The woman spun on her heel and walked away, but aimed a stinging parting shot at me – “So, you can’t be bothered to talk about genocide?”
She was incredulous, but unfair.
I was bothered; just not right now.
Not outside Home Bargains by Aberdeen beach in the midst of a boisterous pro-Palestinian protest, accompanied by megaphone and drums.
Quite a din, and Home Bargains was the object of their fierce indignation.
Trying to get to the bottom of it, I discovered it was something to do with baby wipes.
According to someone inside who seemed to know what they were talking about, after my reporter’s curiosity urged me to find out.
Some of the ingredients in HB’s baby wipes come from Israel, apparently.
I was only buying Branston baked beans.
I must say something mundane yet positive about the shop for fair play’s sake, whatever the justifications or wrongs in Palestine and Israel.
Home Bargains have pegged the price of beans for years
They have pegged the price of a small can of Branston beans at 59p for several years now after big boys like Tesco put them up to 75p under the cover of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis.
Haricot beans probably come from the US, so that might be justification for an anti-Trump protest.
Most shops are full of Chinese stuff, too, so there’s another one.
It’s been many years since I was caught up in a street protest.
This was child’s play in comparison.
I still shudder at the memory of riots down south.
Trapped in a street, banging on a door for help as bystanders were attacked.
A lovely Asian family let me and a journalist colleague inside their home for temporary shelter.
The scene here outside the shop was noisy, but civilised.
One passer-by who appeared to work around the shopping complex wasn’t impressed with slogans in chalk being written on the pavement, and let it be known.
I think it was because they’d have to clean it up later.
Another took exception to the fact that some people among the campaigners were masked, and demanded to know why.
They had “legal observer” or something similar emblazoned on their yellow hi-vis jackets.SIronically, they seemed to outnumber the police in attendance.
I counted five officers at first, but then realised that I had mistaken one for a human when it was actually a full-size picture of a policeman in the window to deter shoplifters.
I think “chalkman” was asked to move on, as they say; so I stepped in and asked the cops to at least keep the shopfront clear for bean-buyers like me.
They blanked me – probably for being a busy-body.
Now protesters were singing “river to the sea” with backing drums – a contentious sentiment, but I don’t think this lot meant annihilation of Israel as it is sometimes weaponised to mean.
I lingered too long.
One of the zealous throng had me in her sights.
And tried to start a debate; it reminded me of the day some charming Jehovah’s Witnesses pinned me down outside my garden gate.
Figuratively speaking, that is.
Surely it’s time for a legal crackdown on mobile phones
I needed to wriggle out of this as I had pressing business elsewhere; hence my flippant-sounding “can’t be bothered”, and the caustic response.
Wounded, I felt compelled to pursue her for a few yards to clarify.
“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about genocide,” I spluttered. “I just don’t want to talk about it with you personally right now.”
She looked taken aback by my bluntness. I think I was making it worse.
So, I’ll apologise right now if my manner was a bit off; I just felt under attack.
There were so many mobile phones recording everything I’m surprised I’ve not appeared online beside Netanyahu by now.
I suppose this is where mobile phones come into their own: to get the message out and galvanise public support for the cause.
But the dark, insidious side of mobile phones and teenage boys, abusive behaviour to girls and bullying in general, surfaced again in the Netflix drama Adolescence.
Mirroring what has been going on for some time now, but as always with waves of horrified reaction there needs to be a little less talk and a little more action.
Surely it’s time for a legal crackdown on under-age phones similar to cigarette restrictions?
In Aberdeen, for example, bullying among pupils and abuse towards teachers features repeatedly – mobiles will be part of this grisly classroom equation.
There seems to be some kind of spring uprising at Aberdeen beach shops.
A few days later, I walked past a one-woman protest.
Police were in attendance as a woman in a wheelchair berated Pets at Home over something.
Bizarrely, she held a black rabbit to her chest; a real one, not a fluffy toy.
This time, curiosity didn’t get the better of me – I moved on.
David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of The Press and Journal
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