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Mnemnosyne ,

I think the best way to put it is that protests can be effective only when they present a credible threat of some sort against the people who have the power to make changes to whatever the protest is about. That threat may be direct violence, it may be electoral change, or it may be something else, but a credible threat of some sort is absolutely required.

Protesting against Israel, therefore, is of little use in most situations. The protesters pose no credible threat to Israel, so their decisions aren’t going to change. And the protesters generally are not representing much of a credible threat against their own governments either, so their own governments are also not moved to change.

knightly ,
@knightly@pawb.social avatar

That said, some of the protests against Israel have involved blockades and strikes against businesses involved in shipping war materiel, and those have been very effective in terms of the costs they impose:

middleeastmonitor.com/20240202-transport-company-…

Mnemnosyne ,

Yeah, that’s an excellent example. Those protests posed a credible threat to that specific business - indeed, to some degree they even already carried out some of the threat, just to show it was credible - which made changes to what they had the power to affect - their own actions.

Chewget ,

Yes

soggy_kitty ,

Nope

UnfortunateDoorHinge ,

That’s a great question. What I would say is the wheels of justice turn painfully slowly.

I am sure Antony Blinken is well aware of domestic concerns over the wellbeing of Gazans, the unfortunate reality is any big decision against or at Israel will come with negative consequences.

The path of least resistance might be allowing the Israeli’s to squeeze out their own leader democratically. Is that the best way? Well, probably? Not always?

A pacifist may look to the Vietnam War, Libya or Iran and say action was injustice, an activist might look at the Rwandan Genocide and say pacifism was injustice. Diplomacy has to do it’s thing.

ExLisper ,

Depends who’s protesting and what’s the support for the protests among general population. The problem with most of the protests you see is that the people that do the protesting are the same people that oppose the government. So yeah, no government is going to react to protests done by people that don’t vote for it, no matter how big. If the actual people that got the government elected protest or support the protest then they listen. Of course most of the time people know what they are voting and the government is doing exactly what it promised so they will not protest.

Alpha71 ,

They do alot more then bitching about something on social media and expecting that to change anything…

DAMunzy ,

Both are “bitching”. Both are raising awareness. Both don’t seem to be changing/doing anything.

Almost like peaceful protesting doesn’t always work.

pineapplelover ,

Better than staying inside and not doing shit. It shows community activism.

Goodie ,

Read up on the civil rights movements or how women got the right to vote.

Protests 100% work

CaptainProton ,

Only when there’s enough people that it’s bordering revolution. Note how many national guard were not only deployed, but actually found themselves in gun battles (over civil rights), it was nuts by today’s norms.

ABCDE ,

Note, 100% can work, but don’t work 100%.

DAMunzy ,

There were plenty of less peaceful groups too. So I guess they 100% worked too.

kilgore_trout ,

History shows that protests worked either when the vast majority of the population striked, or when they were violent.

I am quite disillusioned that gathering in a single square for a few hours with some signs will ever change anything.

BeatTakeshi ,
@BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world avatar

Farmers protested all over Europe recently and got what they wanted, which is to get rid of latest environmental regulations (that would have enforced an end of subsidies on diesel, reduction of nitrates use in fertilisers etc).

Sodis ,

Yeah, but farmers have a powerful lobby and they produce our food. So they got some power behind their words.

morphballganon ,

Absolutely, they provide the police with bodies they can beat with impunity.

AA5B ,

I recently looked up the history of a 1969 civil rights protest at the college I went to, and found a newspaper article tracing changes at the school right through to the current day.

A big difference is they were protesting decisions at a university. It may have been a general movement across the country but it was really a large local protest against a local entity. The protests against Israel are generally not in Israel, and even if the goal is to change one or more supporting country’s policy, the protests really aren’t that big relative to the whole country or its government.

I think the protests are still too small, given the scale at which they’re trying to influence a change

Coreidan ,

It depends on the amount of violence and monetary damage.

kirbowo808 ,
@kirbowo808@kbin.social avatar

Just like boycotts, you need to have many many people joining and supporting the cause to actually make an impact within the world and the community, otherwise it’s not very impactful and govs could easily do any to prevent it from happening aka silencing ppl.

Though that saying, ppl shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for not doing so, if certain circumstances prevent them to do so eg disability, addiction, lack of options etc etc cuz unfortunately in the world we live in today, capitalism plays a huge part in our society today, therefore there’s is no “truly” ethical consumption in the world we are in today.

nandeEbisu ,

Depends. If they’re focused on specific demands and done at the right time combined with direct advocacy, they can do a lot to affect change.

djsoren19 ,

No, protests can’t enact policy in democratic countries. Voting can, boycotts can, and strikes can. You can organize all of the three as part of a protest, but it’s a lot more work than shouting with a fancy sign, and a lot less fun to do.

PhlubbaDubba ,

It works when a government already sympathetic to the cause is in office

Protest movements against hostile state apparati usually have to get a bit more…intense, before they get change.

Difference between the civil rights movement and the Egyptian Arab Spring uprising

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