Gaza Unsilenced

  This explains why they are rightly labeled by many as “trolls” or “apologists.”

  Palestinians Gaining Online Support

  Just like the war on the ground, this virtual war, too, looks asymmetric. This time, however, the asymmetry is in favor of the Palestinians, a very obvious fact if we compare hashtag activity, followers, and interaction counts.

  A number of Palestinian Twitter users quickly gained thousands or tens of thousands of new followers from people eager to learn first hand what is happening in Gaza.

  Each of them is a potential new supporter of justice even after the Israeli aggression ends.

  Israeli Twitter users, at least the dozens that I encountered myself, barely have tens or in some cases a few hundred followers. And many are even too lazy to change the egg-shaped profile picture Twitter provides for new users.

  Winning Hashtags

  The hashtags used by people expressing support for Palestinians scored a definite win. Over the last month, since July, 22 the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack was mentioned in more than 4.1 million tweets, according to the social analytics service Topsy.

  Meanwhile, the hashtag #IsraelUnderAttack, used predominantly by supporters of the Israeli attack on Gaza, garnered a mere one percent of that, or just 47,000 tweets.

  Hashtags used by supporters of Palestinian rights have had millions more mentions than those used by supporters of the Israeli massacre in Gaza.

  This vast difference has been consistent since the July 7 start of the Israeli assault, and has been observable for other popular hashtags including #PrayForGaza and #ISupportGaza versus #PrayForIsrael and #ISupportIsrael.

  The level of enthusiasm, persistence and accuracy that Palestinian Twitter users continue to show is remarkable especially when compared to the Israel supporters.

  It is even more amazing given that the Israeli government and government-funded organizations have to offer financial incentives or set up special social media “war rooms” in order to farm online propaganda.

  Unmediated Truth

  But what is all this activity really about? What is developing here on Twitter exceeds mere story-telling. For more than six decades, Palestinians have been denied the right to offer their narrative of the conflict in Palestine.

  Corporate media subservient to the agendas and policies of Western governments have adopted the Israeli narrative and, without question, promoted it.

  As shown by the large protests against the BBC over its unfair and biased coverage of Gaza, outrage at and mistrust of traditional media has reached unprecedented levels.

  But now, Palestinians have found a new, unmediated, and easy-to-use platform in which they can freely express themselves without feeling pressured to use a compromising language.

  Here, a photo (properly sourced, of course) is enough to tear apart the biggest of lies, and a video suffices to make an Israeli general think twice before he hops on a plane.

  From Support to Action

  What we are beginning to see here is a new experience, where the Palestinian and Israeli narratives finally confront each other with no go-between, and so far it seems the Palestinians are winning.

  While tweets themselves can’t necessarily change the world, they reflect and influence a broader trend that is going to have a big impact.

  Comparing the pro-Palestine protests that accompanied the Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2008, 2012, and 2014, one can see that with social media, voices in Gaza have more prominence and access than ever. This does have an effect on public opinion.

  With time, this change in public opinion, especially in the West, is going to weigh on politicians too.

  It is already happening as the recent resignation of the British minister Sayeeda Warsi shows.

  Moreover, new recruits are joining and promoting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign.

  For example, the bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza and UNRWA schools sparked outrage against Israel, and will undoubtedly spur support for academic boycott.

  In the future, these cases might be used against Israeli leaders in criminal courts or serve as a basis for possible persona non-grata rulings barring them from travel.

  Furthermore, the online calls for the International Criminal Court to investigate the Israeli assault on Gaza could transform into street movements, putting real pressure on the international community to not stay silent and watch while Israeli leaders get away with their crimes once again.

  This has already happened with the calls for an arms embargo on Israel when earlier this month British activists occupied an Israeli arms factory in Birmingham, chaining the doors shut and hanging a banner on the roof which read: “UK: Stop Arming Israel.”

  Only days later, the UK government announced that it would suspend arms exports to Israel if “significant hostilities” resumed.

  This is a small step—and the UK has yet to act on it—but it would not have happened at all without grassroots pressure building up over a long time.

  For the first time, we are seeing the Palestinian reality get through and overwhelm Zionist propaganda.

  Perhaps the most important victory of all will be attained years from now, when history comes to say its word: it will undoubtedly favor the truth.

  Until that day comes, Palestinian activists will continue to mobilize all platforms available to build support for their just cause.

  The Electronic Intifada, August 21, 2014, http://bit.ly/1ohx0wo

  Selection of Tweets, July 5–August 26

  Farah Baker (@Farah_Gazan)

  Farah Baker is a teenage student in Gaza whose tweets garnered much attention duting the attacks.

  July 5: An F16 bombed at suhoor time for Muslims.

  July 7: It’s a messy night in every single part in

  July 7: Have I lost my legs!! I can’t walk! I still can’t move!! I thought the bomb was at the garden.

  July 7: The situation at my area now: the power is cut, i can hear nothing but the bombs, f16s and the radio, the only light i see is the bomb’s.

  July 7: Whatever happens we won’t turn our backs and leave

  July 9: Israel still bombing! Oh my god i can bear no other bomb! I’m breathing hardly and shaking. This is enough.

  July 9: Another massive bomb 5:44 am. Oh now I started crying :’(

  July 10: I swear I smile involuntarily when I remember that I’m Palestinian. I am proud <3 :D

  July 10: Someday I’ll become a lawyer and I’ll focus on Palestine and all oppressed countries. I’ll focus on human rights. I’ll spread justice.

  July 11: Warships shot poor fishermen boats. They have nothing to hunt by so they’ll get no money.

  July 11: The number of drones in the sky is higher than the stars number.

  July 11: 6:15 am. This is not a good morning at all. The sky is raining rockets.

  July 12: Israel bombed a house and a mosque while muslims were praying taraweeh. 17 martyrs and more than 35 injuries in these 2 shells.

  July 12: Gazans donate blood to save others lives <3

  July 16: My relatives when bombed when they were playing football in the seaport near their shop! WHY?!

  July 19: OMG! That wasn’t an f16! It was a new type used for wars called f22.

  July 20: Massacre in al #shujaia_holocaust last night and no ambulances or fire engines could reach them until morning

  July 21: Since the first hours in the morning until now 4:10 pm, warships haven’t stopped shooting at all.

  July 21: Today, Israel bombed civilians house while they were preparing for a feast and they killed the mother and her 7 children.

  July 21: Israel must know this: You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools, but our spirit will never die.

  July 21: #Gaza is beautiful and its citizens r cute and lovely. If you come to Gaza, trust me u’ll love th city. Gaza and ppl don’t deserve this war.

  July 22: My 6 yrs old sister have witnessed 3 wars!

  July 23: As soon as
we started having futoor(breaking fast) warships started bombing.

  July 23: The power is finally back after being cut for 23 hours.

  July 23: If you want to find a safe place in #Gaza do NOT stand beside a CHILD #GazaUnderAttack #AJAGAZA #Gaza

  July 25: The power had been cut for 35 hours.

  July 25: A hospital in Beit Hanoun just been bombed.

  July 25: The sun looks sad.

  July 25: If I could stop this...

  July 25: If I could bring happiness back...

  July 26: 73 bodies were found under the rubble during searching in the ceasefire and they still searching for more.

  July 27: Hello, I’m Farah Baker. I live in #Gaza and Hamas is NOT using me as a human shield

  July 28: Okay, on the first day if Eid Al-Fitr 10 children were killed while they were playing on a swing! Oh yeah the swing could kill Israelis.

  A father looking for his 11-year-old son finds him in the morgue. The child was killed along with 16 other children from Gaza Beach camp who were struck by Israeli shelling while playing on the beach on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.

  Photo by Ezz Al Zanoon.

  July 28: Bombing continues in all parts of #Gaza strip and there are many wounded. This is our Eid #GazaUnderAttack #AJAGAZA #ICC4Israel

  July 28: They are bombing heavily in my area. This is the worst night in this war. I just want you to know that I might martyr at any moment.

  July 28: This is in my area. I can’t stop crying. I might die tonight.

  July 28: I AM NOT SAFE AND I CAN’T GET OUT OF THE HOME BECAUSE THEY’RE BOMBING IN MY AREA.

  July 28: I AM CRYING AND CAN’T STAND BOMBS SOUND! I’M ABOUT TO LOSE SENSE OF HEARING.

  July 28: I’m 16yrs old and have witnessed 3 wars, as I see, this is the hardest one.

  July 28 : ALTHOUGH THIS NIGHT IS THE WORST FOR ALL GAZANS, WE WILL STAY STRONG AND RESIST.

  July 29: I COULD SURVIVE LAST NIGHT!! I AM ALIVE!! Alhamdulillah.

  July 29: Daddy who’s a dr. says that th hospital’s operating rooms r full & there r ppl dying bc there is no room to conduct operations.

  July 29: 2nd day of power cut: food in the fridge rotted, water on th verge of force bc we can not run the motor, Mobile Charge almost finished

  July 30: I went out to visit my grandma today, I discovered that at least one building was bombed in every single street.

  July 30: 48 hours without electricity ...

  July 30: HUGE MISSILE JUST LIT UP THE AREA AND ROCKED THE HOUSE.

  August 3: I miss the sea, I miss my friends, I miss ice cream, I miss happiness and joy. I MISS MY ORDINARY LIFE.

  August 6: I wanna thank every single human being who stood with me and supported me, I wish I can do sth 4 u. I love u very much, u made me stronger.

  August 6: This 16 years old teenager has survived three wars, and her heroes are ppl who stood with her n tough days.

  August 20: If I were mr. muscles, I would break all the rockets, tanks, warplanes and warships and throw them away.

  August 20: My school bus is shelled :(

  August 24: My dreams turned from travelling to Spain and learning guitar to staying alive!

  August 24: Rockets are falling in huge quantities, they’re falling like the rain and making strong orange light in the sky.

  August 24: The house is jumping! Huge attack.

  August 25: The day 51 of the war: 2131 martyrs most of them are women and children.

  August 25: The smoke smell is sneaking to the house and made the area foggy.

  August 25: ISRAEL CAN FIND NOTHING TO BOMB, SO IT’S HEADED TO BOMB TOWERS WHICH ALL ITS RESIDENTS ARE CITIZENS.

  August 25: Make protests and revolutions against what is happening in #Gaza, don’t keep watching. Bring humanity back.MOVE MOVE MOVE #GazaUnderAttack

  August 25: A car just passed, when I heard its sound I jumped over my bed! I thought that was a rocket falling sound.

  August 25: Wake me up when humanity is back. I guess I will never wake up.

  August 26: IOF [Israel Occupation Forces] is calling us on phone.

  August 26: Celebrations in Gaza because the cease fire just begun.

  Tweets from a Doctor in Gaza, July 26

  Belal Dabour (@Belalmd12)

  Belal Dabour is a young Palestinian doctor who works in Shifa Hospital, Gaza. A temporary “humanitarian” ceasefire was announced on July 26 to allow the Gaza emergency services to go to some of the places worst hit by Israel to try to recover bodies from neighborhoods blown to smithereens.

  07:58:51 At the dark of night Israel bombed Al-Najjar family house in Khanyounis. At least 8 members of the family were killed, half of them children.

  14:51:08 So far the medics have recovered 60 bodies from the areas they reached during the ceasefire. In 2 hours alone the death toll reached 940!

  15:16:18 Mohammed Al-Abadla, one of 2 medics Israel murdered in one day, yesterday.

  16:25:21 All across history the only colonial movements which succeeded were the ones which exterminated all of the original population.

  16:26:20 The Zionist movement failed to do so, and therefore Israel is bound by laws of history to be defeated and give Palestinians their rights..

  19:30:13 Here there were homes and dreams. Here there was Life, but Israel didn’t like that.

  03:48:21 Hamas fighters’ strict compliance during the ceasefire is proof that what IOF claimed were “command and control centers” were just homes.

  03:50:15 Home targeting is the utmost form of collective punishment Gazans had to endure during the 3 wars Israel waged against #Gaza.

  15:02:26 The world needs to comprehend that Gaza has had enough siege and it’s not going back to that. We’ve had enough power shortages up to 60%!

  15:03:31 We’ve had enough drinking water that is basically sewage. We’ve had enough living on donations. Enough of unemployment rates above 40%!

  15:05:04 We’ve had enough of Israel counting how many calories we can get. Enough humiliation on the borders. Enough being treated as terrorists!

  15:54:24 Bombardment near by.. I felt the shock wave.

  18:34:33 Never blame the victim for speaking up. Never blame the oppressed for standing to their oppressor.

  Palestine Unbound (Excerpt)

  Steven Salaita

  Editors’ note: Palestinian American Steven Salaita is an activist and academic whose tweets during the war were described by the University of Illinois as lacking in “civility” and used as a pretext for firing him before he taught his first class. The following tweets (published in Journal of Palestine Studies 44, no. 1 (Autumn 2014), p. 199) are a sample of his war commentary.

  July 26: We can argue into eternity, but in the end this is what matters most: the people in #Gaza are there because they’re not Jewish.

  July 26: Cheyennes will have to be roundly whipped—or completely wiped out—before they will be quiet—Chivington Sounds awfully familiar #Gaza

  July 27: I’m pretty sure anybody can buy those #Hamas rockets at nearly every interstate exit in South Carolina.

  July 28: #Israel’s attack on #Gaza is a “war” in the same way that cannibalism is “dining with a friend.”

  July 29: All these dead children in #Gaza, yet Michelle Obama hasn’t even seen fit to do a hashtag publicity stunt.

  July 30: It’s common for colonizers to show disrespect to the dead in addition to the living. Just ask any Native nation.

  July 31: Arab Rulers: Maintaining relations with #Israel as it destroys #Gaza symbolizes why everybody recently revolted against your sorry asses.

  August 1: I’m absolutely shocked that #Israel broke the ceasefire, said not a single person in the entire world.

  Palestinian Artists Illustrate the Deadly Realities in Gaza

  Mariam Elba

  It’s hard to find the words to encapsulate how infuriating and sorrowful the situation is getting to be in Gaza. As of this writing, over 750 Palestinians�
��the overwhelming majority are civilians—have been killed in Gaza. Over a quarter are believed to be children. Facing the most difficult of circumstances, we are seeing the resilience of Palestinian youth through the simplest, yet most powerful of mediums: creative arts intervention.

  A Palestinian blogger from Gaza, Refaat Alareer has been collecting digital altercations of photos of Israeli airstrikes exploding over their communities. Within the clouds of smoke and debris, are various pictures. Some contain nationalist Palestinian symbols, others simple drawings of faces. These faces range from having solemn expressions to those that are crying over the destruction below them.

  This is a trending artform called “smoke art photography.” One of these young Palestinian artists, Bushra Shanan, a graphic designer from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, captioned one of her photos (see page 216): “This is how they see it, this is how we see it.” These works of art are a way for these Palestinians to tell their own stories, an opportunity to show what western media won’t allow them to. These artists are challenging the portrayal of Palestinians in mainstream media and taking it upon themselves to change it.

  These photos have been shared widely on social media and are windows into the dreams and imagination of Palestinian youth living under constant siege. Many of these works are anonymous. These images remind us of how we looked up at the clouds as children to see shapes of animals, dragons, people, faces—anything one’s imagination could conjure. It’s also a grim reminder that under this destructive black cloud there are people who are affected by this persistent violence. It’s almost as if these faces are looking at Gaza, surveying the damage and mourning over what had happened.

  Art by Bushra Shanan.

  This is not the only time we have seen Palestinians turn reminders of their besiegement into art. We can look to examples such as Palestinians in the West Bank turning the tear gas canisters shot at them into potted plants, or young Palestinians practicing parkour using the dense neighborhoods they live in as obstacles.