Politic?: Inflaming Hatred Against Jews : Inciting Violence Against Israel

Gal Gadot, Israeli Actor Getty Images

"Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbours deserve the same."
"I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we can live side by side in peace."
"I pray for better days."
Gal Gadot, Israeli actor, Instagram

"Firstly, the increased reach of news social media platforms, especially apps like TikTok and Instagram, have allowed misinformation and hatred to circulate like wildfire."
Michael Mostyn, CEO, B'nai Brit Canada

"No one controls the narrative anymore."
"With Black Lives Matter and the increasing awareness about human-rights issues, I think people are now feeling more empowered."
Ahmed Al Rawi, professor, school of communication, Simon Fraser University

"Palestinian national aspirations are entirely legitimate and supporters of the Palestinian cause have every right to express their support online and in public."
"However, when actions cross over to hate speech, threats, and violence, they must be condemned by both civil society and political leaders, and when they occur online, must be removed by social media providers."
"What we have observed is a troubling increase in anti-Semitic incidents on and off-line. Invocation of Nazi imagery, demonization of Jews, misinformation about Jews and Israelis, and deliberate misinformation about the conflict all represent real challenges to those who aspire for peace."
Martin Sampson, vice-president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Palestinians hold flags as they stand at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City May 21, 2021.

Ammar Awad | Reuters

Gal Gadot's anodyne and sincere thoughts posted on her Instagram account appears to have incited a tsunami of repressed Jew-hatred, where a segment of the population on social media having assimilated propaganda launched by consummate masters of social-political influencing have succeeded in persuading huge swaths of the public -- gullible in their lack of interest much less knowledge about the history that makes up the Israel-Palestinian interface and wanting to be part of a 'social cause' have taken up the human-rights cudgel against what they are told are the 'aggressors' against a helpless, victimized people.

So much hate flooded this Israeli woman's Instagram account that she was forced to disable the replies function of her Instagram post. Gadot, tweeted Mia Khalifa, Lebanese-American former adult film actress, was a "Genocide Barbie". Again, accusations of genocide thrown at Jewish symbols of public acclaim, painting Jews who suffered the horrendous 20th Century genocide of the Holocaust as themselves genocidal against Palestinians.

Blatantly false, demeaning, demonizing, slanderous claims of 'genocide', of 'apartheid', labelling a nation that has had to defend its right to exist since its re-establishment in a small portion of historical

Judean land, identified by the Romans who occupied the area, as Palestine. Palestinian Jews. Not the latecoming Egyptian and Syrian Arabs who migrated into 'Palestine" in search of opportunities, colonizing land that many of the original occupants -- Jews -- never left. Appropriating the name Palestinian, and the land as their own.

And as the flavour of the day in 'woke' social media parlance, Gal Gadot's name began "trending" on Twitter. American journalist Ben Jacobs spoke of it as "an interesting euphemism on Twitter's part for being bombarded with vile and anti-Semitic attacks online". That, of course, is the perspective of the assaulted, not the smug satisfaction of the assaulters who were quite content to send hate messages to "Genocide Barbie".

@impact is an Instagram account set up to share "digestible & socially impactful content" with its 1.6 million followers, posting screenshots of tweets announcing: "we remain far from justice", and the fight to "save Palestine" must continue. Instagram, Tik-Tok and Tumblr have given social media the stick it values with which to bludgeon those that the woke social scene identifies as 'racist' and 'anti-human-rights' and that is the niche that Israel and Jews have been plugged into.

Claims posted cannot be verified as having any resemblance to fact or the truth, but those claims are absorbed and regurgitated with alarming regularity; dishonourable, damaging, and damned, the claims resonate with the passion of those eager to belong to groups with a social cause, and this is the season for 'Palestinian rights', damning the 'Israeli occupation' that is 'murdering' Palestinian children. The terrorist group Hamas has acquired the sweet flavour of daunting righteous champions of the defenceless.

Their terrorism along with other Palestinian 'activist' groups like Islamic Jihad and the Palestine Liberation Organization transforms them in sympathetic minds from terrorists who lob missiles and rockets into civilian enclaves for the express purpose of killing Jews, to 'fighters' for justice and liberation of the Palestinian Territories. That such 'liberation' would comprise the end of Israel is of great disinterest although the charters of those terrorist groups spell out their purpose: to destroy Israel.

Communications professor Gabriel Weimann at the University of Haifa, explains: "Since no one controls, regulates or checks these videos [portraying Israel as a state-aggressor of Palestinians out to destroy Palestinian aspirations of statehood while just for fun killing Palestinian children], you can post whatever you want. There are a lot of lies".

Pakistani film star Veena Malik tweeted, ostensibly quoting Adolf Hitler: "I would have killed all the Jews of the world ... but I kept some to show the world why I killed them". Twitter, evidently, was oblivious to the presence on its platform of that delightful little quasi-quote. Its claims to restrict hate speech? well, awkward, isn't it?

Over 625 million views have been logged on TikTok of videos under the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah, the mostly Muslim/Arab neighbourhood in East Jerusalem where a long-standing dispute between Jews and Arabs -- where under illegal Jordanian rule long-time resident Jews were violently expelled -- over property rights ignored a mass protest led by Arab youth around the Al-Aqsa mosque, throwing rocks and inflammatory devices at Israeli police trying to maintain order on the disputed platform.

With 41.7 million Instagram followers, American-Palestinian Bella Hadid whose father is a Palestinian from Gaza, posted a video that announces "73 years of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine". The posts lean heavily on language emphasizing time and again the poisonous slander that Israel is responsible for "ethnic cleansing" against Palestinians. Despite that 21 percent of the Israeli citizenry is Palestinian with equal rights to any other minority group in the country, much less the Jewish majority.

"How to be an ally with the Palestinians" is a post first seen on an Instagram account named Paliroots, informing people to use terms like "apartheid" and "colonialism" and "ethnic cleansing", instead of "eviction", "conflict" or "war", urging people to join a boycott, divestment and sanction movement against the Jewish state.

"Before you post about Israel-Palestine, take a break and ask yourself: Will this statement move us closer to peace?" offers Israeli writer Hen Mazig, who has been posting infographics to his 43,000 Instagram followers.