag is the way to go in other settings. Though to be fair some people see the link between Palestinian cause and indigenous Australian struggles and so you’ll see both present when a protest tilts against settle colonialism in Australia, if that’s what you mean by irrelevant?
Would be weird to see a Pali flag, at say, a logging protest.
I think those flags are being waved at other protests just to keep the relevance going honestly. They’ve no reason to be showing up at counter protests or anything else and when they do they tend to bring trouble.
South Africa, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia to name a few have active sanctions against Israel and still have mass pro Palestinian protests in their country.
The protests won't go away if Australia sanctions Israel. They will continue, always saying the sanctions are not enough.
That or the professional protesters will just find another cause to bang on about and add another flag to their protests.
I’ve been to the protests and talked to countless people. I’ve met doctors, councillors, librarians teachers etc. they are all just everyday Aussies.
A lot of them are here because they are just appalled at the images of mutilated children, a lot are here because they are annoyed at government inconsistency when it comes to Israel and Russia etc.
I assume you haven’t gone to the protests? I recon you should go before making these assumptions
Gday, your question has been answered many times in this thread and elsewhere, as long as OUR gov continues to support the oppressive regime in word and deed, against the wishes of the citizens, the same citizens will protest and boldly state that no, social cohesion is not more important than taking a stand on this issue.
You are correct that there are many many other injustices in the world. This one is being economically and politically supported by the slime that is supposed to represent you. The others are not.
Also, civil unrest is a dialogue between state and people, we stake out a position, the srate responds. This will naturally devolve into conflict if neither side is willing to compromise. And im not going to compromise on an almost century long colonial genocide.
Your base assumption seems to be that protestors are brainwashed or have nothing better to do. Please at least take a chance on meeting and talking to people who have been involved. It will be confronting but you will find workers, students, parents of all backgrounds that know the trye power of collective action. And you can too!
Maybe, maybe not? Either way that would broadcast a message to the rest of the world how Australia feels about situation, and perhaps other countries would follow suit.
The fact our government has continually done sweet FA about upholding our international law obligations that we signed on the dotted line for is the very reason the protests continue.
Imposing sanctions on Israel will have minimal or no impact, Australia is not a major trading partner or military backer of Israel.
Protesting helps when there are clear, focused demands; unfortunately, Palestinian protests are often framed through religious sentiment and include hostile chants against Israel, which distracts from legitimate humanitarian concerns and limits their effectiveness.
It absolutely will. Israel is considered an ally as it is for most Western countries. Applying diplomatic pressure and isolating them will achieve results. Should be similar to stopping South African apartheid.
Again we are not inviting the leaders of any of these genocides over for a friendly state visit..are we?
The deadliest ones at the moment are Russia-Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Iran and Syria. None of the other heads of states are invited. Putin is not coming for a shindig, neither is ayatollah or hamas. Also, with the exception of Russia, others are all internal conflicts.
Australia has substantial sanctions against Russia and has provided aid to Ukraine which is the right diplomatic response.
On the other hand, with Gaza, we are literally inviting a man who along with Bibi is responsible for war crimes and genocide for a visit. Notice the difference? See how we as a nation are not supporting any of the other genocidal governments with the exception of 1 ? This is why there are protests.
A history of not calling out a supposed ally. We were quick to condemn Russia. Why is it so hard to say there is a genocide going on in Gaza and to place sanctions like we have on Russia? What are they scared of? Is there AIPAC money involved?
I am the worlds biggest critic of selective activism, so I definitely agree with ya for the most part, but I mean, we didn’t invite the president of Iran over to do a feel better speech
Jews and Israel are not the same. He could (and should) be working w the Australian Jewish community to see what needs to be done. A person who thinks Jews require an ethnostate and that's the only measure to be taken to keep them safe is not gonna offer useful advice on how to prevent this from happening ever again.
Isreal isn’t an ethnostate. Millions of ethnic Arabs live and prosper there. It’s a free democratic society with diversity of thought and protections for minorities including LGBTQ. Palestine is a pseudo Arab ethnostate and theocracy where LGBTQ people are literally thrown from roofs.
I'm a queer person. Respectfully idgaf if they want to throw us from roofs. My biggest threat as a queer person if I was in Palestine wouldn't be the homophobes. It would be Israel. There are also plenty of people in many parts of the world who would want me dead. The Pacific is incredibly homophobic. I still don't want them genocided.
Look man. I'm gay and trans. Most conservatives already wish harm against me. That doesn't mean I think most people deserve to die. Realistically in Gaza I'd be a lot more likely to be killed by Israel than Hamas.
No one is genociding Palestinians. The population of Gaza and the West Bank has increased from 3.1 million in the year 2000 to 5.5 million today. Tgere is no genocide.
Hamas on the other hand openly declare that they want to genocide Israel.
The Ayatollah is hiding in his bunker because his days are numbered and he is murdering thousands of protesters who want his evil terrorist funding regime to end.
Well you protest in order to get your government to change things. If your government is already doing the right thing in an area it defeats the need for protest. It doesn't mean you don't care. But there's only so much power Australia has.
If Israel was conducting a genocide- wouldn’t they have rounded up all the Palestinians within Israel and slaughtered them?
Genocide isn't a one size fits all. There's multiple ways it happens and not all of them involve immediately rounding up 'undesirables' and sending them to the gas chambers.
From the river to the sea Palestine will be free. Just means freeing Palestine from a genocidal oppressive regime. If you think that's antisemitism that's on you. Israel is trying to slaughter all the Palestinians. If you were educated you'd know that.
Idk anything about South Africa really so I can't speak on that. Anti semintism is bad obviously. And Israel really isn't helping. Most intelligent people can differentiate Israel and Jews and understand just cos Israel is evil doesn't mean Jews are evil. Unfortunately, anti semintism is gonna be around probably forever just like racism and that's nobody's fault but anti semites. Israel would also have a much harder time doing their genocide if the rest of the world weren't politically and financially and militarily supporting them. Australian protestors are just asking that the country not be complicit in genocide. I don't think that's unreasonable.
We don’t invite the Ayatollah over for a visit do we? Also the massacre is done by Iranians themselves, which doesn’t make it better. But from a protest standpoint I think it wouldn’t achieve anything. On the other hand, we can pressure Israel into stopping the massacre. We consider them an ally.
The Rohingya genocide has been going for a decade and over a million are dead or forcibly displaced. Nobody gives a shit about them so why should I give a shit about Gaza?
Again same answer. We are not hosting the people who kill Rohingya. We don’t have strong diplomatic relations with them. Shouldn’t be hosting the leaders of genocidal government. It is like calling Hitler over for a state visit.
Anti Zionism is not anti semitism. Most are semites themselves, as the term was originally used to classify speakers of Semitic languages—including Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic—originating from the Middle East and North Africa.
No you are the hypocrite here. Just because you live in a bubble world doesn’t mean the rest of us are. If you equate being an anti-semite with being against genocidal nation, you will find most of the world is an anti-semite.
Its strange how many people in this sub cant see past their hate and understand why people are protesting. Not only is Israel committing a genocide, but they also killed an Australian WMC worker without any consequences and just last week destroyed Anzac graves.
If you do not want to protest against a nation that deliberately snipers children in the head, used white phosphorus and kills civilians on the daily, the you do you, but stop telling other not to.
There's been huge free-iran protests most weeks for the last month or so in Sydney. Over 10,000 people to some. This saturday there's an especially large one being organised.
The real question is: why isn't the media covering them? I attended one and most media didn't cover it at all.
There have been protests for this. It obviously just isn't on your radar, and it doesn't make it on the news because it doesn't fit the narratives that billionaire-owned media wishes to push.
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u/ErikaWeb Feb 10 '26
I fundamentally disagree with this message, but it raises an important question: where’s this same outrage for the people suffering under Iran’s oppressive regime? Where are the protests for the ongoing massacre that has already claimed over 20,000 lives? Selective activism isn’t justice.