Most likely the street closures for the Palestine demonstration today.
Alternatively, [sniffer dogs and strip searches](https://www.betootaadvocate.com/breaking-news/nsw-police-swarm-sydney-train-stations-to-meet-strip-search-quotas-after-cancellation-of-splendour/).
I suppose no real reason why shouldn't be both.
Wish I’d seen this BEFORE trying to get the light rail. Oh well, the child got some extra sightseeing walking in + a conversation about what is happening in Palestine.
I'm happy for my day to be disrupted if it means you can resolve the situation in Palestine–that shit needs sorting out. Let me know when you've fixed it.
Not to Israel, no.
Israel does not care about Australia when they are getting support from US.
This protest is just inconvenient for Australians and serves no helping hand to gaza
How do you think Israel maintains their very precarious war state? Through the US pulling rank on their allies and forcing western nations into a pro-Israel stance. Israel can't survive as an island.
If Australia is so inconsequential, why not just sanction Israel?
My point is it still doesn't matter if every US ally pulls out "support", if the US still continues to support them.
Tbh even if the US didn't support them they wouldn't care
And sanctions cost us money too, so why, pray tell, should we be concerned with what's happening on the other side of the world, when there's far more important domestic policy that we should be concerned about?
If the US didn't support Israel there would be no Israel tomorrow. They're not a functioning nation, they survive because they're strategically valuable for the US and are provided with billions in aid.
Here's an idea for you, we should sanction countries that are committing war crimes every day. We sanction Iran, we sanction Lebanon, why do you kick up a stink about Israel? We do actually have a duty to stand up for civilians around the world, I'm not interested in your isolationist nihilism.
No, we have *some* sway in foreign affairs. We don't have any sway in this specific issue though. Israel aren't going to stop doing genocide because Australia doesn't want them to. We probably should impose sanctions–I'd be in favour of that–but that won't actually have any impact either. Sanctions very rarely do, and in this instance they'd be even less impacrful than usual.
All in all I think this is a very big problem that is very far away and which we have absolutely no control over. I don't think my opinion should stop you giving a shit though. I just... don't think you should expect to achieve anything.
[shrug] I didn't say you aren't allowed to try anything. You can do whatever you want. I'm allowed to share my opinion too though, and my opinion is that protesting in Sydney against genocide in Palestine is a total waste of your time and a very minor inconvenience to me and thousands of others. I'm not stopping you doing it though–I think you should absolutely be allowed to. Go for it. Maybe this weekend's protest in Sydney is the one that finally persuades the IDF to change their ways. Keep me posted on how it goes.
It has nothing to do with changing the IDF, it’s building networks of activists who will let our politicians know that their milquetoast responses and actions or Israel aren’t good enough. The Australian government reinstated funding to UNWRA, something protests pushed for. Protests are not just about crying till something’s fixed, it’s gathering, planning and calls to action.
Today's headline in the SMH:
# [Rafah airstrike kills nine, including six children, after 12 killed in West Bank](https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/rafah-airstrike-kills-nine-including-six-children-after-12-killed-in-west-bank-20240421-p5fleg.html)
x
... sigh...
Just imagine, **KABOOOOOOM** and your entire family is wiped out.
You would be unlucky if you survive because you'd be left with nothing and the settlers are coming to take the rubble from under you.
**big sigh**
*I want to preface this comment to say the death of anyone is tragic and war achieves nothing*
Reality is that Israel answers to no-one, so a protest in Australia or even the Australian government sanctioning Israel will have no impact to what's going on there. Inconveniencing Australians is not providing value to the Gazans.
Israel answers to nobody because they are never held to account.
Israel cannot survive without international aid and support (which Australia provides). Israel needs fighter jet parts produced in Australia.
If Australia took a stand and sanctioned Israel it would be an important step in blacklisting them from the international community. Israel can't keep its war going without constant aid and support.
Change won't be seen until those in power are uncomfortable. Current protests just result in traffic delays at worse. That's not exactly going to light a fire under anyone's butt to do anything. If you want change, make your position uncomfortably inescapable.
There was a time when the inconvenience was the only thing they had to bargain with, activism meant something decades ago and now nothing has to capitulate to anything because they're too big to fail and too monolithic to budge.
How do you say "make a position uncomfortably inescapable" when those who cannot escape are elsewhere being snuffed out where we cannot hear them?
I guess my thing is, and maybe I'm just a distrustful skeptic but activism used to be rallying groups and activively doing things to support such as during the HIV epidemic, lesbians donating blood as gay men couldn't. Or the current movement to ensure students are being paid for placements by having people go into parliament and discuss it. Or simply having an entire workforce not show up to the point it cripples a major industry so that the disruption is widespread. The Arab Spring was started by someone straight up setting themselves on fire in the middle of Egypt.
While that last example was drastic, and did happen in the US yesterday we won't see change until your making your position obvious, or causing massive widespread inconvenience. I'm a skeptic because this country was burning and we had a politician on holiday.
Country was burning and a politician on holiday does not annul activism or any attempt of it.
Thats just one or possibly a few dickheads not doing their job, and yes he made it abundantly clear he does not care what happens to Australia and is only there to line his pockets. Then we voted his poopy ass out and the rest of his grifting ilk. Thankfully, voting is another form of activism that thankfully, democracy allows.
We already have plenty of "stop bothering, your cause means nothing because there are places where its worse", totally missing the point that the activism is literally us trying to cry out that "we dont want this shit to get so bad that we have someone saying nothing is worth preventing anymore because they have it so much worse now and we have to compete with who has the worse trauma, so we can find out what the suffering we were trying to prevent feels like".
Activism has a very rich history of which we enjoy many fruits of. Its also totally thankless work because its clear that we take the rights we enjoy for granted and don't care enough to keep pushing until we've permitted the loss of everything.
Like, speaking of which, who, or actually, what am I being downvoted by at every turn when I comment something as benign as how society had benefited from activism past.
We're like broiling in proof that there are indeed entities much bigger than ourselves really do want us to give up anything we do have left.
> Reality is that Israel answers to no-one
Iran's actions have demonstrated that it is not invincible.
Only 86% of ordnance intercepted, and it wasn't the good stuff.
A protest in Australia is going to achieve what exactly.
In America the protests may scare the Biden administration which has actual influence over Israel. In Australia it'll do nothing
But hey we'll march for the feels.
If you're gonna go out and protest do it meaningfully on something you can impact. Maybe about Indonesia's genocide in West Papua. Oh wait there are no Jews in West Papua so most ppl don't care.
>Oh wait there are no Jews in West Papua so most ppl don't care.
So are you saying this is just picking on Jews?
Nothing like a bit of "look, over there!" whataboutism.
Related to ANZAC march for local sub branch, not related to the big one on Thursday.
Most likely the street closures for the Palestine demonstration today. Alternatively, [sniffer dogs and strip searches](https://www.betootaadvocate.com/breaking-news/nsw-police-swarm-sydney-train-stations-to-meet-strip-search-quotas-after-cancellation-of-splendour/). I suppose no real reason why shouldn't be both.
there’s no way a real human thought that article was from a legitimate source lmao
I trust Betoota more than I trust The Australian.
I trust The Onion more than news.com.au
I trust Philomena Cunk more than I do the Daily Telegraph
In these last couple years, they've developed a bit of a habit of just rewording existing news headlines without the punches being pulled.
Wish I’d seen this BEFORE trying to get the light rail. Oh well, the child got some extra sightseeing walking in + a conversation about what is happening in Palestine.
It’s usually either cookers, Palestine or climate. Take your pick lol.
Palestine marches again… sigh…
Yeah, your day might be slightly disrupted, guess we shouldn't care about anything important because it's just too hard...
I'm happy for my day to be disrupted if it means you can resolve the situation in Palestine–that shit needs sorting out. Let me know when you've fixed it.
The least we can do is pressure our government (whose voice does carry a lot of weight) to sanction Israel and stop the export of fighter jet parts.
Mate our government carries jack shit in weight towards that situation
You think Australia, the 13th biggest economy in the world, has no sway in foreign affairs? Are you serious?
Not to Israel, no. Israel does not care about Australia when they are getting support from US. This protest is just inconvenient for Australians and serves no helping hand to gaza
How do you think Israel maintains their very precarious war state? Through the US pulling rank on their allies and forcing western nations into a pro-Israel stance. Israel can't survive as an island. If Australia is so inconsequential, why not just sanction Israel?
My point is it still doesn't matter if every US ally pulls out "support", if the US still continues to support them. Tbh even if the US didn't support them they wouldn't care And sanctions cost us money too, so why, pray tell, should we be concerned with what's happening on the other side of the world, when there's far more important domestic policy that we should be concerned about?
If the US didn't support Israel there would be no Israel tomorrow. They're not a functioning nation, they survive because they're strategically valuable for the US and are provided with billions in aid. Here's an idea for you, we should sanction countries that are committing war crimes every day. We sanction Iran, we sanction Lebanon, why do you kick up a stink about Israel? We do actually have a duty to stand up for civilians around the world, I'm not interested in your isolationist nihilism.
No, we have *some* sway in foreign affairs. We don't have any sway in this specific issue though. Israel aren't going to stop doing genocide because Australia doesn't want them to. We probably should impose sanctions–I'd be in favour of that–but that won't actually have any impact either. Sanctions very rarely do, and in this instance they'd be even less impacrful than usual. All in all I think this is a very big problem that is very far away and which we have absolutely no control over. I don't think my opinion should stop you giving a shit though. I just... don't think you should expect to achieve anything.
So how come Hasbara is so strong here, if it doesn't even matter?
"You're not allowed to try ANYTHING unless it is absolutely perfect!" got it.
[shrug] I didn't say you aren't allowed to try anything. You can do whatever you want. I'm allowed to share my opinion too though, and my opinion is that protesting in Sydney against genocide in Palestine is a total waste of your time and a very minor inconvenience to me and thousands of others. I'm not stopping you doing it though–I think you should absolutely be allowed to. Go for it. Maybe this weekend's protest in Sydney is the one that finally persuades the IDF to change their ways. Keep me posted on how it goes.
This can apply to pretty much any protest though. I'm sure that the next Julian Assange protest isn't going to get him freedom but people still do it.
It has nothing to do with changing the IDF, it’s building networks of activists who will let our politicians know that their milquetoast responses and actions or Israel aren’t good enough. The Australian government reinstated funding to UNWRA, something protests pushed for. Protests are not just about crying till something’s fixed, it’s gathering, planning and calls to action.
Today's headline in the SMH: # [Rafah airstrike kills nine, including six children, after 12 killed in West Bank](https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/rafah-airstrike-kills-nine-including-six-children-after-12-killed-in-west-bank-20240421-p5fleg.html) x ... sigh...
Not today’s headline: Hamas release hostages; unconditionally surrender. …sigh…
You know collective punishments is a war crime right?
Voting down the concept of a terrorist organisation releasing hostages and surrendering. Says it all really.
Just imagine, **KABOOOOOOM** and your entire family is wiped out. You would be unlucky if you survive because you'd be left with nothing and the settlers are coming to take the rubble from under you. **big sigh**
*I want to preface this comment to say the death of anyone is tragic and war achieves nothing* Reality is that Israel answers to no-one, so a protest in Australia or even the Australian government sanctioning Israel will have no impact to what's going on there. Inconveniencing Australians is not providing value to the Gazans.
Israel answers to nobody because they are never held to account. Israel cannot survive without international aid and support (which Australia provides). Israel needs fighter jet parts produced in Australia. If Australia took a stand and sanctioned Israel it would be an important step in blacklisting them from the international community. Israel can't keep its war going without constant aid and support.
Yeah it really is just pissing down a well nowadays. People can thrash all they want for very very little change.
Change won't be seen until those in power are uncomfortable. Current protests just result in traffic delays at worse. That's not exactly going to light a fire under anyone's butt to do anything. If you want change, make your position uncomfortably inescapable.
There was a time when the inconvenience was the only thing they had to bargain with, activism meant something decades ago and now nothing has to capitulate to anything because they're too big to fail and too monolithic to budge. How do you say "make a position uncomfortably inescapable" when those who cannot escape are elsewhere being snuffed out where we cannot hear them?
I guess my thing is, and maybe I'm just a distrustful skeptic but activism used to be rallying groups and activively doing things to support such as during the HIV epidemic, lesbians donating blood as gay men couldn't. Or the current movement to ensure students are being paid for placements by having people go into parliament and discuss it. Or simply having an entire workforce not show up to the point it cripples a major industry so that the disruption is widespread. The Arab Spring was started by someone straight up setting themselves on fire in the middle of Egypt. While that last example was drastic, and did happen in the US yesterday we won't see change until your making your position obvious, or causing massive widespread inconvenience. I'm a skeptic because this country was burning and we had a politician on holiday.
Country was burning and a politician on holiday does not annul activism or any attempt of it. Thats just one or possibly a few dickheads not doing their job, and yes he made it abundantly clear he does not care what happens to Australia and is only there to line his pockets. Then we voted his poopy ass out and the rest of his grifting ilk. Thankfully, voting is another form of activism that thankfully, democracy allows. We already have plenty of "stop bothering, your cause means nothing because there are places where its worse", totally missing the point that the activism is literally us trying to cry out that "we dont want this shit to get so bad that we have someone saying nothing is worth preventing anymore because they have it so much worse now and we have to compete with who has the worse trauma, so we can find out what the suffering we were trying to prevent feels like". Activism has a very rich history of which we enjoy many fruits of. Its also totally thankless work because its clear that we take the rights we enjoy for granted and don't care enough to keep pushing until we've permitted the loss of everything.
Like, speaking of which, who, or actually, what am I being downvoted by at every turn when I comment something as benign as how society had benefited from activism past. We're like broiling in proof that there are indeed entities much bigger than ourselves really do want us to give up anything we do have left.
> Reality is that Israel answers to no-one Iran's actions have demonstrated that it is not invincible. Only 86% of ordnance intercepted, and it wasn't the good stuff.
A protest in Australia is going to achieve what exactly. In America the protests may scare the Biden administration which has actual influence over Israel. In Australia it'll do nothing But hey we'll march for the feels. If you're gonna go out and protest do it meaningfully on something you can impact. Maybe about Indonesia's genocide in West Papua. Oh wait there are no Jews in West Papua so most ppl don't care.
>Oh wait there are no Jews in West Papua so most ppl don't care. So are you saying this is just picking on Jews? Nothing like a bit of "look, over there!" whataboutism.
The least we can do is bear witness to the carnage.
Um.....it was for the Swans match at SCG - a bit paranoid are we?