Member-only story
Our right to protest and civil disobedience
The UK and Bangladesh have been convulsed with protests over early August, with both countries dealing with the political fallout from underlying social pressures that their respective governments have not dealt with. In the case of Bangladesh the State sought to repress the protests through violence, killing hundreds of protestors, leading to the prime minister fleeing, and in the aftershocks minority groups were then targeted. In the UK far right agitators used the murder of three girls to whip up an anti-Islamic fervour that provoked riots, property damage, and assaults on minorities, which the UK government dealt with swiftly without bloodshed. Neither government has explicitly dealt with the underlying issues of poverty, lack of equity, and problematic social media content that has spread misinformation. Our societal right to protest and resist hegemonic power is complex, especially when grievances are weaponised to target minorities.
Much of the debate around Palestine has surrounded the Palestinian right to fight back against Israeli occupation and systemic oppression of the Palestinians. Yet, often the discourse has failed to address the underlying systemic issues caused by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the inability of the Palestinians in the occupied territories to protest against their own ineffectual governments. Those same social media tools have been used to…
