French police on Friday detained Algerian international Youcef Atal, who plays for Ligue 1 football side Nice, in a probe into suspected "justification of terrorism" after he published a social media post on the Israel-Hamas war, prosecutors said.In mid-October, the Nice public prosecutor announced the opening of an investigation into "justification of terrorism."
If most of the anti Israel really cared about the Palestinians, you’d get the same amount of people protesting wrongs in Saudi, Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, slave trade in Libya etc.
Instead you get 10-20x more interest because a lot of these protestors are actually antisemite using this as a platform to spew their hatred.
Are there decent people? Sure. However just by looking at the magnitude of difference between this conflict and any other conflict should tell you that something else is driving it
People care about this conflict because major powers with deep pockets have made it the top geopolitical priority in the region. Between the US and the rich Arab Gulf countries, over a trillion dollars were probably spent funding and promoting this conflict.
As much as people like to think of themselves as independent thinkers, the average person’s opinion on foreign affairs is largely shaped by the geopolitical interests of their countries. The reason your average American cares about Taiwan and not the countless territorial disputes elsewhere in the world is largely the result of the US-China political escalation. It’s also why people in the west are all of a sudden “care” about Uyghurs and their century-long issues with the central Chinese government and not people who are actually getting genocided as we speak like the Amhara in Ethiopia.
I think you’re being a bit too cynical. The average person is appalled by and cares about any genocide. I’d say the main difference between the examples you gave is people’s awareness of what’s happening
Did you also use this rationale pre-October 7th when the western world was entirely focussed on the war in Ukraine? And if so I’d be fascinated to hear what sinister reasons were behind the millions of protestors for that war because, obviously, as they weren’t protesting literally every single conflict in the world they couldn’t have genuinely cared about Ukrainian lives or the right for that country to exist.
It’s really not as deep as you’re making out, certain conflicts are more relevant and get more media coverage in certain areas. People don’t have the time or the energy to protest every single conflict in the world and you can’t hold that against them.
The west is complicit in what is happening in Israel and Palestine. That’s why it’s more visible.
I agree we should all care more about all those other places as well.
I also think the issue is that western governments support Israel with the U.S. directly funding its genocide. Western governments are quick to condemn human rights violations in Russia, China and Saudi. Which to be fair are completely justified. Yet when confronted with Israeli human rights violations they are not only silent but supportive of it. That’s what angers me.
How much money and weaponry do Western governments give Somalian pirates and Libyan slavers versus how much to the Israeli government? People will be more angry when there’s a level of complicity from the so-called “international community”.
I know I certainly feel a different exasperation due to me being Jewish and the Israeli government using people like me as cover for their horrible actions by trying to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism while allying with genuine antisemites as long as they support Israel (or at least hate Palestinians more).
This is incredibly useless rhetoric. Were the anti Vietnam war protests also done for an ulterior motive because there weren’t any protests against the Cyprus war or some shit?
Maybe people are protesting against this one because over the past 10-15 years it’s been one of the most discussed topics in mainstream media while the other ones are kinda just shoved aside.
Maybe people are outraged at this one in particular because the US and a lot of Europe are all too eager to condone what Israel is doing.
Are there anti semites in the anti Israel crowd? Most certainly, but i can just turn around and point out just as many islamophobes on the other side who would be so happy if everyone in Gaza just disappeared.
Many of the people here are also actively support Russia.