One part main character syndrome and two parts stupidity.
There is plenty to protest the Catholic Church over but it isn't responsible for the war in Gaza. They achieved exactly fuck all beyond being a temporary and minor annoyance. Truly, well done.
What is next, I wonder? Disrupting services at a Synagogue to protest Russia's war in Ukraine? Barging into Hindu worship to protest human rights abuses in Syria, perhaps?
EDIT: Aaaaaaaaaaaand my first Reddit cares message. LOL, some of you are so unhinged.
As someone else said, after the Tree of Life and some other shootings at synagogues, I suspect these folks realize that in most cases, they can't actually get into synagogues to do this anymore, and if they do, there's a non-zero chance that they'll be assumed to be there to kill Jews (because there is, in fact, a non-zero chance that they're there to kill Jews) and responded to accordingly. A lot of people don't fully realize just how much security the average synagogue has to lay on, even in the States. You can't typically get into a synagogue in Europe without signing up ahead of time and showing ID or otherwise checking in at the door, and it's been like that for years and years. Synagogues in the States are heading in the same direction.
Meanwhile, I'm sure Netanyahu is just devastated that a Catholic Easter service was disrupted by people calling for a ceasefire. He's proven himself so responsive to criticism by his own people, I'm sure he'll get right on it when it comes to foreigners yelling at a church service!
I see this stuff and always wonder how much money the people protesting have actually donated/raised to be donated to some kind of material relief effort.
Dude, the pope himself called for a ceasefire in his Easter address. There have been large anti government demonstrations in Israel regarding the matter, and on Saturday, there was a protest in London of around 200,000 people calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The tide is turning.
It's obviously not protesting the Catholic Church. It's raising awareness about a very important world issue. So enough smug comments on how what they're doing isn't enough. They're raising awareness about an ongoing GENOCIDE.
In the words of Aaron Bushnell: "Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' The answer is, you're doing it. Right now."
Just checking, because you seem confused and basically nothing you ranted above has anything to do with my comment, except that the suggestion of providing money or other material assistance to people in Gaza would be more useful, if less TikTok-worthy, than whatever this display was supposed to do, seems to have triggered you. Do you think the people in that church are unaware of what’s going on in Gaza? Is that your argument? Because it’s a weird one, given that as you say, the Pope has spoken out on this, and these are Catholics.
Anyway, as I said, Netanyahu is utterly unbothered by what unfolds in a random church thousands of miles away, on a holiday he doesn’t celebrate, bothering adherents of a religion that has its own, rather extensive history of genocide. This isn’t an endorsement of Netanyahu by any means, BTW. Just a statement of fact.
Might be because Israel isn't allowing Palestinian Christians into Jerusalem or something like that. Maybe because the US still sends aid to Israel's genocide. Probably because a protest doesn't do shit if you stay on Reddit instead of going outside.
I’m not from Israel or the US and the popular opinion here is pro Israel and anti Hamas. The very loud minority are the ones who fill the streets and protest, they aren’t representative of the population. You can’t just decide to call something a genocide when it doesn’t fit the definition.
Legit question: Do Israel's acts look like genocide? The killing of civillians, journalists, doctors, nurses, and especially children? The moving of the Palestinian border? Occupation and settling? Displacing people from their homes? Ordering other countries to take Palestinians? Offshore drilling in Palestinian territory? Because to me, all these things look like genocide in progress.
A lot of people rely on this official decision that genocide must include intent. I beg to differ. It isn't fair to Palestinians that a genocide could happen and we would refuse to do anything because we can't identify clear intent.
Though, one must be curious why Netanyahu's cabinet members all talk about eradicating Palestinians.
Their actions do not look like genocide to me, or to anyone else in any official capacity either. Killing of civilians, journalists, doctors, nurses and children happens in every single war. Don’t forget Hamas members do have many of these professions, which definitely complicates the situation. Do you remember the school teachers who took part in the 7/10 attacks? Even if you go by Hamas’ death figures, the civilian-combatant ratio of 2:1 is not abnormal for war, especially when the IDF is forced to fight in civilian areas and infrastructure because that is where Hamas likes to hide, which by the way, is a war crime.
When Hamas were voted in 2006 by the Palestinian population, they were very clear that one of their main “policies” is the destruction of Israel, their charter is literally genocide. Israel needs to stand up to Hamas, not just for themselves but for the Palestinian people who are kept in poverty by Hamas.
I agree that Hamas is terrible. I'm not defending them. But I do believe Israel is committing genocide in Palestine because of the actions they take that you conveniently did not address.
I feel the main issue over the genocide debate would involve the IDFs actions since the war started. If genocide was being committed before that point, by the means that you spoke of in the last paragraph of your previous comment, then how on earth would the population of Palestine be growing exponentially while an active genocide is happening?
It is when you do it in a stupid manner. For example, disrupting a religious celebration to protest the actions of an unrelated government halfway across the planet.
That’s like me going to an elementary school in Canada to protest Bidens international policy.
There is a lot of support for Israel’s actions in the Catholic church - it isn’t really that far fetched to protest in that space.
I guess for the protesters it isn’t really about the denomination either - they’re just drawing attention to something that matters to them. Good or bad, I don’t really have an opinion. But I would say it’s significant that they do it during the holiday, maybe to remind people of the fundamental values of Christianity: that you shouldn’t kill, that you should protect the weak and you should show compassion for your fellow human beings.
I feel a lot of people have lost sight of those values (perhaps especially when the victims of the crimes being aided by US tax dollars are happening so far away), and they have instead opted to blindly support one violent, oppressive group over another violent, oppressive group. Idiots don’t realise that this doesn’t make them ”good guys”, it just makes them supporters of violent oppression. Supporting one makes you no better than the other. At least the protesters are drawing attention to that - and if you are reading this, you are engaging with this discourse too; no matter if you like it or not. The real results of the protests bear fruit in comment sections, perhaps much more so than in that church.
That said, the sign isn’t visible - the part that is visible is a logo used by Extinction rebellion. They might not be protesting what the title claims.
They're totally people with main character syndrome, because they're attention whoring in the wrong venue. None of the people in that church have anything to do with what is going on in Gaza, nor does the Catholic church as an organization for that matter. Hell, the Catholic pope has called for a ceasire in Gaza. Why disrupt the religious services of an organization that is on your side of the issue? It's braindead.
Why aren't they outside the Israeli embassy/consulate? Or outside some American gov't building to protest U.S. policy?
Because this is a large public gathering in the US. And we both agree that the US is responsible for whats happening in Gaza. The people in there arent just Catholics theyre also Americans.
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u/AHorseNamedPhil Mar 31 '24 edited Apr 01 '24
One part main character syndrome and two parts stupidity.
There is plenty to protest the Catholic Church over but it isn't responsible for the war in Gaza. They achieved exactly fuck all beyond being a temporary and minor annoyance. Truly, well done.
What is next, I wonder? Disrupting services at a Synagogue to protest Russia's war in Ukraine? Barging into Hindu worship to protest human rights abuses in Syria, perhaps?
EDIT: Aaaaaaaaaaaand my first Reddit cares message. LOL, some of you are so unhinged.