Elon Musk’s tweet, for some, was considered the final blow towards the Islamic East. When a majority of actors signed petitions and letters addressed to President Biden, all household names, for the utter annihilation of the Palestinian people, sorrows became wounds. The Islamic East is in the exact position where the Jews were once upon a time, when anti-semitism was a trend. Now the East becomes diplomatic to save face, but against an enemy that is in too much control.
Social media has acted immensely well in favor of campaigns for and against Palestine. As the networks are shut down, an added injury to Gaza, the campaigns become difficult to operate. However the one-sidedness of the Socials is what triggered animosity. Facebook and Instagram falling under the umbrella of Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, as the name suggests, Jewish in origin and upbringing. Both platforms retaliated anything that favored the Palestinian perspective, and supported the narrative of “self defence” in favor of the Israeli strikes on hospitals, children, and civilians. The campaigns have been funded and viral and operate intensely in the Western political sphere. This narrative building scheme is a simple political trick as mentioned in the “American Playbook”. Although many came out to protest on the streets, many took to the internet and found loopholes to protect Palestinian interests.
When the algorithm for both platforms decided to be one sided and block content that was associated with Palestinian narratives, users found tricks to battle the movement against them. Misspelling Israel, hiding Israeli hashtags behind Palestinian narratives, mistyping Palestine on posts favoring the Palestinian movement, and more. The Instagram account The Middle East Eye(MEE), which can be found on Instagram under the hashtag @middleeasteye and @faithfulreflexions have been the two most active accounts that showed ground realities of the Israeli strikes. MEE, a reporting channel, has been consistent with on ground realities and harsh scenes, including the political movements in favor or against the Palestinian cause. AlJazeera has been safely operating by posting just the right keywords for the message to get across, however it’s concentration is not as in-depth as the other two pages mentioned.
Social media trickery had worked in favor of both campaigns. For the Israelis the campaign became an automatic win situation, as they had legitimized 75 years of occupation and war with one swift response. For the Palestinians, although a steep upwards hill, the movement has pushed back both Biden and Rishi Sunak into a corner where they are now under pressure. The Palestinian cause reflected American and British propaganda, whereby swiftly responding to false statements and harsher scenes from Gaza rather than Tel Aviv. When the response of both platforms and positions became available, although still difficult to find as both platforms bury the content under a horde of marketing campaigns, the narratives became even more difficult to protect.
Regardless of it all, Gaza is under siege and has probably seen the worst attack on the night of the 27th of October. Tanks from the North, Ships to its Open Sea border, air strikes over its civilians. Two million people have been affected over the target of a few hundred. So far no Hamas operative has been harmed, but thousands and thousands of children, women and elderly of Palestine have been killed. No child of Israel suffered, but right now the Palestinian bury their own, in scenes unimaginable to the human eye. The West has promised the world one thing, the lives of Arabs and Muslims truly to the world does not matter.
