There were protests in every major city around the world to commemorate (celebrate?) Hamas's slaughter of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023.
The protesters claim they want the war in Gaza to end. Meanwhile, the protesters in Germany wanted something else to end; they chanted "Death to Jews" in Berlin.
Pro-Hamas protesters in Germany chant death to Jews, almost a year to October 7, the largest massacre of Jews in one day since the Holocaust.
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 5, 2024
The masks are off: It was never about Israel.
pic.twitter.com/a5n7HzOZKE
There was a large demonstration in Rome that was unauthorized by the authorities. More than 5,000 pro-Palestinians clashed with police who used tear gas and water cannons to try and control the crowd.
More than 40,000 protesters marched through central London. Some were chanting pro-Hezbollah slogans while most of the crowd licked up the "From the River to the Sea..." chant. The Jerusalem Post reports that for the first time in history, the number of antisemitic hate crimes in London has overtaken the number of Islamophobic incidents.
Social media and British news outlets depict protesters holding banners expressing support for Hezbollah and Hamas, such as "Hezbollah are not terrorists” and “I love Hezbollah”.
Other signs showed slogans such as "Don't want no two state, we want 1948" or "Zionism causes polio." Several featured the star in the Israeli flag replaced with a Nazi swastika.
According to the Met Police, Saturday's protest was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, with a counter-protest called Stop the Hate.
The Telegraph reported that the pro-Palestine marchers chanted “Yemen, Yemen make us proud, turn another ship around" as they passed the British Library. The Telegraph also said that the anti-Israel crowd taunted the pro-Israel counter-protesters, saying to them “Freedom fighters, they will finish you all off!”
"Italian authorities believed that the timing of Saturday’s rally in Rome risked the Oct. 7 attack being “glorified,” Associated Press reported. Indeed, why are pro-Palestinian protesters marking a day of infamy for Israel while Hamas will celebrate October 7 for the rest of its existence?
These protests are only tangentially about the Palestinians. The Palestinian "cause" is being used as a front by antisemites around the world to call for the destruction of Israel. They mock Israel with their charges of "genocide" against the Palestinians while denying the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews.
"The masks are off: It was never about Israel," said the official Israeli government X account above.
At today’s anti-Israel march in London, a man was seen with a sign that appeared to declare his “love” for “October”.
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) October 5, 2024
Also on the sign are the words “long live resistance” alongside an inverted red triangle.
In recent months, the inverted red triangle and its emoji variant have… pic.twitter.com/ocIiv2ATva
No, not everyone in the protests is antisemitic. But if they can't recognize that they're being used by those who are, they may as well wave a Nazi flag and march with those screaming "Death to the Jews."
"The law is very clear – anyone displaying symbols, wording or otherwise indicating their support for a proscribed organisation risks arrest," the Metropolitan Police wrote.
According to the Met, officers made 17 arrests, including one person on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation. Seven were for public order offences, three of which were racially aggravated.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign said in a statement that they were marching "to demand that the British government finally ends its complicity in Israel’s genocide, and ends all arms trade with Israel and to demand freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.”
Hiding behind humanitarian concerns over Gaza is a cowardly act. The media is complicit in this as very few media outlets report on the subtext of these marches.
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