This news section represents content primarily generated from 8 November 2023 onwards (some posts were created before that date). Month One is here. Month Three is here
Commentary on social media and other media coverage on the current conflict and its repercussions (please see earlier posts on my content selection). I will continue to update this page. Many of these posts also feature on my X page (please follow @garybunt), and are usually posted there first, along with related materials (there’s often a time lag between posting on X and posting here!). The intention here is to keep a record of these posts (X posts disappear from time to time). This relates to my interest in digital archiving as well.
There are thousands of potential posts, so what follows is only a snapshot of activities. Warning: there are images of violence and injuries in some posts. Sequencing is date-related. The page links back to the earliest days of this crisis, so scrolling and loading the page can take some time (depending on your net access).
As with all other posts here and elsewhere, reposting and retweeting is for recording, information and research purposes – and does not necessarily imply endorsement:
John Paul Rathbone, Financial Times, Military briefing: the Israeli bombs raining on Gaza, 6 Dec 2023. This is an important article/analysis on munitions issues involved in the devastating attacks on Gaza.
Ahdaf Soueif, The Guardian, Here in Egypt, to protest is to risk prison. But we must speak out for our Palestinian neighbours, 3 Dec 2023 “The sentiment in the country is strong. TikTok and Instagram videos from Gaza go viral …”
Zaina Arafat, NY Magazine, Witnessing Gaza Through Instagram Every morning, I check my feed in the hopes of finding something from Bisan. My stomach tightens until she appears, 20 November 2023. “As Palestinians in the diaspora, many of us have tried to use our position of straddling two worlds to communicate across cultural lines.” An excellent piece from Zaina Arafat.
A thread on Israeli government disinformation:
Jules Roscoe, Motherboard/Vice, TikTok Says It’s Not the Algorithm, Teens Are Just Pro-Palestine, 13 November 2023. ““Attitudes among young people skewed toward Palestine long before TikTok existed,” the release stated. “Support for Israel (as compared to sympathy for Palestine) has been lower among younger Americans for some time. This is evidenced by looking at Gallup polling data of millennials dating as far back as 2010, long before TikTok even existed.””
TechCrunch, TikTok disputes claims of anti-Israel bias amid calls to ban the app, 14 Nov 2023, “Some American politicians blame TikTok for young voters’ support of Palestinians, and insinuate that the platform pushes pro-Palestine content over pro-Israel content — a sentiment that TikTok previously said is “simply false.””
Peter Oborne, Declassified UK, Will the UK Press Israel over Illegal Settlers’ Reign of Terror in the West Bank, 9 November 2023 “For Israel’s settler movement, with the Israeli Defence Force on their side, this is their moment. Forcible transfer of an occupied people is a war crime, but I cannot discover more than the usual “call” on Israel by the UK government to “hold those responsible to account”.”
More “journalism”